The Ambigrammy Award winners are…

Ambigram.com is proud to present to you the results of the first ever Ambigrammy Awards!

A little background

The idea for the Ambigrammy Awards first came about when the staff at Ambigram.com was discussing how to bring recognition to the talented participants within the ambigram community. We have had many Ambigram Challenges, but how would we fuse them together and recognize the crème de la crème of the ambigram community? Then, we had an epiphany.

Every industry had their own award ceremony that recognized & paid tribute to the best of the best.  Music? The Grammy. Television? The Emmy. Live Theater? The Tony. The Internet? The Webby Award.

The ambigram community? The Ambigrammy Awards.

This wasn’t going to be an ordinary award ceremony. Considering the international level of talent represented on Ambigram.com and in the Ambigrammy Award Nominees, we thought it would be appropriate to gather an international panel of judges that are recognized and respected in the creative industry. And now, without further adieu, here are your Ambigrammy Award Winners!!

Ambigrammy Award Winners

First Place
John Langdon – Joy To You

Second Place
Daniel Dostal – Cinematographie

Third Place
Johan Skylling – A Lot Of Love

Please note that clicking the images above links to the original entries without the Ambigrammy Award graphic. The winners will be emailed a graphic of the badge which they can place on their design as they deem most appropriate.

Comments from the judges

The judges were very generous in contributing their time and effort in reviewing the Ambigrammy Award nominees. The intricacy of the designs, complexity of the lettering and overall beauty of all the Ambigrammy Award nominees made judging a very challenging task! In addition to the judging, our judges were kind enough to provide some detailed commentary.

Von Glitschka
Joy to You Simply beautiful and beautifully simple.
A Lot of Love The best 3D implementation of an ambigram I’ve ever seen.
Lumiere/Cinematographie An incredibly difficult word executed with brilliance.

Bryn Mooth
Joy to You The beauty is in the simplicity: this design works perfectly on both those levels. I love the organic, naturalistic shapes of the letters that feel a little William Morris-ish. I generally abhor drop shadows on type, but here the shading gives a nice bit of dimension.
Lumiere/Cinematographie This design is impressive because of the complexity of the two words. The stylistic difference in the two words helps maintain legibility, which would have been otherwise lost with the layered type.
A Lot of Love The dimensionality of this design really blew me away. The designer didn’t go overboard with the lettering itself — the words are very readable — but the luminous shading and the movement of the type make this design sing. It looks like ribbon candy.

Stefan G. Bucher
A Lot of Love is like Marian Bantjes doing a lettering headstand at Christmas. It’s well constructed, beautifully executed, and nicely presented. It’s my favorite entry.
As for the other ambigrams, many were well conceived, but suffered from somewhat overwrought presentation. Too much embellishment distracts from the actual ambigram. Better to let the piece stand on its own. Do something, recognize that it is finished, and get out of the way.

Luba Lukova
Joy to You stands out with its beautiful proportions and elegant simplicity. I thought this would be the winner from the first look I took at the entries.
Lumiere/Cinematographie has a charming nostalgic feel of a past age, beautifully rendered with the two intertwined words.
A Lot of Love is rich and seductive with its shiny red ribbon. You almost fell a taste of dark chocolate when looking at it.

Nikita Prokhorov
Joy to You A beautiful design which is perfectly balanced in every aspect.
Lumiere/Cinematographie It is hard to determine which part of this design is more impressive: the overall complexity of the design, the legibility of each word, or how well they work together.
A Lot of Love The 3d effect doesn’t diminish the legibility of the ambigram, nor does it seem like extra eye candy. Instead, it fuses beautifully with the design and makes it complete.

Meet the judges

At last, the moment that all of you have been waiting for. Say hello to our judging panel for the Ambigrammy Awards!

Von Glitschka

Von is principal of Glitschka Studios and has worked in the communication arts industry for over 24 years. His work reflects the symbiotic relationship between design and illustration. This duality of skills within his own creative arsenal, inspired him to coin the phrase and title of “illustrative designer.”

In 2002, he founded Glitschka Studios, a multi-disciplinary creative firm. The studio shines as a hired creative gun for ad agencies, design firms, and in-house corporate art departments working on a diverse range of design projects.

Von also enjoys working with small business owners and start ups to create compelling identity that enables them to compete on the same visual level as multi-national corporations.

Von has written four books and speaks at local AIGA chapters and design conferences nationally on the topic of design, illustration, marketing, creativity, and the creative process.

Bryn Mooth

Bryn is an experienced, energetic and creative writer/editor focused on inspiring people to eat locally, cook simply and enjoy healthy lifestyles. She writes the Midwest-based food blog Writes4Food.com, which shares recipes and kitchen wisdom and explores regional foods and producers.

Bryn comes from a long line of cooking enthusiasts. Her grandmother, Dorothy Mengering, published a cookbook based on recipes from her family, friends and travels (“Home Cooking with Dave’s Mom,” Atria, 1996), and her parents are both accomplished home cooks. Her brother is a graduate of the French Culinary Institute and has taught at cooking schools in Tuscany and Chicago.

Bryn and her husband, Rob, are avid cooks, wine lovers and advocates for the Cincinnati food community. They’re weekly customers at Findlay Market, and they shop community farmer’s markets around the area. In season, they enjoy produce from their small vegetable garden.

Writes4Food.com represents Bryn’s second career: Previously, she spent 20 years writing about design, business and creativity for HOW magazine, a leading publication for the graphic design field. For 13 years, she led the HOW brand, a multimillion-dollar, multi-platform franchise that included an award-winning magazine, well-regarded events, a successful book line and several online outlets. Prior to HOW, Bryn created, launched and managed a lifestyle publication for more than 200,000 American Express incentive cardholders. She has a bachelor’s degree from the Indiana University School of Journalism.

Her expertise includes content development for print and web, writing and editing, social media and online communication. Bryn is an enthusiastic collaborator, described by her colleagues and contacts as “intelligent, energetic, connected, organized and highly communicative.

Stefan G. Bucher

Stefan G. Bucher is the man behind 344design.com, and dailymonster.com. He is the author of the books 100 Days of Monsters, All Access, The Graphic Eye, You Deserve a Medal, and the brand-new 344 Questions – The Creative Person’s Do-It-Yourself Guide to Insight, Survival, and Artistic Fulfilment. He has created designs for Sting, David Hockney, director Tarsem, and The New York Times. D&AD has honored him with a Yellow Pencil, and the Art Directors Club of New York declared him a Young Gun back in 2004. His time-lapse drawings appear on the Emmy-award winning TV show “The Electric Company” on PBS.

Luba Lukova

Regarded as one of the most distinctive image makers working today, Luba Lukova has held solo exhibitions at UNESCO in Paris, DDD Gallery in Osaka, La MaMa in New York and the Art Institute of Boston. She’s been awarded the Grand Prix Savignac at the International Poster Salon in Paris, the Gold Pencil from The One Club in New York, and Honor Laureate at the International Poster Exhibition in Fort Collins, CO. Her work is represented in the collections of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Library of Congress, and Bibliotheque Nationale de France. She is the author of the critically acclaimed Social Justice poster portfolio containing visual reactions to many of the pressing issues of our time. The portfolio has been exhibited widely in the U.S. and around the world and was recently included in the permanent art collection of the World Bank. Lukova’s new book, Graphic Guts (Clay & Gold), featuring her social commentary art will be published later this year.

Moshik Nadav

Moshik Nadav was born in Israel on the 21 of February 1983, in the northern town of Kiryat Shmona. Since childhood he was exposed to graphic design and Calligraphy by his father, Jacov Nadav – a graphic design and calligraphy artist. When Moshik was 10 years old he got his first Apple Macintosh computer (IISi) with Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Freehand Software. Since than he Kept on learning the software. After he finished his army service in 2005, he decided to take his passion to graphic design and typefaces and become a professional. A few months later he signed in to study visual communication in the Avni institue in Tel Aviv. At the same time He started working in a prominent advertising firm in Israel as a graphic artist. After two years at the Avni institute Moshik felt he needs to go on and got accepted to Visual Communication studies at Bezalel – Academy of art and design in Jerusalem. At that time Moshik knew that he was going to improve his Typography skills and become a Typographer. On June 2011 he graduated his studies in Bezalel at the Typography department. He specialize’s in Typeface design and Graphic design based on Typography. Since 2005 Moshik is working as a freelancer Graphic Designer. Moshik see’s typography as a distilled form of design.

Nikita Prokhorov

You know Nikita Prokhorov as the content editor at Ambigram.com, but there is a lot more that you may not know. After receiving his Master of Fine Arts from the Savannah College of Art & Design, he began to impart his design philosophy upon numerous students at a university in Connecticut, at the same time continuing his career as a freelance graphic designer. His work has been featured in HOW Magazine, several editions of the Logolounge logo series, Logolounge Master Series, Logolicious, and 1000 Fonts. His writing has been published by HOW Magazine and ICOGRADA, The International Council of Graphic Design Association. In 2008, along with two fellow designers, he started CINQ Partners, a design firm dedicated to the foundations and principles of great design with a strong focus on small to mid-size companies. Currently, he is living & freelancing in New York City.

When he is not freelancing or teaching, Nikita creates numerous tessellations & ambigrams, as well as continuing to explore his passion for good, clean & unique typography. His sketchbook and pencils are always by his side.

Conclusion…and future happenings!

This concludes the first ever Ambigrammy Awards! An enormous thank you to the participants, the winners, and especially the judges!!!

Coming soon to Ambigram.com…
- This week, we will be posting a new Ambigram Challenge. Don’t miss it, as this will be truly be an amazing challenge! In addition, this marks the start of the next round of nominees for the Ambigrammy Awards 2012. After reading this article, you now know what it takes…
- Keep an eye on the Interviews, Real World Ambigrams & More! section. We have a new Real World Ambigram article that will be posted soon, along with an incredible designer & artist in the next few weeks.
- Next week, we will resume the weekly Quick Draw challenges. If you are interested in being a participant, email me at nikita@ambigram.com.