It’s All Greek Ambigram Challenge

For this Ambigram Challenge, you are being asked to create an ambigram for a unique soft drink company that is currently creating a new soda. The manufacturer (which will remain anonymous until the end of the challenge) will incorporate the final design on the product.

The Ambigram
The word that is being provided by the sponsor is ‘Greek Gold.’ It is to be a 180 degree rotational ambigram.

Sponsor Requirements
The sponsor has requested that the ambigram be kept in a stacked format, i.e. the word ‘Greek’ on top of the word ‘Gold.’ The sponsor will not completely exclude one-line ambigrams, but since the ambigram will be presented in a very small area, the stacked version will be given preference over single line ambigrams. In addition:

• Legibility/readability will be a major factor in the judges’ decision.
• Incorporating elements of the art of the Byzantine Empire (such as use of gold and crimson) is encouraged.
• Use of a byzantine style font (especially like the first example below) is encouraged.

Note that even though the characters in the example are not all English, they are offered as an example of the style that the sponsor is looking for.

Prizes

The top 5 ambigrams will be recognized by the sponsor, with the first place winner receiving $150. We will have the prize money in escrow, so the payout is guaranteed and will be awarded when the artist of the winning design(s) turns over the copyright of the design to the sponsor to use as they wish. The grand prize of USD $150 will be paid via Paypal from Ambigram.com. All dollar amounts are in USD.

Judging

Unlike most Ambigram.com Ambigram Challenges, this one will be judged exclusively by the sponsor of the contest. These are designs that are intended for use by the company, so while some comments may be provided by some of the judges, the winning ambigram will ultimately be selected by the sponsor.

All designs should be submitted by Sunday, February 5th; all the submissions will be posted within a day & then the judging process will begin. Results will be posted as soon as the sponsor has selected the top ambigram, and a boilerplate document will be sent to the winner shortly thereafter. Cash prizes to immediately follow after the designer returns the signed document (along with the requested files) to the sponsor.

The challenge will be open to everyone without restrictions. We will send a boilerplate document to the winner(s) that simply assigns the copyright of the design to the sponsor. Sending the document back to the sponsor will be a condition of payout. The details of this will be worked out after the winning ambigram is selected.

File Submission

• Please submit no more than 3 entries, and make sure that they are “finalized” before emailing them.  We are getting swamped with entire collections of designs using incorrect file formats and dimensions; also, some artists make frequent revisions within the contest time frame and expect us to keep track of it all. You have several weeks for this challenge…so please take your time and send us the finalized submissions closer to the end of the contest. The ambigram(s) have to be created from scratch for this challenge. Make sure the files are in JPG format, 72dpi and AT LEAST 600×600 pixels in dimension. Please note that after the winning ambigram is selected, the sponsor may also request the final art in a vector format (.ai or .svg), so make sure you have that format available as well. That will be discussed between the sponsor and the winning designer.
• Please name your submissions as follows: JohnSmith_typeofambigram_Submissionnumber.jpg. Otherwise, it can be easy to lose track of which design belongs to which artist, especially if we get a lot of submissions.

To submit your ambigrams, or if you have any other questions, email us at challenge@ambigram.com.

Alex Paat

I make my best ambigrams by hand, so I decided to hand-draw the “Jingle Bells” ambigram and then scan it onto the computer.  To save time and energy and to make the ambigram more accurate, I drew only the first half of my final drawings and added the second half digitally.

Although in the very early stages of the design process I experimented with making the “lls” in “bells” flip into the “J” in “jingle,” I found it more effective and legible if the “s” simply flipped into the “j.”  The easy “g-b” letter combination helped piece together the final result, and all the letter combinations came together easily after that.

When I had figured out the final solution, I decided to draw some holly leaves and berries inside the letters to give the final ambigram a Christmas feel.  Since I believe that legibility is by far the most important aspect of an ambigram, I wanted the holly graphics to be subtle enough so as to not overpower the ambigram, while still effectively contributing to the Christmas theme.  I hope the final ambigram is both readable and aesthetically pleasing.  Merry (early) Christmas to you all, and I hope my ambigram helped you get into the Christmas spirit! 

John Moore

When I saw the word is supposed that feasibility had to be created. I began toconsider its options, with the chart pattern or inverted letters of the word, so to study the similarities and opportunities provided by way of combining those letters fairly to both inversions.

In fact, the ”J” and “S” are of the same morphological family, likewise the ”I” and “L”, similar case is the combination “N” with ”EL”, whose inversion allow ambiguity.

Arriving at the ”G” I see that looks very similar to the “B”, which was not a problem. The dilemma began to try to get to center of the word, where “L” fight the epicenter with the “E”, this inversion makes the “L” anticipate the “B”. For more I tried to solve this dilemma, I couldn’t integrate it with the “B” therefore sought to disguise the ”L”, so to avoid this undesirable interference, trying to camouflage as an ornament, that somehow seems to be part of the “B ”. No doubt the center of the word is the big problem with this ambigram where “E” is surrounded by letters “L”.

If you ask me if I am 100% satisfied, I am convinced that no, although the universe of possibilities is infinite, I had to solve as we see in the picture. I only hope that the public likes it.

Dear Alex and John, thank you for participating!  The next Quick Draw is already in progress, and it promises to be a doozie…with a potential 3-way participation!

Winner – Johan Skylling

Johan Skylling once again takes the top spot. This ambigram has so many unique and complex layers to it that it seems impossible for them to work together well. Yet, all the layers integrate seamlessly with one another while still maintaining great legibility and recognition of all the elements. Beautiful work Johan!!

#2 – Dan Adona Jr.

The second entry comes to us from a new participant. Let us welcome Dan and his work to Ambigram.com! His submission is elegant & whimsical; the decorative flourishes, which are often an overused element, function well as characters in one orientation and decorative elements in another. Maybe a few too many flourishes faded into the background, but other than that, a beautifully balanced ambigram!

#3 – Robert Maitland

The legibility and elegance of this ambigram comes from its simplicity. Beautifully crafted letters, no unnecessary elements and subtle touches make this ambigram extremely easy to read and convey the meaning of the via not only the word itself, but also with colors and the lettering style. Great job Robert!

#4 – Sharath Kumar

Another great submission from Sharath. Beautiful lettering style and ambigram texture. The only element of the ambigram that’s slightly inconsistent is the angular T/E combo, which is a bit out of sync with the beautifully curved characters in the rest of the ambigram. Despite that, another well done entry!

#5 – Jennifer Thorne

Rounding off the top 5 is an ambigram from another frequent contributor. This ambigram has a very unique & original presentation. A few of the letters are a bit challenging to read, but the context of the ambigram makes up for some of those challenges. A fun presentation and a good lettering style make this submission a very worthy top five candidate. Nice work!

Dear participants, thank you for submitting your wonderful work to the Ambigram Challenges and making them as successful as they’ve been!

Ambigram Challenge 16 – Holidays!

The holiday season is here once again, which means it’s time for decorations, presents and holiday-themed ambigrams!

Rules

1. You are allowed to submit an ambigram which is relevant to any holiday that takes place from December 21st to January 6th. This covers Christmas, New Years, and several other holidays. If you are not sure whether a certain holiday is appropriate or not, email us and ask! These challenges are fun and don’t carry too many restrictions. Also, if the holiday you want to focus on is only celebrated in your culture/country, please send us a link to a brief synopsis of the holiday and its tradition. But almost anything is fair game.

2. For this challenge, your ambigram will be judged on how festive it is and how it represents the selected holiday visually. That means the use of additional visuals, colors and decorative elements that are relevant to your chosen holiday is allowed and encouraged. Of course, legibility and readability will still be valued highly.

3. Because of a wide range of various holidays and because our wonderful audience/participants reside on nearly every continent, you are allowed to submit up to 4 entries. Make sure that they are “finalized” before emailing them. And please do not email us multiple revisions of your ambigram: once you email it the first time, that’s it. We are getting swamped with entire collections of designs using incorrect file formats and dimensions; also, some artists make frequent revisions within the contest time frame and expect us to keep track of it all. You have several weeks for this challenge…so please take your time and send us the finalized submissions closer to the end of the contest. The ambigram(s) have to be created from scratch for this challenge. Make sure the files are in JPG format, 72dpi and AT LEAST 600×600 pixels in dimension.

4. To better track the designs, please name your submissions as follows:
JohnSmith_typeofambigram_Submissionnumber.jpg

5. When emailing your entries to challenge@ambigram.com, it is imperative that you do the following.
a. Put “Ambigram Challenge 16 or ACAC16 in the email subject line.
b. Email your ambigrams as attachments and NOT embed them in the body of the email.

Otherwise, it can be easy to lose track of which design belongs to which artist, especially if we get a lot of submissions.

Deadline

All artwork will need to be submitted by midnight on Sunday, December 18th, 2011 to qualify. Email your designs to challenge@ambigram.com . The contest is open to everyone, whether or not you have participated in the past, so give it a shot!

The results will be published on December 23rd, 2011.

News and Updates

While we are waiting for the Holiday Challenge, we will have several Quick Draws, Interviews and a few other fun articles. After the Holiday challenge ends, we will take a quick break for the holidays, but will resume full-scale operations during the first week of January 2012.

Old School Challenge Submissions

There were a lot of emails and questions regarding this particular challenge. If we missed an entry from anyone, email us ASAP and we’ll add it to the gallery. Apologies in advance for missing anyone!

The deadline is Sunday, September 4th, midnight. If you have any other questions, email us at challenge@ambigram.com. All the rules from previous challenges regarding file submissions/types still apply. As the challenge brief says…good luck!

The second part, which is no less rewarding, has been seeing all the great work submitted for the Ambigram Challenges and Quick Draws. These challenges have drawn (no pun intended) everyone to this community ranging from expert ambigram designers to novices who have been introduced to the world of the ambigrams by a friend, fellow artist or coworker.

Some of these creations are very, very impressive, and have clearly taken some significant time and creative energy to develop.  They really deserve to be properly recognized.  So, the editors at Ambigram.com put their heads together on how to give recognition for outstanding achievement.  We decided that the best way would be to organize an actual award ceremony to recognize the wonderful ambigram artwork that is consistently being submitted.  We’ve been working out the details, and we’re finally ready to share with you the results.

Without further adieu, we present to you…The Ambigrammy!

What is the Ambigrammy?

Every industry has an award ceremony which recognizes the best of the best in their respective field. The music industry has The Grammy Award.  Television has the Emmy.  Live Theater has the Tony.  Even the Internet has the Webby Award.

Why should the ambigram community be any different? There are many phenomenally talented & passionate artists that deserve to be recognized for their abilities, and we are proud to be launching our very own annual award ceremony.

Copyright 2011. Ambigram.com

The Rules of the Ambigrammy

1. The Ambigrammy Award shall be the premier award from Ambigram.com, to recognize exceptional talent within the ambigram community. It will be run once a year (approximately every 10 Ambigram Challenges).

2. The winner from each of the previous ambigram challenges will be eligible for the Ambigrammy.

3. The top 3 ambigrams from that list (first, second and third place) will receive Ambigrammy Awards for that calendar year.  Someday, we hope that all three top finishers will receive fabulous prizes, coveted product samples and bags of designer clothes.  However, until we can afford to buy first-class seats to fly all of you talented ambigram artists to our Red Carpet Ambigrammy Award ceremony in  Hollywood, the prize for the first Ambigrammy Award will need to be rather modest.  In addition to the peer recognition and honor that come with receiving the Ambigrammy Award, the 3 winners will also each be receiving a T-Shirt with their own winning ambigram design printed on both the front and back of the shirt.  Shipping is included and we will ask the Ambigrammy Award winners for their shipping address.

At this point, you are probably asking yourselves why we are combining the Ambigrammy announcement with this Ambigram Challenge?

Well, we did that out of necessity.  Here is why.

Ambigrammy Ambigram Challenge

The 13th Ambigram Challenge isn’t just any challenge.  It is a challenge to design the actual graphic that Ambigram.com will be using as the Ambigrammy Award itself!  The Ambigrammy logo seen earlier is the design developed internally by Ambigram.com and will be included as one of the submissions.  Since we already have one entry in the contest, it basically becomes the one you’ll need to beat.  Yes, we set the bar high on this challenge.

The Ambigrammy Rules

1. General Guidelines. The Ambigrammy logo should consist of two parts. The first part is the word “Ambigrammy”, which MUST be an ambigram! The second part should be the tag line “For Making Heads Turn”, or “The Award For Making Heads Turn” or something similar, which does not need to be an ambigram.  If you need additional text to “fill out” your design, you could also add the site name (“Ambigram.com”), but this is not necessary.  Remember that all of these are just guidelines, and if you do something creative that means breaking any (or all) of these rules, don’t worry too much about it.  We reserve the right to relax the guidelines when it makes sense.

2. Visual Treatment. You are allowed (but not required) to include various images that portray the idea of the Ambigrammy being a prestigious award. The design could be purely typographic or it could include additional objects or visuals.  One idea would be an “Ambigrammy” totem style ambigram that resembles a trophy (perhaps even a human with typographic ‘arms’ and body).  If you are talented with Photoshop, perhaps you could make it look like gold.  Another idea would be to create a gold bar which has been stamped with an “Ambigrammy” rotational ambigram.  Hint: Since this is an “award”, the more it looks like an award, the better!

3. Editors Discretion. Unlike most of our other challenges, it is possible that the editors at Ambigram.com may ask any artist who is participating to make suggested changes to their design to better their chances of winning.  Yes, if your design is being considered to become the Ambigrammy Award graphic, it is possible that we may actually help you win.  We don’t expect this to happen, but we did want to make you aware of the possibility.

4. Each artist is allowed 2 submissions maximum. When you email your submissions, please make sure of the following:

a. Each file is in JPG format, 72dpi and AT LEAST 600×600 pixels in dimension.
b. Each file should be labeled as follows: artistname_(either 1 or 2)_acac13.jpg

5. The winning design will NOT be announced in a separate article. Instead, the winning design will actually be used for the first Ambigrammy Award results article that will be posted right after the ambigrammy challenge!  That way, the ambigram community will get two gems for the price of one: the winning Ambigrammy Award logo AND the overall Ambigrammy Awards winner!

So, if your design wins, it will become a symbol that is given to OTHER great artists in recognition of their ambigram talent.  That is an honor in itself!

6. The Winning artist is eligible for a 2012 Ambigrammy Award. As with all of the Ambigram Challenges, the winner of this challenge will automatically be entered as a nominee to win a 2012 Ambigrammy Award.  The winning design will appear again next year during the 2012 Ambigrammy Award ceremony, and may become an Award winner itself!

Time line

- The final submissions will be due by the end of the day on Sunday, May 22nd.

- We know how much work you guys put into your submissions here, so we’re going to give some payback by putting out a lot of awesome content coming up.  Here is what we’re going to do.  Ambigram.com will be publishing 4 articles on 4 topics in 4 consecutive weeks (so you’ll need to come back at least once a week in order to catch the latest news, since it’s going to be changing quickly!)

- On the week of May 29th, we will post all of the winning designs from the previous Ambigram Challenges that are eligible to receive an Ambigrammy Award (the top design in each challenge).  This is going to be a list of all of the best designs we’ve seen so far, so it’s going to be a lot of impressive work, all of which are worth a second look.

- On the week of June 5th, we will post all the submissions that we received for the Ambigrammy Ambigram Challenge (this challenge) so that the community has a chance to review and discuss the field of choices.  We expect that this challenge is going to produce some amazing designs as well, so this article should be another feast for the eyes.

- On the week of June 12th, the Ambigrammy Ambigram Challenge and Ambigrammy Award winners will be announced.  The entire series of articles culminates with the actual Ambigram Award presentations to the top designers in this unique field for 2011.  The 2012 Ambigrammy Award Ceremony will be at approximately the same time next year.

- On the week of June 19th, we will be publishing the next Ambigram Challenge, and we will also resume with our regularly scheduled Quick Draw challenges, news, and interviews.

Good luck! Any questions? Email us at challenge@ambigram.com.

[NOTE: All designs are copyrighted by the respective artists. We have permission to post them here, but you must get permission from the artist for any other use of their design, or to post them elsewhere.]

“Say No To Simple Ambigrams” Submissions

“Say No To Simple Ambigrams” Poll

As this is the first time we are introducing audience voting, we would like to clarify a few details about the process. So, please read below, and then proceed to the poll to vote!

1. This is the first time we are trying to implement a poll for the challenges. Please understand that we may run into some difficulties, software related or otherwise. Should that be the case, give us some time to work out the kinks. It will be worth it, we promise!

2. Audience voting will not automatically be used for every ambigram challenge. As stated above, we are trying this out for the first time, and we’ll see how it all works out.  Then and only then we’ll decide if the audience voting is going to be a permanent fixture or not.

3. The poll will be open for two weeks. After two weeks, it will be closed and the final winner will be ‘announced’, although since everyone will be able to see the poll, not much announcing will be necessary!

4. You are allowed to vote for the top 3 ambigrams, so use your 3 votes wisely.

Please place your votes below.

Oh, before we forget…a big announcement will happen in the next day or two. Keep an eye out for it, for when it does happen, the “Say No To Simple Ambigrams” results will move to the news section and the new announcement will become the feature article.

Example 1 – Mirror ambigram (vertical)

Example 2 – Figure/Ground ambigram

Example 3 – 90 degree rotational ambigram

Example 4 – Symbiotogram [not allowed.  see comments below.]

Example 5  - Totem ambigram

Example 6  – Perceptual shift ambigram

Rules

1. So what type of ambigrams can you enter since 180 degree rotational ambigrams aren’t allowed? You are allowed the following; mirror ambigrams (vertical or horizontal), figure/ground ambigrams, 90 degree rotational ambigrams, symbiotograms, perceptual shift ambigrams and totem ambigrams.

2. For this challenge, your ambigram will be judged on how closely it adheres to the requirements of each category (as defined by the type of ambigram) as well as legibility & readability. If you are not sure whether a word you chose will work, email us!

3. Please submit no more than 2 entries, and make sure that they are “finalized” before emailing them.  We are getting swamped with entire collections of designs using incorrect file formats and dimensions; also, some artists make frequent revisions within the contest time frame and expect us to keep track of it all. You have several weeks for this challenge…so please take your time and send us the finalized submissions closer to the end of the contest. The ambigram(s) have to be created from scratch for this challenge. Make sure the files are in JPG format, 72dpi and AT LEAST 600×600 pixels in dimension.

4. To better track the designs, please name your submissions as follows: JohnSmith_typeofambigram_Submissionnumber.jpg

Otherwise, it can be easy to lose track of which design belongs to which artist, especially if we get a lot of submissions.

Deadline

All artwork will need to be submitted by midnight on Sunday, March 20th, 2011 to qualify. Email your designs to challenge@ambigram.com . The contest is open to everyone, whether or not you have participated in the past, so give it a shot!

The results will be published on Sunday, April 3rd, 2011, and the next challenge will be announced at that time.

Please be sure to include a web site URL if you would like us to link to your ambigram portfolio.

After this Ambigram Challenge concludes, we will have a surprise for the ambigram community!

However, in the end, three designs bubbled to the top.

Let’s take a look at the contest winners and marvel once again at the creativity of our wonderful ambigram community!

[NOTE: All designs are copyrighted by the respective artists. We have permission to post them here, but you must get permission from the artist for any other use of their design, or to post them elsewhere.]

Johan Skylling
Winner

Two incredible submissions were sent in from Johan, who is a former ACAC winner and frequent contributor. Both designs are astounding on so many levels that the biggest challenge was probably deciding just which of them would take the top spot!

In the end, Dan chose the logo-like black-and-white design.  Due to the unorthodox typography, you may have a difficult time reading the ambigram at first, but it’s not a frustrating feeling… it’s more akin to curiousity.  You can’t quite make it out at first glance, but you want to.  In fact, that “stickiness” is part of the appeal!

Upon closer inspection, you begin to realize what a masterful work this is.  From the double (triple!) lines in certain places, to the unique double-crossbar on the “A” to the ambiguous upper/lower case “G” to the unique use of black/white and gray shading, this design is creative on so many levels.

Dan Chan wrote: “Over all this is probably the most usable design and really invites a person to study it more. I’ll be using this on my mug I give to clients.”

It is worth mentioning Johan’s other submission here.  His second design uses the same base ambigram to create an entire magical image with incredible complexity.  This second submission isn’t just an ambigram, but a work of art from a very talented ambigrammist and artist.  Feast your eyes on this:

Congratulations Johan!  Once again, you’ve won first place.

René Oswaldo
Second place
René is also a frequent contributor to Ambigram.com. His submission for this challenge is wonderful in its minimalist style and a nice contrast to Johan’s submission.  It has a very nice flow to it, and again, is in a style not often seen with ambigrams.

Dan wrote about this one: “The font looks really natural and could be used on a business card. You might not even notice it’s an ambigram on first glance”.

Here it is:

Congratulations René!

Clayton Mabey
Third place
Clayton is a frequent contributor to this website as well, who has been honing his skills through mini-challenges against fellow ambigrammists.

Dan had these words to say about this design: “The 8 of heart and 8 of spades could be incorporated into a magic trick or as a design on a casino black jack table. Also in Chinese culture 8 is a good number with prosperity.”

Congratulations Clayton!

Other Submissions

As we mentioned at the top, there were so many great submissions that we just had to share them all.  Even if you didn’t place, make no mistake, this was not an easy decision, and there were several really good designs on the “short list”.  Congratulations on some great artwork to everyone.

Below are the rest of the ambigrams submitted for this challenge. Take a look at them, and as always we welcome artistic discussions!

The next Ambigram Challenge will be posted in the next few days…and it will be music to your ears…stay tuned!