The results of the Valentine’s Day Challenge are in! The writers at Ambigram.com want to apologize to their readers for being a bit tardy with the results of this challenge, as well as posting the next challenge. Our excuse is simple: we were still recovering from Valentine’s Day! Now, after this brief  mea culpa, onto the results!

The Results

[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.]

1. Johan Skylling – “Alot of Love”

Alot of Love

Comment 1: What can we say about this ambigram? Beautifully done. It’s not just a 2D, but a 3D ambigram! It has legibility, aesthetic, color, and exudes the spirit of Valentine’s Day. Great job by a brand new participant of the Ambigram Challenge!

Comment 2: First there were hand-drawn ambigrams, then came computer-drawn raster designs. Just when we thought that vector-drawn ambigrams were the pinnacle in this space, Johan Skylling comes along with an ambigram that looks like it was developed with a full blown CAD system. How you did that, we have no idea, but you definitely got our attention… and first place!

2. Daniel Dostal

Comment 1: As always, Daniel Dostal is either close to the top or at the top with his work. The curved lettering, the decorations, and the style is vintage Daniel Dostal. Congratulations for another top 5 finish Daniel!

Comment 2: Although Daniel’s work is anything but predictable, his does have consistency: he somehow rises to the top of the ambigram challenge list week-after-week. This submission is no exception. He obviously puts a lot of time into his designs, and it shows. Every curve is pulled to perfection, and the more you study his designs, the more you appreciate them.

3. Michael Irving

Comment 1: Michael Irving is another ambigrammist that has frequented the Ambigram Challenge. His lettering style is simple, consistent, easily recognizable, and legible. This particular ambigram has a great flow and rhythm to it. Wonderful job once again!

Comment 2: Welcome back, Michael. It’s great to see you here week-after-week, and it’s great that you are still doing well in the competitions. While there were more complex designs in the competition, this one actually won us over with it’s legibility and simplicity.

4. Ihsan Ekaputra

Comment 1: Ihsan is another Ambigram Challenge newbie. The lettering has really great curves, and the subtle hint of the heart as your ‘token’ Valentine’s Day element isn’t over the top; as the fairy tale goes, it’s just right!

Comment 2: That’s the way to make a debut! What a great first entry. It also goes to show that you don’t necessarily need to have a full-color design with drop shadows and rendered lighting to do well in the contest. We hope to see you back again, Ihsan!

By the way, its interesting to see how your letter intersections compare with Nicholas Gilbert’s ambigram of the word “Valentines”, pictured below. Great minds think alike!

5. Carl Mehling

Comment 1: Carl is also an Ambigram Challenge newcomer. This ambigram is a rarity amongst all the entries that have been received for the last few ambigram challenges. It strays away from the pen, pencil, computers, Wacom tablets, and…uses nothing natural elements. Maybe the chalk isn’t a natural element, but we can pretend that it’s limestone, which would make this ambigram 100% natural! Nice job on the hand lettering and a very unique medium.

Comment 2: This made it into the top 5 because of its originality, plain and simple. Other ambigrams in the contest were perhaps a bit better, but these photos definitely caught our attention, as its really nothing we had seen before. Is the ambigram actually carved into the stone?

A word on ACAC4: Valentine’s Day

This was definitely a newcomer’s challenge. Thirteen of the entrants were brand new to the Ambigram Challenge! We’re extremely happy to see the challenge expanding and seeing more and more new faces with every challenge. Here are a few more entries that we thought were worth mentioning.

Stijn Hommes

Deden Rohman Gumilang

Jen Winklepleck

Nicholas Gilbert

Comments: Super nice ambigram, Nicholas.  It just fell short of making the top 5 list this month.

Daniel Sanchez

A big thank you to all the participants! The work was fantastic yet again…keep up the great work!

Next Challenge: What could it be?

Ambigram Challenge: Music

Everyone is a musician at heart. Whether you’re a karaoke regular every Friday night, a professional performer, or just sing in the shower for your own enjoyment, music has a therapeutic effect. Of course, if you’re singing an AC/DC song & doing a horrible impersonation of Brian Johnson, there’s nothing calming about that! But…music puts everyone in their own little world and allows them to escape the daily stress.

So the next theme is simply…Music! Could be lyrics from a song, your favorite band’s name, your favorite instrument, or any other element having to do with music.

If you’ve already created an ambigram in the past that fits into the theme, feel free to submit it (it does not have to be new for 2010 unless it contains the year as part of the design).

Deadline

All artwork will need to be submitted by midnight on April 4th, 2010 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 April 18th, 2010, and the next challenge will be announced at that time.

Please be sure to include a web site URL that we can link to if your design makes it into the top 5 list.

Let’s make beautiful music….err….ambigrams together! Good luck to all future participants!

The results are finally in! The writers at Ambigram.com are proud to start of the year with some fantastic ambigram work from artists all around the world. Once again, the submissions did not only meet, but most certainly exceeded expectations. For the first time in ACAC’s short history, we have a tie for first place. Once again, determining the winner of this Ambigram Challenge was even more challenging then before. I truly think that the artists are trying to make our lives difficult by submitting ambigrams that are close to perfection!

The Results

[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.]

1a. John Langdon – http://www.johnlangdon.net/

1b. Daniel Dostal – http://daneel75.wordpress.com/

It was impossible to choose between those two ambigrams, so they both earned top honors. Regardless from which direction we looked at them, they remained equal in our eyes.

John Langdon’s ambigram is intricate yet simple, and that’s what makes it beautiful. It is 100% legible, the type matches the holiday theme, and the flourishes are well done, yet not overdone. It’s a perfect example of an ambigram that is simple at a glance, but complex on so many levels.

Daniel Dostal’s trademark style (for most of his ambigram work) is including a background or a visual element which does not only convey the meaning of, but is also seamlessly integrated with the ambigram. When you look at his work, you notice the hierarchy of the different elements, how well they work individually, but most of all, how well they work together. Just as John’s ambigram, it is beautiful on many levels, yet easy to read and understand.

2. Michael Irving – http://home.comcast.net/~mirving/site/

In this ambigram, Michael uses the (almost) lack of color & the added graphics to subtly convey the meaning behind the phrase which he has chosen. Nice job Michael!

3. Daan Juttman – http://dahtamnay.blogspot.com/

Another beautiful mirror ambigram, which seemed to have been a trend in this ACAC. The background element and the mistletoe leaves seemed a bit mechanical in appearance, distracting us from the ambigram itself. However, the lettering was very well done, with a very consistent style and great readability.

4. Bastian Pinnenberg – http://unterart.wordpress.com/

Bastian came up with another unique solution. The only issue that we saw is aesthetically, it did not say ‘happy holidays’, as the blackletter-esque typography was somewhat heavy. But that aside, wonderful solution to cover both holidays!

5. Daniel Sanches – http://elkiosco2.blogspot.com/

This is one of the several non-English ambigrams we received this time around, and it was a good solution. The only trouble with it was legibility, as the transition from letter to letter was a bit unclear, especially V/I & A/D.

Other submissions

Scott Kim

Tomás_Castañeda

Rebecca May

Deden_Rohman

Björn Wichmann

A word on backgrounds
Backgrounds are not a requirement when designing an ambigram; in fact, they sometimes distract from the beauty and simplicity of it. But should you decide to use an background, try to integrate it with the ambigram well and not just have just a visual element that takes away from unique appearance & individuality of each ambigram. It helps to focus on the ambigram first; once you have a working solution, think about the meaning of the ambigram and what you can use to further convey it’s meaning. It could be a subtle use of color (See Michael Irving’s ambigram) or a visual element that enhances the definition of the ambigram (See Daniel Dostal’s ambigram.) Remember that an ambigram is judged not only for its legibility/readability, but also for the overall design, use of color, typographic consistency, etc.

Once again, thank you to all the artists that took their time to design & submit their ambigrams. Let’s make 2010 the best ambigram year yet, and happy ambigramming!

Next Challenge: Valentine’s Day

One month from tomorrow is one of the most loved (or hated) holidays of the year: Valentine’s Day! It is only appropriate that the next theme has to do with love.

This theme is very flexible, and you could approach it several different ways. Your ambigram could be any word that is typically associated with Valentine’s day. Or, if you are not a big fan of the holiday, you can take a satirical and humorous approach to this challenge. Regardless of what your approach will be, remember to be creative and have fun with it! Once again, the choice is up each individual artist.

A word of warning The temptation to use additional visual elements (hearts, cupids, male/female figures, etc.) is very difficult to resist considering the theme.

If you’ve already created an ambigram in the past that fits into the theme, feel free to submit it (it does not have to be new for 2010 unless it contains the year as part of the design).

Deadline

All artwork will need to be submitted by midnight on February 14th, 2010 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.  Winners are automatically entered to receive our annual “Ambigrammy” award, issued at the same time as the music industry’s Grammy awards.

The results will be published on February 28th, 2010, and the next challenge will be announced at that time.

Good luck to everyone, and remember…all you need is love!

In fact, its the first ambigram date in almost 10 years (the last one was October 02, 2001).

What exactly is an ambigram date?  It’s a date that appears the same when rotated 180 degrees (not counting any date separators).

For example, today is January 02, 2010, which can be written as:

Ambigram Date - Jan. 2nd, 2010

It appears identical when rotated 180 degrees – an event so rare that it only happens about twice a decade.

It’s even more rare for an ambigram date to occur so close to the beginning of the decade (and it hasn’t happened this early into a decade in over 1000 years!  [Jan 1st, 1010])

An interesting property of ambigram dates is that it doesn’t matter if they are written in MMDDYYYY format (common here in the US) or in universal date format: YYYYMMDD.

YYYY-MMDD Universal Date Format

While it has been many years since the last ambigram date, the next one will occur in less than 2 years: Nov. 02, 2011.

Nov 02, 2011 - The Next Ambigram Date

However, after next year, we’re in for another long wait as the one to follow won’t occur until the year 2020.

Feb 02, 2020 - On Deck

That will be a pretty cool one, though, consisting of only 2 numbers.  Of course, that assumes that the world continues past the year 2012.

So, enjoy this ambigram date while you can.  They don’t come around very often!

(*Note that is is possible to find other ambigram dates using other formats besides the fully formed MMDDYYYY or YYYYMMDD formats)

It’s too bad that no one noticed that until it was too late!

The UK “Office of Government Commerce” (OGC) decided to keep up with the times by getting a new simple, cool, edgy logo consisting of just their acronym initials.

The New OGC Logo

It seemed to be the perfect new look for the office…

Until someone discovered that the logo was perhaps a bit too suggestive for such a conservative group.  Take a look at what happens when the logo is rotated 90 degrees to the right:

Every organization has to be good at SOMETHING!

It is hard to believe that a company involved with the creative process would steal other people’s creative works, but when we called to ask them about this practice, they (accidentally) confessed to it.  After realizing their mistake, they hung up the phone and refused to comment further.

Repeated attempts by Ambigram Magazine to contact a representative of the company about their shady business practices went unanswered.

So, if you were thinking about getting a logo from Sleek Logos, do yourself a favor and look for a serious, reputable company.  There are lots of logo design firms out there that have respect and integrity…  It’s too bad that Sleek Logos isn’t one of them.

For the first time in ACAC’s short history, this challenge was sponsored by a reader of Ambigram.com, who wanted a unique ambigram. The word combination proved to be challenging for all of the artists involved, and even for some Ambigram.com writers, who secretly doodled the names Sadiq & Shana on various scraps of paper to see what combinations are possible.

Although the final decision was up to the sponsor of the challenge, the judges made comments on the top 5 ambigrams and provided their own scoring separate from the sponsor’s judgment. Interestingly, our blind internal scoring showed that the top 2 designs were only separated by 0.1 point! That just goes to show that with ambigrams, its the subtle details that can take a design to the top.

Comments from the Sponsor

Please express our deepest thanks and admiration for all the artists who participated, because although we can’t mention all the designs, each one got a reaction and was special in its own way. However, when selecting the winner, the thought was to choose a design that of course was aesthetically pleasing to the eye, but equally as important, one that captured both the masculine and feminine energy, and we think Bastian’s design did this and with a hint of mysticism in the design. This is because one of the top three could end up as matching tattoos! Maybe…

The choice was very difficult, and again, each design was awesome!

Thanks again to all the artists who participated.

The Results

[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.]

1. Bastian Pinnenberg – WINNER!
Website – http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasty_basty

ARTIST’S COMMENTS (SUBMITTED WITH DESIGN)

“…Here’s my contribution for the ongoing ACAC. I tried to achieve a clean, legible look and, since there was no information about how the ambigram would be used, passed on all visuals and filters (Except for a drop shadow. But hey, that’s no real filter… ). The original design was made in blackletter, but I wanted something cleaner and changed it to a curvy serif. The most tricky part was the “S/NA” inversion, the rest came pretty much automatically…”

JUDGE’S COMMENTS

Mark – Congratulations! I thought that the S/Q was really the big challenge here, but you did some unexpected things with that S/NA combination, and I believe that’s what set your design apart to take the top honor! We’ll be in contact with you shortly to get you the prize money, and you’ll need to send the original design to the contest sponsor.

Nagfa – A solid work, indeed. The weights of the lines were played to perfection here, and being smartly utilised in the S-NA combination. This work has details in each stroke, most noticeably in the similarly-rendered tails of the S and N; and the very thematically-correct little diamond-dots. The effectiveness of using the consistent uppercased A made the reading easier too. Congratulations, Bastian!

Nikita – The legibility here is impeccable. The S/NA inversion, which Bastian specified as the most ‘tricky part’, is beautifully done. The other part which really speaks for the consistency of this ambigram is the similarity between the three lowercase ‘a’ characters. This to me was the biggest challenge of this ambigram; to make the letters (that are otherwise similar in a standard alphabet) appear similar in a complex ambigram. Another great submission from a seasoned ambigram designer!

2.  Michael Irving
Website – http://michaelirvingambigrams.blogspot.com/

ARTIST’S COMMENTS (SUBMITTED WITH DESIGN)

“This was a tough one. Since both names shared an S as their initial letter my first priority was to work out their respective inversions to the Q and the A. Through much trial and error the other characters eventually fell into place. The trickiest part I found was creating the lightweight thread device I used to help delineate the H and complete the A in Shana, without compromising the readability of Sadiq.”

JUDGE’S COMMENTS

Mark – You make this look easy, like you just happened to doodle a complex ambigram. However, when you look close at the design, you see just that is is not easy at all.

Nagfa – A surprisingly whimsical ambigram, this. Light-hearted and casual, this piece has elegance all over it. The manner in which the strokes transition into another still pleases me. That extra stroke between A and D fits in so smoothly. Ditto too the extra line for the ‘h’. The strength of this piece is its refreshing new style.

Nikita – What I love most about this ambigram are the subtle flourishes, which work great in both directions and really help define the letters well. There is a nice consistency and transition from character to character. The only part of the ambigram which stands out as inconsistent is the lowercase ‘h’, which strays from the thickness that is so apparent in the other letters. That being said, I understand the artists’ reasoning for doing it, and I think it’s a good solution.

3.  Ruel Masacaya
Website – http://www.flickr.com/photos/cruel_butcher/sets/72157620504015847/

ARTIST’S COMMENTS (SUBMITTED WITH DESIGN)

“…I like working on specific words or names as compared with themes because I learn more this way after seeing other artists´ solutions.  I also like working with couples´ names, as you could see on my gallery.   It maybe because by making this kind of ambigram, you make 2 people happy instead of just one.  The greatest challenge I encountered in making this ambigram is the IQ-SH combination.  It also took a lot of time for me to decide whether to show only one name or both….”

JUDGE’S COMMENTS

Mark – Our sponsor seemed to like the interconnected names, and there is a hint of an ampersand between them, but I think that the design suffers from just one letter out of place: The “h” in Shana. At first glance, the second word looks like “Slana” (or even “Slang”), and you have to hunt to see that little “h” tucked in there. Otherwise, a very good submission.

Nagfa – This is a stylish smooth piece, with minimal strokes. Though the fused letters confused the reading of the names. The initial ‘Sa’ and the end ’na’ suffered the most. Having said these, the central Q-S made for an interesting link for the two names.

Nikita – The flow & readability of this ambigram reminds me of a straight line connecting two points: easy to read, easy to follow & no obvious imperfections. I love the consistency of the line, even when it tapers off at the ends of the ‘a’ and the ‘S.’ The biggest issue with this execution is the lowercase ‘h’: it work great when disguised in ‘Sadiq’, yet looks out of place in ‘Shana.’ In ‘Shana’, the ‘h’ and the ‘S’ almost merge together to form a very complex and illegible character, which is the only drawback to this otherwise beautiful ambigram.

4. Tiffany Harvey
Website – http://www.tiffanyharvey.com/ambigrams/

ARTIST’S COMMENTS (SUBMITTED WITH DESIGN)

“…When I did my first rough sketch of these names, I accidentally used “Shauna” instead of “Shana”. I was so pleased to get them to pair together, until I looked at the page again and realized it was not quite so tricky! I think the SH/Q combination originated there, though for a long time I was trying to use mostly lowercase lettering for the design. To get the height for a lowercase “h”, the “Q” dropped even further beneath the other letters and was just too gigantic and distracting. Luckily I was able to switch to a capital “H” and reel in the “Q” and “S”s a little….”

JUDGE’S COMMENTS

Mark – Tiffany, the judges scored this one higher than the sponsor, and your design was easily at the top of the competition. The legibility is excellent, and the dedication to maintaining the proper line widths is clearly evident. The line through the center of the design to cross the “H”s and the “A”s without looking out of place was also a great move, and you made a great decision to hide the “H” within the initial “S” in Shana to help the other letters line up correctly.

Nagfa – Consistent letterings and easy flow of strokes. The end-swirls added a feminine touch to the solution. The most intricate detail would be that nicely-concealed H-part behind the S, which rotates beautifully into a Q.

Nikita – Tiffany has a signature to her work, which makes it incredibly easy to identify as her work; it’s consistent. Her characters, regardless of how complex the ambigram is, look like the came from a well designed typeface. That can be an advantage and a disadvantage; in this case, it’s a slight disadvantage, as the characters look a bit too similar at times and become hard to distinguish from one another. That being said, the consistency and the flow of the lines in this ambigram is beautiful.

5. Cleber Faria
Website – http://www.cleberfaria.com/

ARTIST’S COMMENTS (SUBMITTED WITH DESIGN)

“…I did several sketches while trying to find a solution to this ambigram. The most challenging was the ‘I’ and the ‘H’ combination. That took several days to develop, and the final solution was a result of turning the uppercase ‘H’ into a lowercase ‘h’ while shortening several of the legs…”

JUDGE’S COMMENTS

Mark – Once again, the idea that the big challenge was in the S/Q is proven incorrect. Cleber knocks that combination out of the park! Both of those letters look completely natural, like there isn’t even much special going on. However, the bigger challenge (again) lives next door: the “h” in Shana. Overall, this was one of my favorite submissions on this round.

Nagfa – A simple and efficient design which makes it look so easy on the eyes. The names read easily, thanks to the good use of line thickness. The ‘n’ could well do with a less curvy bowl of the ‘a’ for an easier reading, and like most other solutions, the ‘h’ suffers the most.

Nikita – Cleber continues his outstanding ambigram work with this submission. What I love about this ambigram (as well as several others in this ACAC) is the consistency of the letterforms. My favorite letter inversion is the ‘S/Q’ combination. Beautifully done! What makes it a bit challenging is once again ‘h/i’ combination, as well as the consistency of the three lowercase ‘a’ characters. Other than those slight drawbacks, a very nicely designed ambigram!

OTHER EXCELLENT DESIGN SUBMISSIONS

As we specified in the original Ambigram Challenge Rules, we would only be able to post comments for the top 5 submissions.  However, we did want to post a few other favorite submissions from a few artists that did well in the competition, but not make it into our top 5 list.  It was a crowded contest, and the bar was set high.

In no particular order, here are the some entries that deserve to be recognized.

Daniel Dostal:

Daan Juttman

Rebecca May

Next Challenge: Holidays 2009

Many thanks to all the fantastic artists that contributed to this ACAC.

The next challenge will be “Holidays 2009“, and of course, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Years Eve will all be great choices.

Any December Holiday is fair game, and of course, anything related to Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or New Years Eve would be great choices for your ambigram design.

If you’ve already created an ambigram in the past that fits into the theme, feel free to submit it (it does not have to be new for 2009 unless it contains the year as part of the design).

Of course, other options are available, too.  Here are some of the December holidays you might want to try out for this challenge:

• National Cookie Day (Dec. 4th)
• St. Nicholas Day (Dec. 6th)
• Pearl Harbor Day (Dec. 7th)
• Hanukkah (Begins on Dec. 11th)
• Wright Brother’s first flight (Dec. 17th)
• Winter Solstice (Dec. 21st)
• Christmas (Dec. 25th)
• Boxing Day (Dec. 26th)
• Kwanzaa (Dec. 26th)
• New Years Eve (Dec. 31st)

Since most of these holidays are festive, feel free to embellish your design with decorations appropriate for the holiday (which can also help with context).  We’ll be judging this one with the “overall design” in mind, as decorations are often  part of the holidays themselves.  Have fun with it!

Deadline

All artwork will need to be submitted by midnight on Dec 24, 2009 to qualify. Email your designs to . The contest is open to everyone, whether or not you have participated in the past, so give it a shot.  Winners are automatically entered to receive our annual “Ambigrammy” award, issued at the same time as the music industry’s Grammy awards.

The results will be published on Jan 14, 2009, and the next challenge will be announced at that time.

Best of luck, and Happy Holidays!

It also happens to come with a cash prize!

An ambigram fan sponsored this challenge since he is looking for a great ambigram of the names SADIQ and SHANA.  He didn’t specify a style, so bring your best typography skills to the table!

You won’t be able to get creative with the word selection on this one.  The only ambigrams accepted for the contest must say SADIQ one way and SHANA the other.  Yeah, it won’t be easy, but if the last challenge was any indication, we will still have some creative artwork coming in.

So, what’s the payout?

The best ambigram submission will be getting $100 USD for their design.  We already have the funds, so this is a guaranteed pay-out… someone will be winning $100!  And who will that be?

Well, this time, we have the ultimate judge: The guy giving away the Franklin.  The customer himself will decide which ambigram just blows him away, and you will need to email him the final artwork to win.  You will also need to be able to accept a Paypal payment to receive the money.

So, after your submission, hang on to your artwork.  If you win, you’ll need it to get your $100 prize.

Deadline

All artwork will need to be submitted by midnight on Nov 10, 2009. Email your designs to . The contest is open to everyone, so give it a shot.

The results will be published on Nov 24, 2009, and the next challenge will be announced at the same time.

Good luck!