Quick Draw Round 7
Jan 25th, 2011 | By Nikita | Category: Feature, Quick DrawAnother Quick Draw…and more unique results! This time, Ryan McCourt and Ed Xander (both former, and hopefully future ACAC participants) squared off with a very challenging phrase. Think they pulled it off? Read below and judge for yourselves! [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.]
Ed Xander
Sketch1 – Initial playings
Sketch2 – Idea development
Sketch3 – Sidetracking
Sketch4 – Final idea development
Sketch5 – Final idea, hand drawn
Design1 – Final design using inkscape
Design-chain – Chained version of final design
My initial sketches consisted of (as usual) playing around with letter combos, looking at what options there are for different styles of ambigram and in this case seeing looking for the best way to combine the multiple words in the phrase. I generally keep playing until something leaps out at me.
Ryan McCourt
Figure 1 (The well-known Saul Bass poster for Spartacus)
Figure 4
Figure 5
At first, I thought IAMSPARTACUS simply could not be rendered in an ambigram I could be proud of. Sacrificing word spacing, to my mind, would be too great an obstacle to legibility: never mind the improbability of transforming a curvaceous “S” into a straight and narrow “I”, and without a thought to any of the other odd letter combinations. I figured It HAD to be broken up into separate words if it was going to have any chance at real success. The initial “I”, by itself, was a natural ambigram, and “AM”, it seemed, could probably be worked out easily enough, and “I AM” together might work out ok (which is what I ended up doing), which left SPARTACUS to be dealt with on its own. Obviously, that word was going to be considerably easier to deal with, with each S switching places, a lower case T in the centre as the pivot point, and the rest being fairly conducive to transformation ( I hoped).
At this point, I had to switch from mental to physical visualization, and knew I had a font (“Cleopatra”) that would likely be perfect for the subject matter. I searched online for a picture of the Saul Bass poster for the film, and typed my words on it. The typeface matched fairly well (fig1), but it occurred to me I could perhaps work with the poster image itself, and the lettering on it, to give it some of the style of the film design. I tinkered with the poster image in Photoshop to come up with this design (fig2).
I thought the daggers helped give a reason for the off-kilter A and the mysterious chunk floating in the C. This seemed pretty successful to me for a first sketch, but I still had a week remaining, so I figure I should try some other designs out.
Going back to the Cleopatra font, I worked with a similar layout of the words to form this design (fig3).
It looks pretty heavy metal. Time for a beer, and some critical appraisal… I think this design is working better than the first one, though they’re very similar, the A-C and R-A flips seem better now. The clustered, overlap effect has some advantages, I think, but it feels too stiff… I’ll rough it up a bit, and add some graphic elements. (fig4). Ooh, maybe too rough.
“I went back to the first design, and played around with it to come up with what might be my best version… so I’ll quit while I’m ahead (fig.5).”
Oh well… Looking forward to your feedback, and to seeing the attempts of fellow ambigraphers. (Ambigrammists maybe? 
)
p.s. No paper was harmed in the making of these designs.
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A big thanks to Ed and Ryan for taking on the challenge of the first ever ‘phrase’ in Quick Draw! The next pair has been notified, and the next Quick Draw may restructure your views on Quick Draw! 
Wow… just a quick response from my cell phone… great results you guys! I will write more when I get close to my computer!!! Once more, bravo!
Gods bless you, Ed, for trying to tackle it all as one word… I lack the fortitude to attempt such madness.
Why are they called “ambigrams”, anyway? It seems to me that ‘Ambigraph” would be a more accurate identifier. But, then again, perhaps I’m a contrarian by nature…
Well this is a really challenging phrase.. Excellent designs guys.. Totally awesome
@Ed Xander : Your sketching and the final outcome are totally readable and beautiful too.. The final result is the exact copy of the hand drawn sketch.. just one thing is the a/s design is a little difficult to read.. Great job though
@ryan : A very unique approach.. very interesting. Spartacus is beautifully stylized and a good design.. The I AM part is a little out of sorts… Could not make what it was at the first sight. But i love the design though..
Good job guys. Different thinking and two different designs great job..
What an amazing outcome!!!
@Ed Xander: Very legible design throughout. Kept it very simple and effective. I would loved to see the middle ‘a’ implementation as it is in sketch5.
@Ryan: What an approach to the problem! Hats off. Totally out of box thinking. This approach will broaden the thought many ambigrammists. Very well executes as well.
Great outcome in QD7. Congrats to both!
[...] the results of the latest “Quick Draw” challenge were released on ambiram.com. Ryan McCourt an Ed Xander, both seasoned ambigrammists, had a real tough problem to tackle: the [...]
Woah, as Nikita said, Ed and Ryan had a real tough challenge going on. Great results from both guys. I really like the ‘spartacus’ in Ryans design (figures 3 and 4)!
If anyone’s interested, here’s my take on the problem: http://unterart.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/i-am-spartacus-rotational-ambigram/
Thought of trying out this phrase. I love to ambigram phrases.
Thought of producing a technically perfect ( readability, who cares?
) ambigram.
Try to read letter by letter. You may be able to read then. Otherwise, sorry
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharathkumark/5390727044/
Nice solution Bastian. Waiting for Clayton’s.
@Bastian: I thought of the exact solution for ‘PA\RT’ but could implement it convincingly. You have produced a technically perfect READABLE ambigram! Hats off. But more than anyone I love to salute Ryan’s solution. A very good technique.
Congratulations to both. Amazing ambigrams.
@Ryan, you were very clever to create the “Im”.
[...] QuickDraw-Time, ambigram.com posted the lasted results for Challenge Nr. 7. This time Ed Xander and Ryan McCourt needed to work [...]
Nice round again
I hope you know what i want to say 
@Ed: Your result is nice. Clean and well readable but i would like to see some more style. I would use your final sketch as a guide for a more styled version. For example Blackletter, Modern or Greek – choose your weapon of style and flow over your guide
@Ryab: Good work. I like the creative approach. Nr. 3 and Nr. 4 are nice but i like the idea for Nr. 5 the most. A nice interaction between the elements. The bad thing is that the image is a little bit blurry. A vector version would be nice.
@Bastian: Sauberrr! Nice! At first I also tried a uppercase version. But it doesn’t fit my quick-style. Your style fits perfectly. Nice work.
@Sharath: I like your PAR-Combination
I posted a version of my own at SLAMBIGRAMS.
Thank you for all the positive comments they are much appreciated
@Ryan – I think foolishness prevailed over fortitude and i love just how different our designs have turned out, both in approach and style
@Prajyot – I think the a/s was better when i hand drew it, but i couldn’t quite get it right, though it still came out better than other ideas ive had for that combo
@Sharath – I appreciate your comment as simple and effective is what i was aiming for. It was a close call on the central a, in the end i decided to try and give it a similar style to the a/s, though i may now try it the other way
@B. Wichmann – “Clean and well readable” is what i aim for, i sometimes adding styling if i think it adds something to the design but i don’t feel the need to do it for the sake of it.
Ed
http://edxander-perceptions.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/edxander/
Ed: I share your taste for clean & simple, and probably would have come up with something similar to your design.
Ryan: Think you made a wise choice in splitting the “I am” from the “Spartacus”, which enabled you to come up with a nicely readable final design. Great stuff.
Hi guys! I saw great drawings from both participants and viewers, so I tried to put one more stone in the castle, giving you another solution. I drew “I am Spartacus” as a whole phrase and I think it came quite easily to me. During an hour, I’ve uploaded it on my site. Check it if you want!
@Bjorn: Thank you. But the ambigram is completely unreadable
Your design is very beautiful, but idea looks to be inherited from Ryan’s work.
@Stergioudis: Great solution. The style used suites the solution very well.
I take a little break from ambigrams, and I come back to ambigram heaven. Amazing work, Ed & Ryan!! I love your solutions. Both very different. Both very unique.
Bastian, Bjorn, Sharath, Stergioudis….
Thank you for adding to the palette of creative solutions. Bastian’s could work for the MOVIE…incredible.
I felt WAY too influenced by all of your solutions to even try a rotational solution of my own…so I tried a horizontal mirror. It’s my first “posted” ambigram drawn under 10 seconds. Check it out!
http://customambigrams.com/art/i-am-spartacus
…and Ryan, nice ambigrammery!