Quick Draw 15
Oct 13th, 2011 | By Nikita | Category: Feature, Quick DrawThe word for this Quick Draw has a connection to physics as well as the book Angels & Demons, which any ambigram design should be more than familiar with! The two artists going head to head in Quick Draw this week have contributed to the website before. Say hello to Sharath Kumar and Nick Gilbert, and take a look at their antimatter(s)! [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.]
Nick Gilbert
ANTIMATTER was an easy word to work with because it required little letter wrestling. Normally, I begin an ambigram by sketching out its inner workings, instead of first figuring out the word’s center point or deciding which letters share stems. Specifically, I start with the first letter and work my way along the word to find the center point. With ANTIMATTER, the ‘m’ was the center point.
Once I decided the manner in which to engineer the word, I used Illustrator to design it. I found the typeface ‘Magneto’ a suitable font to use for ANTIMATTER. I modeled the entire design from the ’m', ‘t’, and ‘i’. Simultaneously creating a crossbar for the second ‘a’ while and eliminating distraction from the ‘t’ and ‘i’ was the main engineering feat.
Enlarging the ‘m’ deconstructs the word, makes it legible, creates a dot for the ‘i’, and makes the design look like a logo. Overall, I am content with the final results.
The word I received this time had very frequently used letters. So it gave me the 1st impression that I got a very simple word to ambigram.
As usual I started with choosing the important combination to be taken care. Though a/e combination was tempting, I didn’t want to leave ‘r’ alone or go for a chain ambigram. So I decided to club ‘a’ and ‘R’. n/te was fairly simple. t/t was ok and remaining ‘ima’. With that imagination in my mind and I wrote down the word on paper (fig. 1.1)
I preferred my regular vertical bar lettering style (influenced by Nikita) as it was easier to tackle a/R combo in that style. I started writing letters on the paper (fig. 1.2 & 1.3). After the 1st half got completed I couldn’t resist myself from jumping into computer (sad.. I know). On computer it was a fairly simple job to trace the letters (it is much easier nowadays as I draw neatly on paper). After completing the ambigram I couldn’t convince myself that it was readable and I felt the 1st part of ‘m’ was too small and was looking awkward (fig 2).
I readjusted it slightly and tilted it to hide the awkwardness. The tilted version looked much better (fig 3).
I wasn’t 100 % satisfied with the shape of ‘m’. So, I started thinking of an alternative. After applying some thoughts on a better solution, I came up with the idea of changing the shape of ‘a’ slightly to adjust ‘m’. R/a combination were still looking good to me. With that change I created another ambigram (fig 4).
I still had the feel that the design was unreadable. But my parents could read it instantly without me even telling anything about the word. It made me happy and thought of mailing my designs.
But I felt guilty of not attempting hand drawn version (which I wanted do for this QD). So I decided to draw it completely on paper.
I had a very nice start on paper with my fingers moving very fluently. Everything was nice until it came to the last 3 letters. I suddenly realized that the paper wasn’t large enough to draw remaining letters! Add it to the list of ‘SHARATH’S BLUNDERS’. What to do? I decided to stop it there. To give it a decent finish, I took the snap of it, cropped the half part and attached the other half, removed shades to give a final touch to my handmade version of ‘antimatter’.
Big thanks to ambigram.com for the challenge. The word wasn’t as simple as I initially had thought of, but wasn’t complex enough to scratch my head or bang my head on the wall 
“LOVE LETTERS, THEY BLEND AS YOU WISH”
Dear Nick and Sharath, thank you for participating in the Quick Draw! Great work!
SO COOL, GUYS!! I love em both. Both VERY legible and aesthetically pleasing. Stunningly beautiful. Trying a mirror now.
@Nick: Clever solution and very well presented
The final version has the feel of the word which my design lack. Love your design and your approach.
I am very not very comfortable with ‘A/Er’ which always makes me to look for alternative. I think that made the difference in our approach
It is so funny that both of us started mentioning that the word was a simple one
@Nikita: Ambigrammists are looking for a very very complex word
Maybe I’ll post my own…when I find it.
And Clayton, the mirror is possible.
@Sharath: Thanks for challenge. I enjoyed every minute of it.
It’s less of a challenge but I actually like the easier ambigrams. The final product is better. I always stress legibility in my work. Legibility usually deteriorates the more complex an ambigram is.
ANTIMATTER was fun to work with!
these look really nice, guys! Both of you have found some really cool solutions. Can’t wait to take a closer look when I get the chance!
Great job both of you!!!
@Sharath – You know I love hand drawn designs… You killed it with that font my friend, great style, lines… very impressive. I also love the computer design, great solution all the way around.
@Nick – I will be honest and say that at first I didn’t like where you were going with the design… But your final image with the color in the background is fantastic. Very well done. I really like how you gave the look of the design a real feel of its definition.
Good job both of you!
Elwin
Beautiful designs from both the designers!!..
@Nick: Wow… your design really represents subatomic particle physics and has a very good legibility. Background adds to the beauty of artwork.
@Sharath: Always better than the previous ones. I especially like the hand drawn design. Yours is very legible too.
Great job both of you. And keep it up…
@Nick
Legible. Terribly legible.
@Kumar
I like the hand drawn one. I am, after all, never have made an ambigram with a computer.
Nice work for the both of you nick and sharath..
At sharath i like how you convert the letter ‘a’ to letter ‘r’ nice one dude,
Hello all!
@Nick: You design seems like a logo for me, and this is an advantage that a few ambigrams have. Great work and legibility!
@Sharath: I love the handdrawn design 1.3. After seeing that, I feel that the computer version loses something of its elegance. 1.3 for the win!
@All: It was time that a new quick draw challenge was announced!
With lot of respect,
Vasileios Stergioudis
@Lei: R/a is patented
@Vasileios: Yeah, I observed a lot of time that my hand drawn versions look much better than the digital one. Not sure what really goes wrong.
And yeah, its been one year since QD started. It is going great and we all are enjoying and learning… Thanks to ambigram.com.
BEAUTIFUL DESIGNS
Though I agree that the word proposed was a cooperative one to tackle, the onus was on the artists to come up with an above-average presentation. And I’m glad to say that both of them excelled in the final presentations! This is why I love this art: the interpretation of combo-letters-solutions and presentation reflects the artists’ individualities.
Imagine this being a bigger-scale QuickDraw; we’ll be seeing many legible designs which by style alone, I believe most of us can guess the artists behind (the designs).
Good work, Nikita, for the mix of workable and challenging words for QD.
I’ve done an antimatter ambigram some years back; though very weak presentation-wise. Staid.
nagfa