Been a while since our last post. Ambigram opportunities came and went. From the double symmetry date of 13MEI (13 May in Malay) to a rotational symmetry of 21.5.12. Well, Carpe Diem. Or not. Without much ado:

Hand-drawn using a humble pencil: Promotion Ceremony.

Aftermath...

After the Mathematics Paper.

Our winning design for the recent ACAC (Ambigram.com Ambigram Challenge), Dan Chan rotating into Magic Man:

And, another entry, a Dan Chan ambigram:

Done entirely on PowerPoint using Basic Shapes.

nagfa in Wanaka, New Zealand!

Two of our designs - watershow (reflection ambigram) and Quickdraw (rotational ambigram) as displayed on one of the walls of Puzzling World, Wanaka, South Island, New Zealand. Alongside other works from prominent ambigram artists, John Langdon and Scott Kim.

One of the factors that make an ambigram work is the positions of the characters/letters/glyphs in a particular word or phrase. Ambigrams of 'awesome', 'mayhem' or 'edge', for example, are abundant and done in numerous styles. They work. A 'John Mayer', 'Angelina Jolie' and 'Jamie Oliver' ambigram may be easily done, too, if one were to study the letter placements in these names. Similarly, this 'DareDevil' ambigram provide for an easy solution. We did this in less than 15 minutes. Hand drawn.

Almost a palindrome, come to think of it.. 'igniting!'

Playing with forms here. Death Lived.

We have drawn this so many times over the past year, but always only on paper. Always wanted this to be printed onto the T-shirt for the rockclimbers (their gravity-defying stunts making an ambigram design so very relevant, of course!).

Been reading about the Upside Down Question Mark, usually seen in the Spanish language. Guess it's very apt to be used in an ambigram, especially since we do know of many Spanish-speaking ambigram artists and visitors to our blog. 'How are you?' indeed. It's been a while..

reflecting into:

Been awhile since our last reflection piece. This should read easily enough.

Hilamony: hilarious + harmony (according to The Zozi). Recently bought their second album Hilamony 2 - their first was Hilamony. The ambigram may be read as hilamony III:

The Zozi.

Known now as a 'learning journey'..

Another design; unused.

Perhaps, the biggest nagfa project to date, the logo for Iconoclast. Their latest, just released album: The stage at Mavericks, Ottawa Canada, where they had their CD release party:
Big, big thanks to the guys of Iconoclast for the opportunity and trust.

A surprisingly cooperative word.

bencinta

The Malay version of the Love-Hate ambigram. (Cinta: Love; Benci: Hate)

Colourful Life: a 9x9 Kufic Square.

Hand drawn sketch (above), and with some very basic cross-hatchings:

Back when we were younger, it was known only as 'an excursion'.

Logo proposal

Not selected.

Today.

Emergency!

Some word combinations provide for such easy solutions: fire engine
rotating into:

ambulance. Possible largely due to the convenient a-e, m-in, b-g, u-n. The rest of the strokes just fell into place. A satisfying find indeed.

A Side-B, if you will, of a 'Fearful Symmetry' ambigram. Based on the following book: The ambigram, hand-drawn these days:

Today.

Today. Also palindromic.

Elyana. Azhar. One of several (unused) formulae.

A sketch based on an old formula, to not ever forget:
rotating into The Date:

In 1942, today, British forces defending Singapore surrendered to the invading Japanese. And reality turned upside down. 15th February is Total Defence Day.

Of Dragons and Chinese New Year

A sketch done in a 10 minutes window, prior to the Celebration Concert...Found this done some years back; thought it's appropriate to share:

Naguib-Dragon ambigram. Speaking of the Mythical One, the Dragon is also the Muse for Nag's class logo this year. Derived from 2E4, and based on some design concepts from the pupils themselves:

(The rough draft of 2E4's Class Logo).

Year of the Dragon

Ushering in the Chinese Year of the Dragon, we've seen a few ambigrams done related to it. We've been trying something similar but with a nagfa touch. Not long ago, we've managed to come to this somewhat feasible solution:
Another sketch:

And later on still, a design we're satisfied with:
Rotating to read 'Naguib.and.Fadilah'.

4.syd