@Matt, have you seen the revived ambigram challenge at ambigram.com?

(BTW, I think you and I are lucky in that the names "Matthew" and "Dave" can make pretty easy ambigrams.)
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I have and I did submit. Waiting to see the results of this one. Actually why I thought it'd be fun on typophile, could be a faster pace.

(by the way, dave is easily ambigrammed. I hope our parents didn't name us for that reason, but it sure doesn't hurt.)

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Ah, I spotted their relaunch about one day before the submission deadline. Had a bit of a scribble but couldn't come up with anything decent in time! But I've now bookmarked it and will keep my eyes open for the next round (plus the results of this one, of course: good luck with your entry).

Is there software or are there software settings that assist in creating ambigrams?

there are ambigram generators like flipscript.com and there are ambigram fonts but I think the best way is to just use a pen and a notecard, then clean it up in your vector software of choice

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Hi Matt, and Dave.

Good initiative here.

We're with it. So, how do we start? There was once a 'Typophile'/'Typography' ambigram challenge. Perhaps, we could use some other words, or maybe a theme..?

Our suggestion is - to make it open and relevant to this site - to come up with an ambigram from a type/font. John Langdon had done a 'Helvetica' ambigram, maybe we avoid that. The others are fair game..?

What's your take?

nagfa

OK. Let's start with...

That was awfully fast! Don't tell us you have a hard-drive full of ambigrams for occasions such as this..? :)

Oh, and as Robert Maitland had done a beautiful Blackletter ambigram, and Nikita had done a Bauhaus, perhaps we try to avoid those too..

nagfa

Hee hee, no, honest. Well if I didn't get in first, other people's better ones might put me off trying!

Ours:

nagfa

Update: Robert Maitland had done a Trebuchet reflection, so the list adds on:

Trebuchet
Blackletter
Bauhaus
Helvetica

nagfa

the 'm' and 'on' are a bit of stretch but how about Minion:

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Thanks a lot Johnny.
I actually just did one (not font related) suggested by Nagfa on my blog

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Very nice one, Matt. The angle and soft curves provide a pleasing balance.

Now, butter one side and see which side that falls on.. :)

nagfa

I was thinking, "where's the symmetry in 'Russell'?" but, then I did a couple sketches and - yeah... it can be done. Time permitting.

-=®=-

Same sort of quality-apology as Craig's for this one: I've just doodled this on a scrap of paper at my desk and assembled it in Paint so it ain't pretty... (Yes, I should be working, but the server with most of my work on it is down, and it's hosted from an office on the opposite side of the Atlantic, so it might be a while...)

hi everyone,
i'm an ambigram-freak from germany and i here is my submission for the font 'fertigo'. I needed some time for the 'fe'-'go'-transition but finally i'm happy with it.

Fertigo is a free font by exljbris Font Foundry and could be downloaded right here:
http://www.josbuivenga.demon.nl/fertigo.html

Oh no!

i call this one 'reverse the cat' - meow ...

In the spirit of unbridled creativity,

Troy Vera
Kingdom Graphics
http://www.kingdomgraphics.biz
Yahoo IM: kingdom_graphics
Skype: kingdom_graphics

Here's another quick font-name pencil sketch:

Whew. Isn't this one of those things that look easier than they are :-) Going over my favourite fonts, I came up with an idea:

The uncomparable Zapfino. Hope it's not unreadable as well.

Now I considered trying Zapfino but gave up before even starting. You're a braver man than I for that!
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I'm *very* impressed with these last two. Good work :)

I am seeing commendable designs here..

@Kingdom_graphics: That cat: ouch!

@dtw: hitting the ground running, mate. looking forward to more.. MonotypeCorsiva perhaps..?

@Matt: Nice thread this is turning out to be, at least one of the most fun I've seen..

how about this challenge: try a 'Jack The Ripper' ambigram..? Two had been spotted (nagfa's & NastyBasty's). Refrain from peeking, yeah..

nagfa

Speed over finesse, from me again, I'm afraid. Anyhow, I should be working. :-D

@dtw: ^ sheer simplicity. That works, I have to hand it to you..

nagfa

Elliason,
The sans serif one is great!

the other one, I'm not sure... Tar? but then again, not sure why there's no crossbar on the A, so maybe not..

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not related to a font, but my attempt to design the world's smallest ambigram:

tiny. only 38 pixels, fits in a favicon

edit: just realized it functions even better in just a 16x8 rectangle:

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p.s. mine above is supposed to be "TNR" (Times New Roman).

Well a challenge's a challenge, and trite though it may be, I'm not sure it'll be easy to "dip" below 7 × 4...!

Um, bringing the threads together – font name "Belwe" at 19 × 5, anyone?

haha, maybe the new challenge should be smallest legible ambigram, 4 letters or more ,and you can't use the same word as the previous ambigram?

we could end up with a "no/on" ambigram

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I don't want to

Hee hee. Classy.

all i can say is

I shamelessly took Theunis’ Zapfino ambigram and remade it in small size:

Miha - I issued the challenge this morning and I think I've already been beat. I may have just created one of the world's smallest ambigrams.

Nice job on the Zapfino remake. Am I seeing some subpixel rendering there?

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Well, your second "tiny" ambigram is still very cool anyway!

There are some subpixel, so this may not be an ambigram in a strict sense. Rotated looks a little worse because of "wrong" colors:

This is something I've been playing with off and on. It's my two kids names. I might finish it someday. Maybe.

While Craig's tooting his horn perhaps some string accompaniment on the...

Here's a separate idea: you know how packaging boxes often have "This way up" printed on them? I thought it'd be a good gag to have that as a rotational ambigram. From initial sketches I can see a fairly easy mapping of "Th -> up" (in a cursive script style) but the "isway" bit is proving stubborn. Any takers?

Logically, you wouldn't want to rotate "This way up" to the same sentence :-)
How about something else: "wrong way up" for the wrong way up?

That's why I thought it'd be a good gag. ;-D

D'oh! Of course.

Alas, someone beat you to it.

Ah, and on DA as well. No new ideas under the sun, huh?

Oh well. This can't be original either:

but it was fun, as it turned out (pun!) to be quite easy. In Myriad, of course, as I was thinking about how that would work out -- can't get a grip on that one!

Yeah, Myriad's a toughie. This is about the best I can manage. Excuse the REALLY wobbly contours: I'm at work and was drawing this with MS Word's bezier curve editing tools, which aren't the best but are all I've got right now! (Bet some folks didn't even know it had any!)

@aluminum: Wax and Ruin? Interesting names for your kids.
Just kidding, but what is it really? Max? July?

I regret posting to this thread in the first place ;) Now I get all these horrific updates! Well well, while I’m here: Does MS Word have bezier tools? Amazing!

Full of surprises, is Word!

@eliason ha! yes, needs some work. ;)

max and cam are their names.

the x/c needs a lot of work and I'm thinking the 'a' still looks like a 'u'.

I think ‘Cam' and Craig's ‘TNR' show that we read ambigrams more easily when we know what we expect it to say: the more familiar a word or phrase it generally looks like, the more liberties we're prepared to overlook; if what it actually says is something we're not expecting or familiar with, it's harder.

I’m not impressed before I see a panagram ambigram.

Ouch, Frode! Not something simple, like this?

@aluminium: Cam - my guess was 'Cain'. Perhaps I read the diamond-top as an i's dot.

@Theunis de Jong: is that a perpetual shift-type ambigram?

nagfa

Yeah, it shoud read either "Frode" or "Frank".
It was a quickie, after the quick brown fox I spend an hour on and then discarded in disgust. :-P

:)

LOL, I'd spent a few mins on the quick brown fox this morning too. I got as far as mapping "The q" to "dog" but no further...

Observe:

Bravo! But is Frode impressed?

B-r-own r needs some attending, otherwise this is pretty impressive waste of time :)

Cerulean!

Nice one from you there. Aren't they all!

Admiring and enjoying the xj-ps combo the most.

nagfa

Some other designs:

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e205/nagfa/nietzsche-einstein.jpg

(reflection)

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e205/nagfa/silverbullet.jpg

(reflection)

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e205/nagfa/jack_the_ripper.jpg

(Our Jack the Ripper ambigram, done based on TNR.)

and..

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e205/nagfa/nathisawesomeshit2.jpg

nagfa

Neitzsche/Einstein: that's a clever solution to the H/I problem!

Great work Cerulean!

Thanks, dtw.

A recent design:

reads 'md.Naguib' (one half of nagfa) rotating into 'ambigram'.

Done using MS PowerPoint basic shapes.

nagfa

What, an entire day without a new font ambigram?

May I present this to the honourable board:

And a go at Utopia:

Applause!

This is a little bit rubbish, but just to keep the thread alive while I work on something more sophisticated ;-D

These recent two are exceptionally good. Loving these.

nagfa

I see Craig and I both had to decide how far to lean the A/N. In hindsight, I think I could have left mine almost completely at the N angle, and let the crossbar suggest the A. Never mind.
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Ever since I chose to block pop-ups, my toaster's stopped working.

Yes, I actually made the angles more A-ish originally, and then realized I could push them back N-ward.

Getting a bit silly now...

How about...

...perhaps it's time I did something more useful :-D
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Ever since I chose to block pop-ups, my toaster's stopped working.

Something normal..

nagfa

Yikes. I hope that wasn't a comment on my posts! :-D

:)

That's the true beauty/magic of ambigram designing. When a nondescript, bland something hides a shocking revelation.

Much like Kevin Pease's 'Have A Nice Day'..

nagfa

p.s.: Have A Nice Day..

Just been scrolling through the ambigrams on DeviantArt. The number of people who've made copies of John Langdon's well-known "Earth Air Fire Water" diamond is astonishing!
Perhaps plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery...