Ambigram (DARA)
grafixforlife (227 points) | Tue, 2005-07-26 04:49Hey guys if you're unaware of Ambigrams as an artform go to my professor's website: JohnLangdon.net and you'll quickly understand where my inspiration comes from. John and I talk/meet quite frequently on the subject of type and ambigrams, as well as I get to help him out on some of his projects. I did this (well the sketch anyways) while working at TypeCon this past weekend in NYC. Dara is one of my best friends and the letterforms are inspired by her personality and love of dance (she's a professional dancer for bands) Let me know what you think! You can check out two more ambigrams I've done on my website too if you like: HERE - under Personal Thanks!
-Dave
Commenting on this Image is closed.
The characters look good but they are competing for attention. What I could suggest is maybe you could try making the first letter only as uppercase and the rest be lowercase. The other thing that I noticed is that it seems like the firts three characters (D-A-R) are all uppercase and the fourth is left lowercase ... and maybe try playing with different colors. Other than that, you're good.
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Creativity comes naturally
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Great concept, but needs more work to make the shapes and whitespaces around them more balanced.
This dara doesn't seem like its there yet looks like the baseline is off. Its close.
I wish i had a teacher that taught this technique. I almost went to Drexel but went to Phila. Univ. instead. Its nice to see some local philly designers.
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"The higher you jump on the flagpole, the higher the bonus you receive."
I remember reading stuff by Kai Kruse (of Kai's Filters) in the early 90's where he used some ambigrams to show off channel operations (or CHOPs) in Photoshop. Needless to say I was more impressed with the ambigrams (which he never explained how to do) rather than the Photoshop techniques.
Thanks for the comments guys, I have since fixed the baseline problem that I forgot to since I uploaded it. I've talked to John today about it and I've decided that the A/R combo in the middle might need to be scrapped and redone. I tweaked it a little, but it's not worth posting. I'll post up another version when I'm officially done aka John and I are both satisfied with the finish. Thanks for all the help though!
Visit My Website!: - David Bailey - graphic artist - ONLINE PORTFOLIO -
check out this link to see the little flash intro i made.
its pretty amateur and basic but i still like it.
...and when you start in the middle, you will only know the end.
My professor did all the ambigram work for Dan Brown and is currently working on some really awesome things for the DaVinci Code movie. (got to see some WIPs :D)
I saw your flash intro but your site wouldn't load. :(
Visit My Website!: - David Bailey - graphic artist - ONLINE PORTFOLIO -
Good ambigram. Definitely eliminate some of the empty whitespace. Otherwise it's one of the better ones i've seen on the internet.
i design custom ambigrams. check out my site, tell me what you think.
I think you rock and I think your prices are too cheap! C'mon - you are practically doing it for free? Can I order three?
thanks. I don't want to charge a whole lot so most people can afford them, but if i did for free, i'd never have time to complete any. you can order as many as you like. just send me an email at
I set up a newsletter there, and i usually post on my xanga blog. I like the set up of these blogs though... so who knows.
i design custom ambigrams. check out my site, tell me what you think.
Neat site...I guess my only comment would be that yours seem very 'graphic' and I find them hard to read. Have you taken typography classes? Have you studied letterforms? Drawn them so many times you can draw them from memory? Studied how letters would be made if drawn with a brush? I guess the reason I ask is because there are certain characteristics and forms of each letter that our brains recognize, take these away and it just becomes a symbol. I love the style of yours though, and you're getting paid so you've obviously got a happy clientele. I guess I'm so picky about the ones I 'finish' because I have such an amazing mentor. Good luck!
Visit My Website!: - David Bailey - graphic artist - ONLINE PORTFOLIO -
no, no typography classes here. in a way i'd say that helps me more than anything. The ambigrams I've seen from several people who've taken typography classes all seem to follow along with one certain style per person. Not a lot of diversity in their ambigrams. Mostly what I rely on for ideas are a bunch of old lettering catalogs my dad used to use when he was a low level engineer. My sketches tend to follow a certain style, but depending on what's asked of me, I diversify the images using various parts of lettering styles I study in these old catalogs. I can honestly say though that each ambigram I finish is "the best" i've ever made, with each one I improve in one way or another. I strive to never be completely happy with any I've made, because if I am, I'll lose interest in making them.
i design custom ambigrams. check out my site, tell me what you think.
That's a good attitude, I just find my daily expanding knowledge and research on type to be an immense help in any design work I do. I love type. :D
Visit My Website!: - David Bailey - graphic artist - ONLINE PORTFOLIO -
That's good. It seems to work for you. I just have the habit of preferring to teach myself how to do the things I want.
And I just saw that this is a mac design forum. Sorry mates, I'm a non-mac user. Just saw a post on graphix's ambigram, and that's my most current hobby.
i design custom ambigrams. check out my site, tell me what you think.