A blog created to show my personal collection of ambigrams! Ambigrams are words that can be read both normally and UPSIDE-DOWN! Cool, huh? Please feel free to leave comments on my work, I would really appreciate that! You can also order your own custom design, for a price of E25-$50, depending on the difficulty of the ambigram. My email is martijnslegers.ambigrams@gmail.com! Enjoy your stay! :)
A few months ago I started playing the popular Facebook application "FarmVille". It's a simple, but fun farming game where you plant your crops, plow the field and collect from (farm)animals. After a while I found out that there were people using colored haybales to create art! They put them in specific positions to copy images of famous artists or funny cartoon characters. That immediately inspired me to create my own art with Haybales and, as you probably would have guessed, making Ambigrams is where my passion lies, so I decided to try one!
The image you see below was my first attempt at re-creating one of my old hand-drawn ambigrams of the word 'Art':
Above was the original image, below the FarmVille one. As you can see I made some small changes because the square haybales do not offer much room for curves on such a small scale...
Below you'll see the same image, but from further away.
The next two pictures were made after refining the 'horizontal' bar that makes the A. I cut off the blocks that compromised the R and voilà, the first FarmVille ambigram was made!
While spending time in France on a camping as a receptionist, I also had some time for myself! And what relaxes more than drawing ambigrams? The place I chose to sit was next to the Ping Pong-tables and one thing led to another, of which the next photos show you the result! :) I created perhaps over 100 ambigrams on rackets and some of my favorites you can find below! The rest are shown on my Flickr-page, which can be found here ! And at the bottom you'll find maybe the first ambigram to be drawn on a cell-phone! :) By the end of my work-period I had decorated 4 of them! What do you think of my project? :)
*Please forgive the poor photo-quality, they have been made with my mobile phone, clicking on the images will allow you to view the slightly enlarged (original) size, which is already much better than what you see in the original post.*
Apparently it was a lot easier to gain access to the internet here in France than I had expected! This means that I'll be able to reply to any emails or requests within a matter of days instead of weeks! :)
Hello dear visitors! As some of you may have noticed, I have not been active with ambigrams in the past few months...! I will post new designs this September, because before that I'll be working in France!
If you like my work and think of ordering a custom ambigram, please send your request to martijnslegers.ambigrams@gmail.com . Prices may vary around $50, depending on the length but most of all the difficulty of the ambigram. Shorter ambigrams aren't necessarily easier than long ones, it all depends on the letters! :)
Feel free to use the same address for comments, suggestions and constructive criticism too! But bear in mind that I can only answer after the 16th of august, when I return to Holland. Chances of access to internet will be extremely limited where I will be in France.
There she is: Noor van Amstel! Doesn't she look great? And the baby too! ;)
These are two pictures of the little gift I gave to the family that offered me to make their Baby-card (which can be found two posts earlier)! It's a modified version of the 'Noor'-ambigram I designed and printed it on a little t-shirt :) I hope she'll like it in the future, it's much too big for her now (even though the shirt is pretty small)! :D
I made this drawing and tried to capture 24-year-young Marié as well as I could, but that was so hard...! And if you happen to like this picture, the real Marié looks even more beautiful! :)
But her looks are not her most important feature! She is an amazing singer and I found out about her on Youtube, the "treasury of talent" as I heard someone call it. Listen to this video and then you'll probably understand why I have fallen under her "Spell".
More information about Marié Digby can be found on her Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/mariedigby
I also strongly recommend the following link to her Youtube-videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/MarieDigby
Marié's background can be found on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari%C3%A9_Digby
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Here you will find three ambigrams for her and her two younger sisters Naomi and Erina. Each name turns into the same name when turned upside-down:
And below a take at her full name, "Marié Digby". The font I used for the ambigrams of her name (and her sisters') is intentionally very much like the way her name appears on her album, with hearts as dots above the i's.
Another ambigram for the three Digby-sisters, this time inverting the name "Marié" into "Naomi", with the ambigram of "Erina", the youngest, in between her older sisters :)
Two different versions of the "Marié-ambigram" you can find below the portrait on top of this post. Which one do you like best? Again, these versions are much more fluid and curly than the one below the picture :)
And finally I tried re-creating a part of the youth of Marié in the next ambigram: 'Marié turning into a 'singer'! I copied the image and turned it, so you can see how it works (sorry for the ugly mistake on the right c.q. left!)
The same image, but turned upside-down:
All the images above are still hand-drawn and I will start working them into more presentable, vector-shaded images in the future. I just thought you ought to know already what an amazing job she is doing! :) Marié, if you ever read this: the best of luck to you and I hope to see you live one day!
Ambigram created for the birth-card of Noor van Amstel, the healthy new addition to the family of Amel and Maarten, whom I wish the best of luck and happiness! I am still honored they asked me to create the card for them! The image above was the front, the back can be found below.
What is says here is Dutch for "The image on this card -> is an ambigram -> An ambigram can be read normally -> but also upside-down." I placed the letters in such a way that one has to turn the card around in order to read the explanation and it also has a nice border-effect to it. What do you think about it? :)
I created these four (hand-drawn) ambigrams for friends in France we are going to visit in a week :) The names are "Agnès", "Patrick" and their two girls "Lucie" and "Jeanne". I hope they'll like them! :) This is what they looked like after framing:
Three drawings created for fellow ambigram enthusiast Frank Nguyen, who very kindly requested a custom design. I know, sometime my inspiration gets the better of me, because none of the three drawings was the one he actually ordered ;)
In dedication to my lovely grandfather who passed away last Sunday. He had the privilege of having a natural ambigram as a name, though he never realised it :) May he rest in peace.
This ambigram represents a hybrid version of the two letter fonts I often use and really like in my ambigrams! It was as close to the definition Nagfa gave us of the word 'hybridity' as I could get! What do you think of it? Is it worth a vote? :)
An ambigram created for a girl called Blessing! What an extraordinary name, isn't it? I had to figure out a way to turn the 'LE' into 'IN' somehow. Normally I would turn the 'LE' into the letter 'N' easily, but that would leave me with 'SSI' in the middle... Having the two 'SS' in the center would be a much more obvious choice, but that needed a little more tweaking... What do you think?
Hey there, visitor! As you might have already noticed, I have not posted new ambigrams for quite some time! This is due to the fact that, as a student, I do have to focus on my schoolwork rather than on my hobby...! I also have multiple commissions running at the moment, so I am very, very busy!
You are still invited to leave comments, email me or even order an ambigram! Just bear in mind the fact that I am swamped at the moment and therefore likely to respond a little slower both email- and ambigram-wise...!
Thanks for visiting my site! I hope you'll stop by from time to time!
This is me, drawing an ambigram! Can you read what it says? :) Sorry for the bad video-quality! Please tell me what you think about it, any comments are appreciated!
It symbolises how I started... I learned myself how to create ambigrams... and will maybe end up teaching others :)
Oh, and in case you're wondering... that is my brother singing in the background, on the tunes of Forza Motorsport 2, a videogame ;)
What an original title, eh? ;) This is my version of an ambigram-ambigram! What do you think of it, any comments (except spam,chainletters and hate-messages of course) are appreciated!
This video was created by Mimi Taylor, a very good youtube-friend of mine! Thank you for making it, so I can show my work in action!! :D
Dit bericht is bedoeld voor Sylvia uit Bavel (meer weet ik helaas niet :S). Als je wilt dat ik de schets van je "Sylvia-ambigram" verbeter en afmaak op de computer, dan kun je me dat laten weten via bovengenoemd emailadres :) Mocht je dit ooit nog lezen, uiteraard...
Groetjes van Martijn!
ps: mocht je haar toevallig kennen, zou je haar dan de boodschap door willen geven? Merci!
These three ambigrams were created for Adam Flockemann, a fellow ambigram artist! What do you think? I always try to go for the most legible solution :)
A very good and original band! They use all kinds of PVC pipes to create awesome sounds and are always accompanied by another band, playing together :) You should really check them out!
An ambigram inspired by my ipod, such a lovely tool on a holiday! This is a tribute to all Mp3 Players out there! Make some noise!!! ;)
Looking at it from a distance now, I think making the M lower might make it look better, also adjusting the height of 'YER' to the letter 'A' :) Something I'll change soon, to see how it looks...
