This year for christmas I gave a few of my friends a personal work of art. Although it may not be classy,  it is from the heart. Like they say, it’s the thought that counts right? I also believed that christmas is getting really commercial and whatever I can buy, they can too. So I decided to give them each an ambigram.

…a graphical figure that spells out a word not only in its form as presented, but also in another direction or orientation. -Wikipedia

An ambigram is not the easiest thing to read at first, but once you figure it out, you’ll have fun with it. You can see mine at my flickr account (remember I said I uploaded a 6mb+ image?). Of course my works are pretty ”nooby” because I just started. One really good example is Dan Brown’s “Angels and Demons” book cover.

Well, I won’t tell you exactly how to make one (I’m still learning my self)because it’s a secret! each is different, but I’ll show you my steps. First I started by writting the name I want to turn into an ambigram. Then flip the paper 180 degree, and write it again above the original.Then flip it around again. Now you can see the basic shape you need to create by combining the normal and the flipped text. From here you want to try combining the letters. They say it is easier if you use upper case letters instead of lower case. Me personally, I have no preference. If I can’t figure out how to combine the letters I would just go and switch the case on one or both of them until they work out. Some methods for combining are

• Turning excess stems into flourishes
• Making one letter a part of another
• Making it a tail

Remember it’s basically your imagination at work. It’s not as hard as you think, you only need to do half of the name because obviously, it is the same as the other half. Do not limit yourself to my methods, Because I’m probably doing it in a bad way. Of course whatever gets it done right? Also Have a chips, coffee, and pictures at hand to inspire and keep you going.

Once you created your actual ambigram, you need to decide on your presentation. Do you just want a simple black and white, or go as far as making it a cool wallpaper or poster. For my friends I decided to create a mini mural. Here’s what I did…

• Take a decent picture of it.
• Trace it with inkscape.
• Add Extra touches such as leaves (for flourishes).
• Apply it to an effect, I chose “advance glow“.
• Add personal touches (such as something they love eg. their own work of art)
• Print it at a local library (Save your ink =D and most of the time they have a better quality printer).
• Cut it out.
• Apply it to a poster board with a glue stick (you don’t want the paper to wrinkle or to bleed because of the watery nature of non-glue stick).
• Cut the board.
• Use plastic wrapper that you use for food to wrap it and give it a glossy look.
• And finally I wrote a personal note on the back of the cardboard.

Sorry, I barely have any picture. As you can imagine I was on a tight deadline, so I forgot to take pictures (Damn “finals”). Oh and don’t worry, I didn’t spoil the present, they already have it with them =D. After all, there is no reason to hold a gift.

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