Ambigrarama

Sharath’s Experience

Anoop had plans to visit Bangalore from last 2-3 months. So, a face to face QD between Anoop and me was likely to happen. On 14th April it did happen. My friend suggested a park as the venue instead of a coffee shop. The idea looked refreshing to both Anoop and me. So we decided to meet at cubbon park, one of the old parks in Bangalore.

We exchanged some ambigram thoughts and spent some time seeing each other’s hand drawn ambigrams.

Since this was a planned face to face QD, I had come prepared with A3 size white sheets and sketch pens along with me. Both of us had come with our friends. They suggested some 4 words and we decided to pick the word by preparing chits. To an ambigrammist’s luck or bad luck we got the word ‘OSMOSIS’. Three ‘S’ and two ’O’ in a word but positioned very badly. We both decided to take up this challenge.

When I wrote down the word, my first thought was to make use of natural ambigram ‘S’. That strategy left me with ‘O/iS’ and ‘M/O’. I didn’t attempt too many possible combinations but started figuring out the lettering style that could suit my letter combination. I thought sharp edged design should pretty well but my hand drawn skills proved it wrong. So I went for smooth curves for my final version. The whole process took me precisely 20 mins.

Anoop’s Experience

Ever since the first face to face quick draw was posted on ambigram.com, I became impatient to have one myself with my good friend and my mentor Sharath. Although I was planning to catch up to him since February, I couldn’t visit his city until Friday the 13th, April 2012.

We both decided to meet up in the city’s most picturesque location- “the cubbon park”. both of us were accompanied by a friend who did the most difficult part for us- selecting the word. 4 words were suggested and ultimately OSMOSIS was the word which got selected.

I know most people follow a certain order and method which helps them in tackling the words. But not me. I just go with the flow, with the first idea that strikes my mind. As soon as I came to know that OSMOSIS was to be done, the S overlapping O solution got imprinted on my mind and I stuck to that. After twitching and tweaking, adding and erasing, I managed to come up with a solution which was in no means legible, but still I liked it.

Sharath & Anoop, thank you for a great face-to-face Quick Draw! To everyone else: If you would like to participate, please email me to nikita@ambigram.com, and in the subject line, put the phrase “I want to Quick Draw”