hashtag suliktad

Matagal-tagal na rin akong gumagawa ng ambigrams.

At mula pa noon ay marami-rami na rin akong nabuong koleksyon ng ambigram mula sa mga pangalan at samu’t-saring “concept pieces” na ang iba ay trip lang gawin at ang iba naman ay isinali ko sa mga friendly competition sa international ambigram community.

Minsan ang mahirap sa pagbuo ng ambigram ay hindi iyong mismong paggawa nito. Mas mahirap iyong paano ka makakarating sa mga solusyon sa piyesa mo nang hindi kagaya (sadya man o hindi) sa mga dibuho ng ibang designers. Kadalasan mapapansin mo na lang ay may pagkakahawing ang solusyon kahit hindi ang aktwal na hugis ng isang piyesa. Kaya minsan halos parepareho ang solusyon kahit magkakaiba sa estilo ng “lettering”.

Bilang isang Pilipinong lumilikha ng isang sining na hindi likas o mula sa Pilipinas, nagsimula ako na halos puro english words ang gamit ko. At ganoon din naman ang karamihan ng nakilala kong ambigram designers na hindi native english speakers. Kaya’t simula ng gasinong nahasa na ako sa paglikha nito ay inunti-unti kong buuin ang koleksyon ko na puro may kinalaman sa sensibilidad at kulturang Pilipino. Hindi lamang para maiba sa karamihang ambigram designers kundi para rin mailahad ko ang mga katangian na kinamulatan ko.

Medyo madami na rin ang nagawa ko – iyung iba na-ipost ko na dito dati pa – pero mas marami ang hindi ko pa mahanapan ng solusyon at gan’un din kadami ang nasolusyonan ko na pero hindi ko matapos! Kasi ang pangit naman na ipakita ko puro sketches lang pero walang “final piece”… At plano ko na sana’y mabuo ko itong isang aklat at maipalimbag, sa Pilipinas. (Madali lang gawing ebook pero goal ko ay iyong pisikal na nahahawakan).

So, habang nagaabang ako sa pagkakataon na maisakatuparan ko iyon – dito ko muna unti-unting ilalathala.

Kasabay nito ang pagkabit ko ng isang bagong likhang salita sa lahat ng ambigram na nalikha ko na at lilikhain pa na may koneksyon sa kulturang Pilipino. Kung ang salitang ambigram ay binuo mula sa ambi (both=pareho) at gram (letter=titik), tatawagin ko ang lahat ng Pilipino ambigram words na SULIKTAD. Mula sa mga salitang: sulat at baliktad. Self explanatory na siguro po.

Bakit ko naman kailangan pang lumikha ng bagong salita para tukuyin ang mga Pilipino ambigrams ko?

Iyong totoo, wala akong diretsong sagot, liban sa: para magkaroon ng buhay at kapangyarihan ang anumang bagay kailangan nito ng isang pangalan. At siyempre mas gugustuhin ko na ang pangalang itatawag dito ay hindi salitang hiram – iyong sarili niya dapat. At dahil walang direkta at literal na translation ang salitang ambigram (as far as I know, hindi pa siya officially included sa mga dictionary as of this writing), dapat sigurong bigyan ko siya ng Pilipinong pangalan.

Sa huli, para mas gawing makabuluhan ang sanaysay na ito (o ang matiyagang pagbabasa ninyo sa mga pinagsasasabi ko), malugod ko pong ihahayag ang isa sa mga bago kong suliktad.

Sa ating mga Pilipino madalas mabulalas ang sawikain na ito. May kinalaman ito sa pagpupursige at pagtitiyaga, lalo na sa pagharap sa hamon ng buhay. At hindi ko na siguro po kailangang maging Helen Vela, Eddie Ilarde o Dely Magpayo para himaymayin natin ang kahulugan nito. Alam kong alam na natin lahat ito. Nawa’y maging inspirasyon po sa ating lahat ito. Hayaan ninyo na kung mayroon man kayong mapulot na kung anuman sa pagsilip ninyo dito sa pahina ko ay itong paalala ng ating kulutura. Sabi nga sa Kalyeserye: “Hindi lahat nadadaan sa pagmamadali, lahat ay may dahilan… sa tamang panahon.”

Maraming Saalamat po!

The Neverending Story

Remember this one? I was in high school when the first movie came out. Didn’t get to see it (‘though I wanted to) until one local tv station featured it on a weekend movie night screening – years after.

A few years back after musing over with much admiration the Princess Bride ambigram, I wondered if a similar one had been done for The Neverending Story, having remembered th Auryn symbol. After a so-and-so search for an ambigram image for TNS and having found none, I decided to do this fan art because it seemed like a logical and natural word/phrase to be made into one – a rotational or a chain even.

So please turn your mobile phones off, butter your popcorn and enjoy the following feature presentation.

As usual, I started with the letter correlation, a bit of sketching which seemed fairly simple with these words. Then off to digitizing.

 As I do much of the actual ambigramming digitally with a vector program, there is where the problem/solution(s) happen. I started out creating a variety of swills and bars for the stems, arms and bars, looking for a fitting style. The tough part I thought while doing this was deciding if the “v” looked convincing enough to be a “g” when inverted – to which I had to make a couple of changes. While nearly finished with the words I decided to re-do the “y” as it looked, to me, more like an “r”. I added the Auryn symbol which I previously traced from the original image and kept it as plain as possible..

The end result was ok, but it felt……. incomplete, for some reason. Staring at it I thought having the words go around the Auryn symbol would be more well-rounded, conceptually. So I created a circular baseline with guides and individually repositioned each glyph along the path. This was more difficult than a horizontal rotational as each glyph on the top arch had to have their bases more contracted (condensed) than their ascenders while the glyphs on the bottom arch had it the other way. It’s like doing it from scratch.

Looking at the final work I didn’t like the way the “s” looked, it seemed weird. So I reworked it using already predrawn letterforms and re-set the type. I made another tweak by skewing the word/phrase to make it appear italicized – this will add to the swishing illusion of the “s”. And then again, off to re-do the rotational chain.

For now I’m pretty much content with how both designs look but by no means these will be their final versions.

I hope this take on the word/phrase got you inspired to get going with your own creation. Thank you very much for coming over and I hope you enjoyed the show. Stay tuned for the next feature.

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Ooooopppssssss!

On my first blog, near the very end, it says:
All images appearing here in this article are copyright protected and owned by Dan Adona Jr.

where it should have said
All images appearing here in this article are copyright protected and owned by Dan Adona Jr. except “Bian Lian” created for and owned by Dan Chan.
Apologies for the apparently deleted attribution.
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Stay tuned for more design work out next week.