Rather than start on the computer you should really get out a pencil and paper. Think about the many different variations of style that the letterforms can take. Look at other lettering artists and ambigram artists to see how they do things. In the end you may have to pay someone to do this if it’s really what you want. What you have right now is rather ’mish-mashy’, keep trying...don’t be content until it’s perfect.

Thank you David for your tips... I alredy do it on paper... I just don’t have scanner for send it, it’s better than that but not perfect for me.
I also believe that I will have to pay somebody, but before I hoped to finding ideas interesting here. I keep trying while waiting if someone want to help.

Try this book:

Wordplay: Ambigrams and Reflections on the Art of Ambigrams
by John Langdon

John’s book doesn’t really tell much more than what he gives here on this part of his webpage: http://johnlangdon.net/ambigrams.html In the book he dives a bit further into his process, but again it’s an artform and you can’t really spell it out. It’s easiest to experiment over and over and over until you find something that works, learning what corners you can cut so letters are still recognizable.

On the other hand...go buy his book. John is an amazing artist, wonderful professor and basically my mentor at school/inspiration for love of type. You’ll enjoy it even if you don’t end up with a finish of this project!

Thank you very much for this reference... Patience and perseverance has the key here I think... thanks again.

I think your basic approach is sound and some of the letter combinations are working well, as you say patience and perserverance are going to be required, you could look at this thread for some ideas. The approach I take is to draw the letters from one direction, turn the page and amend to work the letters from another direction, trace it and start the process again, whether I am working on paper or direct on the computer. Combining letters or using swashes to create a letter* from the opposite direction can be productive, especially when you have different number of characters in the two words.

Keep at it,
Tim

*or indeed the way you created the cedilla

I worked a little on that... I send you an example of that I tested. I’ve some problem whit the E... or rather with the Fr of François, not the same style and not enought precision, but I think it’s a beginning. I’m not yet enought familiar whit that to make swashes or ornements, but I still practice !

I think you’re onto something with your ’k’ becoming an ’is’. Just needs a little straightening out to make it work with the other characters.

I think you could eliminate the stroke leading into the a in Francois and bend the bowl of the a back to the right a bit to make the a more obviously an a without compromising the n. I believe the o in Francois could also get rounder as long as you keep that incoming stroke that makes it an a. Finally, the F might read better both as F and E if the top horizontal was not detached from the stem.

It’s very cool to see sketches in progress - save these when you’ve arrived at a result, they’re great. And don’t give up hope, you’re almost there.

I think that you should take another look at some of the constructions you had in your first post to have any hope of making room for the ’r’ in ’Francois’. I think your final solution will incorporate the new ’K/is’, the old ’ari/nco’, and some way of packing ’ra’ into ’n’.

Thank you for yours tips Pica and cerulean ! I keep working !

I agree with cerulean that the “r” is getting a bit lost. I know that it is difficult to work around but the flourish at the end of Karin is a bit confusing. I know that you need it for Francois. I recently designed a tattoo for myself using my two daughters names. It is a bit different because the names are stacked. Each name is an ambigram, so you read it one way it says Kendall/Kylie. The other way it says Kylie Kendall. Just another way to think about it. Good Luck!