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Here's a new ambigram design for Karina.  It's a design for my high school friend and will be printed on a shirt.  This design was a bit modified to make it more attractive for shirts.

I always struggle whenever I work with the letter K.  It's one of the letters that is always hard to solve in an ambigram design.  In this design, I managed to make it work by adding an ornament (my friend called it burloloy).  I was glad that the final design looks clean and feminine.

And some advertisment :D.  Here's a gift you may want to give for Valentine's.  Visit my Multiply site for details. 

Business magazines suggests that a personal hobby is a good business idea.  The good thing about turning a hobby into a business is that you have passion over it.  So you don't get tired managing the business but you enjoy what you are doing.  And there is fun in making money out of something you used to do for free.

When I started making ambigrams last 2005, I saw a potential.  I made a few design for my friends and officemates.  Then, in a few months, I was paid to make a design for an ambigram name.  That was the starting point.  My ambigram posts in Wordpress always get the most number of hits everyday.  People all over the world would send me an email requesting an ambigram for them.  Some requests were made for free while I get paid for a few others.  Thanks to Paypal, I can earn something online with my designs.

But the problem is, the requests are too few.  And most of them are coming from abroad.  Too few in the Philippines are interested in ambigrams.  There are a few other ambigram artists in the country.  We would meet each other in blog sites also and share our designs there.

Then a solution came in.  Why not have generic ambigram designs,  place them in shirts and sell them.  Once they see how ambigrams can look beautiful, they might want a personalized one.

Last month, we decided to join a bazaar.  I sold shirts with ambigram designs and gave out contact numbers.  Somehow it worked.  They were bought as gifts for Christmas.  One design was a bestseller, while the others didn't sell well.  We didn't sell a lot but at least it was a start to know the market.  I get good feedbacks and more people are asking about them.

This prompted me to continue working on it and take the business a step further.  We are starting to plan for future designs, products and how to sell them.  So here it is.  Our own line of t-shirt designs.  Ambigrafix.  Ambigram shirts.  The first in the country (i suppose).  I can't think of another name for our business.  Hehehe.

Visit the link and get updated with our future designs and other product offers.  Not just shirts.  Send me an email for your questions and inquiries.

Just like any business, it was not easy starting it.  I made several mistakes in the details but I am learning from them.  How was an engineer suppose to know all those business stuff?  And there is the scare that making it into a serious business will take away the fun that used to be there.

Anyway, blogging is also hobby that others turned into a gold.  Here's my way of making a hobby into a startup business venture.

Bili na!