Ambigram Project: Music - Marco

I received a request from a fellow deviant, Angelica to create 2 ambigrams, of which we only agreed to complete one. The other was too difficult and due to time and budgetary constraints, that would be quite unfeasible to accomplish. This ambigram was intended to be a special gift for her fiancé, whom she had been with for about 8 years already. She wanted the ambigram (a symbiotogram, to be exact) that read "Marco", and "Music" flipped. She says "He sings... music is what brought us together."

As soon as the details were finalized, I proceeded to the drawing board, figuring out the nuances of letter configurations.

Although both word have 5 letters, it would be unwise to create an ambigram with 1 to 1 correspondence (M for C, A for I, etc…). It wouldn't look to legible and balanced. I opted to combine certain letters. In this case, it seemed most aesthetic to make the "M" of "Marco" to stand for the "IC" of MUSIC… the "M" of "Music" can stand for the "CO" of "Marco"… I started digital work using the font I used in the sketches, but they weren't looking that good (I could pull it off actually, but I would end up creating an entirely new font if I proceeded with this). So, I ended up modifying a traditional Gothic font. I came up with these:

Flipped:

And the colored versions, using a musical background theme:

It was better than what Angelica expected it to come out. That was enough compliment, but ultimately I just hope that this ambigram is a worthy tribute of her love for her fiancé…