Maddenation
Ambigrams
Ambigrams (meaning “both” and “words”) are words that can be read in more than one way - usually they are the same both rightside up and upside down. They are amazing! I found out about the while reading Dan Brown’s book “Angels and Demons”. He uses a few of them in his story and they are absolutely fascinating. Dan especially I think will love this fusion of design, typography, and geometry. This guy, John Langdon has his own website devoted to ambigrams. He is apparently the best ambigram artist. After looking at his site, I agree. The whole site is awesome - check it out. Even his name is an ambigram. He also has cool paintings and ambigrams that work in ways other than upsidedown. You might also want to check out the website for the book “Angels and Demons” it has the ambigrams used in the book as well as some bizarre historical facts. Enjoy!
David • Puzzles • 10/01/03 • 6 comments
Comments
David • 10/03/03 • 1:26 PM:Are there ‘unambigramable’ words?
Dad • 10/03/03 • 5:03 PM:Yes.
Patrick • 10/04/03 • 8:49 AM:1) I don’t get Dad’s short answer. Why is that worth a comment? Maybe he thinks that the word yes is unambigrammable?
2) Dan Brown needs to ditch his current book cover designer. Man are those things targeted at the Danielle Steele audience or what!? Ugly, ugly books. The cover of Angels and Demons makes me think I’m going to find hot and sexy nuns and prostitutes inside.
Dan • 10/04/03 • 6:25 PM:More ambigrams by this guy. make sure you go to page 2 and 3.
Here you can make your own ambigram. Be careful though, they suck.
Scott Kim’s stuff here.
Here’s one site where almost nothing is readable. It looks like 3rd grader art class.
This guy’s aren’t too bad. Make sure you go to the bottom and check out “Visual Canon”. That one is cool. There’s plenty more links on the bottom.
Dan • 10/04/03 • 6:29 PM:I forgot to mention how awesome John Langdon’s logos are. They’re spot on. They’re on his website and on the link i gave on my previous post. Notable Logos: The Lightbulb in the hand, the rehab cross, the NY fashion industry, King’s Hill, Armstrong Typography, Victoria (an ambigram!), “City of Brotherly Love Philadelphia” (holy crap).
Dan • 11/11/03 • 12:12 PM:Helvetica looks just like it did in the old days. Helvetica Neue looks like poop. If you’re interested in getting some on-screen typography lessons, here’s a good start. The first couple paragraphs are about the new Mac OS (Panther). You can read that thoroughly or just find where he starts talking about pixels and the like.
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