Anambigram is acalligraphic composition ofglyphs (letters, numbers, symbols or other shapes) that can yield different meanings depending on the orientation of observation.[2][3] Most ambigrams are visualpalindromes that rely on some kind ofsymmetry, and they can often be interpreted asvisual puns.[4] The term was coined byDouglas Hofstadter in 1983–1984.[2][5]
Most often, ambigrams appear as visually symmetrical words. When flipped, they remain unchanged, or they mutate to reveal anothermeaning. "Half-turn" ambigrams undergo apoint reflection (180-degreerotational symmetry) and can be read upside down (for example, the word "swims"), while mirror ambigrams haveaxial symmetry and can be read through areflective surface like amirror. Many other types of ambigrams exist.[6]
Ambigrams can be constructed in variouslanguages andalphabets, and the notion often extends tonumbers and othersymbols. It is a recentinterdisciplinary concept, combiningart,literature,mathematics,cognition, andoptical illusions. Drawing symmetrical words constitutes also arecreational activity foramateurs. Numerous ambigramlogos are famous, and ambigramtattoos have become increasingly popular. There are methods to design an ambigram, a field in which someartists have become specialists.
The wordambigram was coined in 1983 byDouglas Hofstadter, an American scholar ofcognitive science best known as thePulitzer Prize-winning author of the bookGödel, Escher, Bach.[7][4][5]It is aneologism composed of the Latin prefixambi- ("both") and the Greek suffix-gram ("drawing, writing").[2]
Hofstadter describes ambigrams as "calligraphic designs that manage to squeeze in two different readings."[8] "The essence is imbuing a singlewritten form withambiguity".[9][10]
Anambigram is avisual pun of a special kind: acalligraphic design having two or more (clear)interpretations aswritten words. One can voluntarily jump back and forth between the rivalreadings usually by shifting one's physicalpoint of view (moving the design in some way) but sometimes by simply altering one'sperceptual bias towards a design (clicking an internal mental switch, so to speak). Sometimes the readings will say identical things, sometimes they will say different things.[11][4]
Hofstadter attributes the origin of the wordambigram to conversations among a small group of friends in 1983.[12]
Prior to Hofstadter'sterminology, other names were used to refer to ambigrams. Among them, the expressions "verticalpalindromes"[13] byDmitri Borgmann[14] (1965) andGeorges Perec,[15][16] "designatures" (1979),[17] "inversions" (1980) byScott Kim,[18][19] or simply "upside-down words" byJohn Langdon and Robert Petrick.[20]
Ambigram was added to theOxford English Dictionary in March 2011,[6][21] and to theMerriam-Webster dictionary in September 2020.[2][22]Scrabble included the word in its database in November 2022.[23][3][24]
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Many ambigrams can be described asgraphicpalindromes.
The firstSator square palindrome was found in the ruins ofPompeii, meaning it was created before theEruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.A sator square using themirror writing for the representation of the letters S and N was carved in a stone wall inOppède (France) between theRoman Empire and theMiddle Ages,[26] thus producing a work made up of 25 letters and 8 differentcharacters, 3 naturally symmetrical (A, T, O), 3 others decipherable from left to right (R, P, E), and 2 others from right to left (S, N). This engraving is therefore readable in four directions.[27]
Although the term is recent, the existence ofmirror ambigrams has been attested since at least thefirst millennium. They are generallypalindromesstylized to be visuallysymmetrical.
Inancient Greek, the phrase"ΝΙΨΟΝ ΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑ ΜΗ ΜΟΝΑΝ ΟΨΙΝ" (wash the sins, not only the face), is apalindrome found in several locations, including the site of the churchHagia Sophia in Turkey.[28][29] It is sometimes turned into a mirror ambigram when written in capital letters with the removal ofspaces, and thestylization of the letter Ν (Ν).
Aboustrophedon is a type ofbi-directional text, mostly seen in ancient manuscripts and other inscriptions. Every other line of writing is flipped or reversed, with reversed letters. Rather than going left-to-right as in modern European languages, or right-to-left as inArabic andHebrew, alternate lines in boustrophedon must be read in opposite directions. Also, the individual characters are reversed, or mirrored. This two-way writing system reveals that modern ambigrams can have quite ancient origins, with an intuitive component in some minds.
Mirror writing inIslamic calligraphy flourished during the early modern period, but its origins may stretch as far back as pre-Islamic mirror-image rock inscriptions in theHejaz.[30]
The earliest known non-naturalrotational ambigram dates to 1893 by artistPeter Newell.[31] Although better known for his children's books and illustrations forMark Twain andLewis Carroll, he published two books ofreversible illustrations, in which the picture turns into a different image entirely when flippedupside down. The last page in his bookTopsys & Turvys contains the phraseThe end, which, when inverted, readsPuzzle. InTopsys & Turvys Number 2 (1902), Newell ended with a variation on the ambigram in whichThe end changes intoPuzzle 2.[32]
In March 1904 the Dutch-Americancomic artistGustave Verbeek used ambigrams in three consecutive strips ofThe UpsideDowns of old man Muffaroo and little lady Lovekins.[33] His comics wereambiguous images, made in such a way that one could read the six-panel comic, flip the book and keep reading.
From June to September 1908, the British monthlyThe Strand Magazine published a series of ambigrams by different people in its "Curiosities" column.[34] Of particular interest is the fact that all four of the people submitting ambigrams believed them to be a rare property of particular words. Mitchell T. Lavin, whose "chump" was published in June, wrote, "I think it is in the only word in the English language which has this peculiarity," while Clarence Williams wrote, about his "Bet" ambigram, "Possibly B is the only letter of the alphabet that will produce such an interesting anomaly."[34][35]
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In theLatin alphabet, many letters are symmetricalglyphs. Thecapital letters B, C, D, E, H, I, K, O, and X have a horizontal symmetry axis. This means that all words that can be written using only these letters are naturallake reflection ambigrams; examples include BOOK, CHOICE, or DECIDE.
Thelowercase letters o, s, x, and z arerotationally symmetric, while pairs such as b/q, d/p, n/u, and in sometypefaces a/e, h/y and m/w, are rotations of each other. Among the lowercase letters "l" is unique since its symmetry is broken if it is close to a reference character which establishes a clearx-height. When rotated around the middle of the x-height l/ȷ or lo/oȷ it doesn't appear the same, but it does when rotated around its center like the uppercase-I. Thus, the words "sos", "pod", "suns", "yeah", "swims", "passed", or "dollop", form natural rotational ambigrams.
More generally, a "natural ambigram" is a word that possesses one or moresymmetries when written in its natural state, requiring notypographicstyling. The words "bud", "bid", or "mom", form natural mirror ambigrams when reflected over avertical axis, as does "ليبيا", the name of the countryLibya inArabic. The words "HIM", "TOY, "TOOTH" or "MAXIMUM", in all capitals, form natural mirror ambigrams when their letters are stacked vertically and reflected over a vertical axis. Theuppercase word "OHIO" can flip a quarter to produce a 90°rotational ambigram when written inserif style (with large "feet" above and below the "I").
Like allstrobogrammatic numbers,69 is a natural rotational ambigram.
Patterns in nature are regularities found in the natural world.[36] Similarly,patterns in ambigrams are regularities found ingraphemes.As a consequence to this "natural" property, someshapes appear more or less appropriate to handle for thedesigner. Ambigram candidates can become "almost natural", when all the letters except maybe one or two are symmetrically cooperative, for example the word "awesome" possesses 5 compatible letters (the central s that flips around itself, and the couples a/e and w/m).
A symmetrical ambigram can be called "homogram" (contraction of "homo-ambigram") when it remains unchanged after reflection, and "heterogram" when it transforms.[11][37] In the most common type of ambigram, the twointerpretations arise when the image is rotated 180 degrees with respect to each other (in other words, a second reading is obtained from the first by simply rotating the sheet).
Douglas Hofstadter coined the word "homogram" to define an ambigram with identical letters.[11][37] In this case, the first half of the word turns into the last half.[38]
A symmetrical ambigram may be called a "heterogram"[11][37] (contraction of "hetero-ambigram") when it becomes a different word after rotation. Visually, a hetero-ambigram is symmetrical only when both versions of the pairing are shown together. Theaesthetic appearance is more difficult to design when a changing ambigram is intended to be shown in one way only, becausesymmetry generally enhances the visual appearance of artwork. Technically, there are two times more combinations of letters involved in ahetero-ambigram than in ahomo-ambigram. For example, the 180° rotational ambigram "yeah" contains only two pairs of letters: y/h and e/a, whereas the heterogram "yeah / good" contains four : y/d, e/o, a/o, and h/g.
There is no limitation to the number of words that can potentially be paired up as hetero-ambigrams, and full ambigramsentences have even been published.[15][38]
!["Ambigram / Wikipedia", hetero- type.[39]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aAmbigram_Ambigram_Wikipedia_(animated).gif)
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Ambigrams are exercises ingraphic design that play withoptical illusions,symmetry andvisual perception.Some ambigrams feature a relationship between theirform and theircontent. Ambigrams usually fall into one of several categories.
"Half-turn" ambigrams orpoint reflection ambigrams, commonly called "upside-down words", are 180°rotational symmetricalcalligraphies.[7] They can be read right side up or upside down, or both.
Rotation ambigrams are the most common type of ambigrams for good reason. When a word isturned upside down, the top halves of the letters turn into the bottom halves.And because our eyes pay attention primarily to the top halves of letters when we read, that means that you can essentially chop off the top half of a word, turn it upside down, and glue it to itself to make an ambigram. [...][41]
Amirror orreflection ambigram is a design that can be read when reflected in amirror vertically, horizontally, or at 45 degrees,[42] giving either the same word or another word or phrase.
When thereflecting surface is vertical (like amirror for example), the calligraphic design is avertical axis mirror ambigram.
The "museum" ambigram is almost natural with mirror symmetry, because the first two letters are easily exchanged with the last two, and the lowercase letter e can be transformed into s by a fairly obvious typographical acrobatics.[43]
Vertical axis mirror ambigrams find clever applications inmirror writing (orspecular writing), that is formed by writing in the direction that is the reverse of the natural way for a given language, such that the result is themirror image of normal writing: it appears normal when it is reflected in amirror. For example, the word "ambulance" could be read frontward and backward in a vertical axis reflective ambigram. Following this idea, the French artist Patrice Hamel created a mirror ambigram saying "entrée" (entrance, in French) one way, and "sortie" (exit) the other way, displayed in the giant glass façade of theGare du Nord inParis, so that the travelers coming in readentrance, and those leaving readway out.[44]
When the reflecting surface is horizontal (like amirroring lake for example), the calligraphic design is ahorizontal axis mirror ambigram.
The bookAmbigrams Revealed features several creations of this type, like the word "Failure" mirroring in the water of a pond to give "Success", or "Love" changing into "Lust".[45]
In afigure / ground ambigram, letters fit together so thenegative space around and between one word spells another word.[42]
InGestalt psychology,figure–ground perception is known as identifying afigure from the background. For example, black words on a printed paper are seen as the "figure", and the white sheet as the "background".In ambigrams, thetypographic space of the background is used asnegative space to form new letters and new words. For example, inside acapitalH, one can easily insert a lowercasei.
The oil paintingYou & Me (US) byJohn Langdon (1996) belongs to this category. The word "me" fills the space between the letters of "you".[46]
WithEscher-liketessellations associated to wordpatterns, ambigrams can be oriented in three, four, and up to six directions via rotational symmetries of 120°, 90° and 60° respectively,[47] such as those created by French artist Alain Nicolas.[48] Some words can also transform in thenegative space, but the multiplication of constraints often has the effect of reducing either the readability or thecomplexity of thedesigned words.
Ambigram tessellations are wordpuzzles, in whichgeometry sets the rules.[48]
Media related toAmbigram tessellations at Wikimedia Commons.
A chain ambigram is a design where a word (or sometimes words) are interlinked, forming a repeating chain.[42]Letters are usually overlapped: a word will start partway through another word.Sometimes chain ambigrams are presented in the form of a circle.For example, the chain "...sunsunsunsun..." can flip upside down, but not the word "sun" alone, written horizontally.A chain ambigram can be constituted of one to several elements. A single element ambigram chain is like asnake eating its own tail. A two-elements ambigram chain is like a snake eating the neighbor's tail with the neighbor eating the first snake's, and so on.
Scott Kim's "Infinity" works, and that ofJohn Langdon "Chain reaction", are alsoself-referential, since the first is infinite in the literal sense of the word, and the second, both reversible at 180° and interfering around the letter O, evokes a chain reaction.[49]
Aspinonym [de] is a type of ambigram in which a word is written using the sameglyph repeated in differentorientations.[38]WEB is an example of a word that can easily be made into a spinonym.
![MBE [it] (Motor Bike Expo) spinonym logo. The same glyph is repeated in three different orientations.](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aMotor_Bike_Expo_logo.svg){kind=logo}
Perceptualshift ambigrams, also called "oscillation" ambigrams, are designs with nosymmetry but can be read astwo different words depending on how the curves of the letters are interpreted.[42] These ambigrams work on the principle ofrabbit-duck-style ambiguous images.
For exampleDouglas Hofstadter expresses the dual nature of light as revealed by physics with his perceptual shift ambigramWave / Particle.
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"Quarter-turn" ambigrams or 90°rotational ambigrams turnclockwise orcounterclockwise to express different meanings.[4] For example, the letter U can turn into a C and reciprocally, or the letters M or W into an E.[38]
A totem ambigram is an ambigram whose letters are stacked like atotem, most often offering a vertical axismirror symmetry.This type helps when several letters fit together, but hardly the whole word.For example, in theMaria monogram [hu], the letters M, A and I are individually symmetrical, and the pairing R/A is almost naturally mirroring.When adequately stacked, the 5 letters produce a nice totem ambigram, whereas the whole name "Maria" would not offer the same cooperativeness.
The ambigrammist artistJohn Langdon designed several totemic assemblages, such as the word "METRO" composed of the symmetrical letter M, then section ETR, and below O; or the sentence "THANK YOU", vertical assembly of T, H, A, then of the symmetric NK couple, then finally Y, O, U.[50]
In mathematics, afractal is a geometricalshape that exhibitsinvariance under scaling.A piece of the whole, if enlarged, has the same geometrical features as the entire object itself.A fractal ambigram is a sort of space-filling ambigrams where thetiled word branches from itself and then shrinks in aself-similar manner, forming afractal.[51]In general, only a few letters are constrained in a fractal ambigram. The other letters don't need to look like any other, and thus can be shaped freely.
A3D ambigram is a design where an object is presented that will appear to read several letters or words when viewed from different angles.Such designs can be generated usingconstructive solid geometry, a technique used insolid modeling, and then physically constructed with therapid prototyping method.
3-dimensional ambigramsculptures can also be achieved inplastic arts. They arevolume ambigrams.
The original 1979 edition ofHofstadter'sGödel, Escher, Bach featured two 3-D ambigrams on the cover.[52]
Complex ambigrams are ambigrams involving more than one symmetry, or satisfying the criteria for several types. For example, a complex ambigram can be both rotational and mirror with a 4-folddihedral symmetry. Or a spinonym that reads upside down is also a complex ambigram.
Ambigrams exist in many languages. With theLatin alphabet, they generally mixlowercase anduppercase letters. But words can also be symmetrical in other alphabets, likeArabic,Bengali,Cyrillic,Greek, and even inChinese characters and Japanesekanji.
InKorean,곰 (bear) and문 (door),공 (ball) and운 (luck), or물 (water) and롬 (ROM) form a natural rotational ambigram. Some syllables like응 (yes),표 (ticket/signage) or를 (object particle), and words like "허리피라우" (straighten your back) also make full ambigrams.
Thehan character meaning "hundred" is written百, that makes a natural 90° rotational ambigram when theglyph makes a quarter turn counterclockwise, one sees "100".[53]
Media related toAmbigrams by language at Wikimedia Commons.
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An ambigram of numbers, ornumeral ambigram, containsnumerical digits, like1,2,3...[38]
Inmathematics, apalindromic number (also known as anumeral palindrome) is a number that remains the same when its digits arereversed through a vertical axis (but not necessarily visually). The palindromic numbers containing only 1, 8, and 0, constitute natural numeric ambigrams (visuallysymmetrical through amirror). Also, because theglyph2 is graphically themirror image of5, it means numbers like 205 or 85128 are natural numeral mirror ambigrams. Though not palindromic in the mathematical sense, they read frontward and backward like real ambigrams.
Astrobogrammatic number is a number whose numeral isrotationally symmetric, so that it appears the same when rotated 180 degrees. The numeral looks the same right-side up and upside down (e.g., 69, 96, 1001).[54][55][56]
Somedates are natural numeral ambigrams.[57]In March 1961, artistNorman Mingo created an upside-down cover forMad magazine featuring an ambigram of the current year. The title says "No matter how you look at it... it's gonna be aMad year. 1961, the first upside-down year since 1881."[58]Tuesday, 22 February 2022, was a palindrome and ambigram date called "Twosday" because it contained reversible 2 (two).[59][60][61]
Ambigrams of numbers receive most attention in the realm ofrecreational mathematics.[4][62]
Ambigrams with numbers sometimes combine letters and numerical digits. Because the number 5 is approximately shaped like the letter S, the number 6 like a lowercase b, the number 9 like the letter g, it is possible to play on these similarities to design ambigrams. A good example is theSochi 2014 (Olympic games) logo where the fourglyphs contained in 2014 are exact symmetries of the four letters S, o, i and h, individually.[63]
Asalphabet letters areglyphs used in thewriting systems to express thelanguages visually, othersymbols are also used in the world to code other fields, like theprosigns in theMorse code or themusical notes inmusic.
Similarly to the ambigrams of letters, the ambigrams with other symbols are generally visually symmetrical, eitherpoint reflective orreflective through an axis.
The internationalMorse codedistress signalSOS ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ is a natural ambigram constituted of dots and dashes. It flips upside down or through a mirror.
In morse code, the letter P coded ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ and the letter R coded ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ are individually symmetrical, like many other letters and numbers. Also, the letter G coded ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ is the exact reverse of the letter W coded ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ . Thus, the combination ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ / ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ coding the pairing G/W constitutes a natural ambigram. Consequently, meaningful natural ambigrams written in morse code certainly exist, like for example the words "wog" ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ , "Dou" ▄▄▄ ▄ ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ ▄ ▄▄▄ or "mom" ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ .[7][64][65]
Inmusic, the interlude fromAlban Berg's operaLulu is apalindrome, thus thescore made up ofmusical notes is almost symmetrical through a vertical axis.[66]
Inbiology, researchers study the ambigrammatic property ofnarnaviruses by using visual representations of the symmetrical sequences.[36][1][67]
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Instead of simply writing them, ambigramlettering covers theart ofdrawingletters. In ambigram calligraphy, each letter acts as anillustration, each letter is created with attention to detail and has a unique role within acomposition. Lettering ambigrams do not translate into combinations of alphabet letters that can be used like atypeface, since they are created with a specific candidate in mind.
Thecalligrapher,graffiti writer andgraphic designerNiels Shoe Meulman created several rotational ambigrams like the number "fifty",[69] the names "Shoe / Patta",[70] and the opposition "Love / Fear".[71]
Thecover of the 7th volume of thetypography bookTypism is an ambigram drawn byNikita Prokhorov.[72]
The AmericantypedesignerMark Simonson designed poetic andhumorous ambigrams, such as the words "Revelation", "Typophile", and the symbiosis "Drink / Drunk".[73] The last one makes avisual pun when printed on ashot glass, sold commercially.[74]
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Since they are visually striking, and sometimes surprising, ambigram words find large application incorporate logos andwordmarks, setting the visualidentity of many organizations, trademarks and brands.[75]
In 1968[76] or 1969,Raymond Loewy designed the rotationalNew Man [fr] ambigram logo.[77][78][79]
The mirror ambigramDeLorean Motor Company logo, designed by Phil Gibbon, was first used in 1975.[80][81][82]
Robert Petrick designed the invertibleAngel logo[83] in 1976.
The logoSun (Microsystems) designed by professorVaughan Pratt[84] in 1982 fulfills the criteria of several types: chain ambigram, spinonym, 90° and 180° rotational symmetries.
The Swedish pop groupABBA owns a mirror ambigram logo stylizedAᗺBA with a reversed B, designed byRune Söderqvist [sv][85] in 1976.[86]
TheVentura logo of the Visitors & Convention Bureau's board, in California, costUS$25,000 and was created in 2014 by the DuPuis group. It uses a 180° rotational symmetry.[87][88]
Other famous ambigram logos include: the insurance companyAviva;[89]theacronymCRD (Capital Regional District) in the Canadian province of British Columbia;[90]the American multinational corporationDXC Technology;the two-sided marketplace for residential cleaningHandy;[91][92]the brand name of French premium high-speed train servicesInOui;[93]the French company specializing in ticketing and passenger information systemsIXXI;the century-old brandMaoam of the confectionery manufacturer Haribo;[94]the American industrial rock bandNIͶ;the Japanese food companyNissin;the biotechnology companyNoxxon Pharma, founded in 1997;the online travel agencyOpodo in 2001;[95]the brand of food productsOXO[96] born in 1899;the video gamePod;the American developer and manufacturer of audio productsSonos;[97]the American professional basketball team PhoenixSuns;[98][99]the German manufacturer of adhesive productsUHU;the quadruple symmetrical logoUA from the American clothing brand Under Armour;the Canadian corporation mandated to operate intercity passenger rail serviceVIA in 1978;[100]the American international broadcasterVOA, born in 1942;and the Malaysian mobile virtual network operatorXOX. The student edition of theTesco Clubcard used 180° rotational symmetry.[101]
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Because they arevisual puns,[4] ambigrams generally attract attention, and thus can be used invisual communication to broadcast amarketing orpolitical message.
In France, a mirror ambigram "Penelope /benevole" legible through a horizontal axis became ameme on the web after its diffusion onWikimedia Commons.[102]Penelope Fillon, wife of French politician and former Prime Minister of FranceFrançois Fillon, is suspected of having received wages for a fictitious job. Ironically, her name through the mirror becomesbenevole (voluntary in French), suggesting dedication for a free service. Shared tens of thousands of times on thesocial networks, thishumorous ambigram made thebuzz via several French,[103] Belgian[104][105] and Swiss[102]medias.
Ambigrams are regularly used bycommunication agencies such asPublicis to engage the reader or the consumer through two-way messages.[106]Thus, in 2021, male first names transformed into female first names are included in a Swissadvertising campaign aimed at raising awareness aboutgender equality. An intriguingcatchphrase typography upside down invites the reader to rotate the magazine, in which the first names "Michael" or "Peter" are transformed into "Nathalie" or "Alice".[107][108]
In 2015 iSmart's logo on one of its travelchargers wentviral because the brand's name turned out to be a natural ambigram that read "+Jews!" upside down. The company noted that "...we learned a powerful lesson of what not to do when creating alogo."[109]
Cinema posters sometimes seduce observers with ambigram titles, such as that ofTenet byChristopher Nolan, by central symmetry.[27]orAnna byLuc Besson around a vertical axis,[110][111]
_-_comics_The_Upside_Downs_of_Little_Lady_Lovekins_and_Old_Man_Muffaroo_-_At_the_house_of_the_writing_pig.jpg)
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The American artist and writerPeter Newell published arotational ambigram in 1893 saying "Puzzle / The end" in the book containingreversible illustrationsTopsys & Turvys.[31]
In March 1904 the Dutch-Americancomic artistGustave Verbeek used ambigrams in three consecutive strips ofThe UpsideDowns of old man Muffaroo and little lady Lovekins.[33] His comics wereambiguous images, made in such a way that one could read the six-panel comic, flip the book and keep reading. InThe Wonderful Cure of the Waterfall (13 March 1904) an Indian medicine man says 'Big waters would make her very sound', while when flipped the medicine man turns into an Indian woman who says 'punos dery, ery apew poom, serlem big'. Which is explained as, 'poor deary' several foreign words that meant that she would call the 'Serlem Big'. The next comic calledAt the House of the Writing Pig (20 March 1904), where two ambigram wordballoons are featured. The first features an angry pig trying to make the main protagonist leave by showing a sign that says; 'big boy go away, dis am home of mr h hog', up side down it reads 'Boy yew go away. We sip. Home of hog pig.' The protagonist asks the pig if it wants a big bun, upon which it replies 'Why big buns? Am mad u!', which flips into 'In pew we sang big hym'. Finally inThe Bad Snake and the Good Wizard (1904 Mar 27) there are two more ambigrams. The first turns 'How do you do' into the name of a wizard called 'Opnohop Moy', the second features a squirrel telling the protagonist 'Yes further on' only to inform it that there are 'No serpents here' on his way back. In a 2012 Swedish remake of the book,[112] the artist Marcus Ivarsson redrawsThe Bad Snake and the Good Wizard in his own style. He removes the squirrel, but keeps the other ambigram. 'How do you do' is replaced by 'Nejnej' (Swedish for no) and the wizard is now called 'Laulau'.
Media related toAmbigrams by Gustave Verbeek at Wikimedia Commons.
Oubapo,workshop of potentialcomic book art, is acomics movement which believes in the use offormalconstraints to push the boundaries of the medium.Étienne Lécroart,cartoonist, is a founder and key member of Oubapo association, and has composed cartoons that could be read either horizontally, vertically, or in diagonal, and vice versa, sometimes including appropriate ambigrams.[113]
The Britishpainter, designer and illustratorRex Whistler, published in 1946 a rotational ambigram "¡OHO!" for the cover of a book gatheringreversible drawings.[114]
The artistJohn Langdon, specialist of ambigrams,[75] designed many colorpaintings featuring ambigrams of all kinds, figure-ground, rotational, mirror or totem. Among other influences, he particularly admiresM. C. Escher'sdrawings.[115]
The Canadian artist Kelly Klages painted severalacrylics oncanvas with ambigram words and sentences referring to famous writers' novels written byWilliam Shakespeare orAgatha Christie, such asThird Girl,The Tempest,After the Funeral,The Hollow, Reformation,Sherlock Holmes, andElephants Can Remember.[116]
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The Germanconceptual artistMia Florentine Weiss built a sculptural ambigramLove Hate [de],[117] that has traveled Europe as a symbol of peace and change of perspective.[118] Depending on which side the viewer looks at it, the sculpture says "Love" or "Hate". A similar concept was installed in front of theReichstag building inBerlin with the words "Now / Won". Both sculptures are mirror type ambigrams, symmetrical around a vertical axis.[119]
The Swiss sculptorMarkus Raetz made several three-dimensional ambigram works, featuring words generally with related meanings, such asYES-NO (2003),[120]ME-WE (2004, 2010),[121]OUI-NON (2000–2002) in French,[122][123]SI–NO (1996)[124]and TODO-NADA (1998) in Spanish[125][126]These areanamorphic works, which change in appearance depending on the angle of view of the observer.The OUI–NON ambigram is installed on the Place du Rhône, inGeneva,Switzerland, at the top of a metal pole. Physically, the letters have the appearance of iron twists. With the perspective, this work demonstrates that reality can beambiguous.[123]
Some ambigram sculptures by the French conjurerFrancis Tabary [fr] are reversible by a half-turn rotation, and can therefore be exhibited on a support in two different ways.[127][128]
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One of the most dynamic sectors that harbors ambigrams istattooing. Because they possess two ways of reading, ambigram tattoos inked on the skin benefit from a "mind-blowing" effect. On the arm,sleeve tattoosflip upside-down, on the back or jointly on two wrists they are more striking with amirror symmetry. A large range ofscripts andfonts is available. Experienced ambigram artists can create anoptical illusion with a complexvisual design.[129]
In 2015, an ambigramtattoo wentviral following anadvertising campaign developed by thePublicis group two years earlier. TheSamaritans of Singapore organization, active in suicide prevention, has a 180° reversible "SOS" ambigram logo,acronym of its name andhomonym of the famousSOS distress signal.In 2013, this center orders advertisements that could be inserted in magazines to make readers aware of the problem ofdepression among young people, and the communication agency notices the symmetrical aspect of the logo. As a result, it begins to produce several ambigrammatic visuals, staged in photographic contexts, where sentences such as "I'm fine", "I feel fantastic" or "Life is great" turn into "Save me", "I'm falling apart", and "I hate myself". Readers noticing this logo placed at the upper left corner of the page with an upside-down typographicalcatchphrase rotate the newspaper and visualize the double calligraphed messages, which call out with theSOS.[106][130]These ads are so influential that Bekah Miles, an American student herself coming out of a severe depression, chooses to use the "I'm fine / Save me" ambigram to get a tattoo on her thigh. Posted on Facebook, the two-sided photography immediately appeals to many young people, impressed or sensitive to this difficulty.[131][132]To educate its students,George Fox University in the United States then relays the optical illusion in its official journal, through a video totaling more than three million views[133] and the information is also reproduced in several local media and international organizations, thus helping to popularize this famous two-way tattoo.[134][135]Less fortunate, another teenage girl, aged 16, committed suicide, with her also this ambigram found on a note in her room, "I'm fine / Save me", reversible calligraphy today printed on badges and bracelets, for educational purposes.[136]
Ambigrams are sorts ofvisualpalindromes.[137] Some words turn upside down, others are symmetrical through a mirror. Natural ambigram palindromes exist, like the words "wow", "malayalam"[138] (Dravidian language), or the biotechnology companyNoxxon that possesses apalindromic name associated to a rotational ambigram logo. But some words are natural ambigrams, though not palindromes in the literary acception, like "bud" for example, because b and d are different letters. As a result, some words and sentences are good candidates for ambigrammists, but not for palindromists, and reciprocally, since theconstraints differ slightly. Authors of ambigrams also benefit from a certain flexibility by playing on thetypeface andgraphical adjustments to influence the reading of their visual palindromes.
Oulipo,workshop of potential literature, seeks to create works usingconstrained writing techniques.[13]Georges Perec, French novelist and member of the Oulipo group, designed a rotational ambigram, that he called "vertical palindrome".[15] Sibylline, the sentence "Andin Basnoda a une épouse qui pue" in French means "Andin Basnoda has a smelly wife". Perec did not care about punctuation spaces, but hiscreation flips easily with a classical font likeArial.
Visual palindromes sometimes perfectly illustrate literary contents. The American authorDan Brown incorporatedJohn Langdon's designs into the plot of his bestsellerAngels & Demons, and his fictional characterRobert Langdon's surname was a homage to theambigram artist.[139]
The fantasy novelAbarat, written and illustrated byClive Barker, features an ambigram of the title on its cover.[140]
Acalligram is text arranged in such a way that it forms a thematically related image. It can be a poem, a phrase, a portion ofscripture, or a single word. The visual arrangement can rely on certain use of thetypeface,calligraphy orhandwriting. The image created by the words illustrates the text by expressing visually what it says, or something closely associated.
InIslamic calligraphy, symmetrical calligrams appear in ancient and modern periods, forming mirror ambigrams inArabic language.[30]
The word "OK" turned 90°counterclockwise evokes a human icon, with the letter O forming the head and the letter K the arms and the legs. The Norwegian Climbing ClubOslo Klatreklubb [no] (acronym "OK") borrowed the concept of this naturalcalligram for their official logo.[141]
As described byDouglas Hofstadter, ambigrams arevisual puns having two or more (clear)interpretations aswritten words.[4]
Multilingual ambigrams can be read one way in alanguage, and another way in a different language oralphabet.[42]Multi-lingual ambigrams can occur in all of the various types of ambigrams, with multi-lingual perceptual shift ambigrams being particularly striking.
Like certainanagrams with providential meanings such as "Listen / Silent" or "The eyes / They see", ambigrams also sometimes take on a timely sense, for example "up" becomes the abbreviation "dn", very naturally by rotation of 180°.[142]But on the other hand, it happens that the luck of the letters makes things bad. This is the case with the weird anagram "Santa / Satan", as it is with a rotational ambigram that has goneviral because of theparadoxical and unintentional message it expresses. Spotted in 2015 on a metal medal marketed without bad intention, the text "hope" displays upside down with a fairly obvious reading "Adolf". This coincidence photographed by an Internet user was relayed by several media and constitutes anambiguous image.[143][144]
Recreational mathematics is carried out forentertainment rather than as a strictly research and application-based professional activity.[62] An ambigrammagic square exists, with the sums of the numbers in each row, each column, and both main diagonals the same right side up and upside down (180° rotational design). Numeral ambigrams also associate with alphabet letters. A "dissection" ambigram of "squaring the circle" was achieved in a puzzle where each piece of the word "circle" fits inside a perfect square.[4]
Burkard Polster, professor of mathematics inMelbourne[145] conducted researches on ambigrams and published several books dealing with the topic, includingEye Twisters, Ambigrams & Other Visual Puzzles to Amaze and Entertain.[146] In the abstractMathemagical Ambigrams, Polster performs several ambigrams closely related to his realm, like the words "algebra", "geometry", "math", "maths", or "mathematics".[4]
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| Message written with thedigits "07734" upside down. |
Calculator spelling is anunintended characteristic of theseven-segment display traditionally used bycalculators, in which, when read upside-down, the digits resemble letters of theLatin alphabet. Also,palindromic numbers andstrobogrammatic numbers sometimes attract attention of mathematician ambigrammists.[55][54]
Ambigramtessellations and3D ambigrams are two types particularly fun for the mathematician ingeometry. Wordpatterns in tessellations can start from 35 different fundamentalpolygons, such as therhombus, theisoscelesright triangle, or theparallelogram.[47]
Word puzzles are used as a source ofentertainment, but can additionally serve aneducational purpose. The Americanpuzzle designerScott Kim published several ambigrams inScientific American inMartin Gardner's"Mathematical Games" column, among them long sentences like"Martin Gardner's celebration ofmind" turning into "Physics, patterns andprestidigitation".[147]
Legibility is an important aspect in successful ambigrams. It concerns the ease with which a reader decodes symbols. If the message is lost or difficult to perceive, an ambigram does not work.[8] Readability is related toperception, or how our braininterprets the forms we see through our eyes.[148]
Symmetry in ambigrams generally improves the visual appearance of thecalligraphic words.[38]Hermann Rorschach, inventor of theRorschach Test notices that asymmetric figures are rejected by many subjects. Symmetry supplies part of the necessary artistic composition.[149]
For manyamateurs, designing ambigrams represents arecreational activity, whereserendipity can play a fertile role, when the author makes an unplanned fortunate discovery.[4][34]
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In the word "ambigram", the rootambi- means "both" and is a popular prefix in aworld of dualities, such as day/night, left/right, birth/death, good/evil.[150] InWordplay: The Philosophy, Art, and Science of Ambigrams,[151]John Langdon mentions theyin and yang symbol as one of his major influences to create upside down words.
Ambigrams are mentioned inMetamagical Themas, an eclectic collection of articles thatDouglas Hofstadter wrote for thepopular science magazineScientific American during the early 1980s.[9]
Seeking the balance point ofanalogies is anaesthetic exercise closely related to the aesthetically pleasing activity of doing ambigrams, where shapes must be concocted that are poised exactly at the midpoint between twointerpretations. But seeking the balance point is far more than just aesthetic play; it probes the very core of how people perceiveabstractions, and it does so without their even knowing it. It is a crucial aspect ofCopycat research.[9]
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Inmagic, ambigrams work likevisual illusions, revealing an unexpected new message from a particular written word.[153]
In the first series of the British showTrick or Treat, the show's host and creatorDerren Brown uses cards with rotational ambigrams.[154][155] These cards can read either 'Trick' or 'Treat'.
Ambiguous images, of which ambigrams are a part, cause ambiguity in different ways. For example, by rotational symmetry, as in the Illusion ofThe Cook byGiuseppe Arcimboldo (1570);[156] sometimes by afigure-ground ambivalence as inRubin vase; by perceptual shift as in therabbit–duck illusion, or throughpareidolias; or again, by the representation ofimpossible objects, such asNecker cube orPenrose triangle. For all these types of images, certain ambigrams exist, and can be combined withvisuals of the same type.
John Langdon designed afigure-ground ambigram "optical illusion" with the two words "optical" and "illusion", one forming the figure and the other the background. "Optical" is easier to see initially but "illusion" emerges with longer observation.[157]
Adidas marketed a line ofsneakers called "Bounce", with an ambigramtypography printed inside the shoe.
Several clothing brands, such asHelly Hansen (HH),Under Armour (UA), orNew Man [fr], raise an ambigram logo as their visualidentity.[79]
Mirror ambigrams are also sometimes placed onT-shirts,towels andhats, whilesocks are more adapted to rotational ambigrams. Theconceptual artistMia Florentine Weiss marketed T-shirts and other products with her mirror ambigramLove Hate [de].[158][118]Likewise, the city ofVentura in California sells sweatshirts, caps, jackets, and other fashion accessories printed with its rotational ambigram logo.[159]
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TheCD cover of the thirteenth studio albumFuneral by American rapperLil Wayne features a 180° rotational ambigram reading "Funeral / Lil Wayne".[160]
Thespecial edition paper sleeve (CD with DVD) of the solo albumChaos and Creation in the Backyard byPaul McCartney features an ambigram of the singer's name.[161]
TheGrateful Dead have used ambigrams several times, including on their albumsAoxomoxoa[162] andAmerican Beauty.[163]
Although the words spelled by most ambigrams are relatively short in length, oneDVD cover forThe Princess Bride movie creates a rotational ambigram out of two words "Princess Bride", whether viewed right side up or upside down.[164]
The cover of the studio albumCreate/Destroy/Create by rock bandGoodnight, Sunrise is an ambigram composition constituted of two invariant words, "create" and "destroy", designed by Polish artist Daniel Dostal.[165]
The reversibleshot glass containing a changing message "Drink / Drunk", created by thetypographerMark Simonson was manufactured and sold in the market.[74]
The concept of reversible sign that some merchants use through their windows to indicate that the store is sometimes "open", sometimes "closed", was inaugurated at the beginning of the 2000s, by a rotational ambigram "Open / Closed" developed by David Holst.[43]
Different ambigramartists, sometimes calledambigrammists,[9][166] may create distinctive ambigrams from the same words, differing in bothstyle andform.
There are no universal guidelines for creating ambigrams, and differentways of approaching problems coexist.A number of books suggestmethods forcreation, includingWordPlay,[75]Eye Twisters,[146] andAmbigrams Revealed,[38] in English.
Computerized methods toautomatically create ambigrams have been developed.[167][168]
John Langdon andScott Kim each believed that they had invented ambigrams in the 1970s.[169]
Douglas Hofstadter coined the term.[4]
To explain visually the numerous types of possible ambigrams, Hofstadter created many pieces with different constraints and symmetries.[170] Hofstadter has had several exhibitions of his artwork in various university galleries.[171][172]
According toScott Kim, Hofstadter once created a series of 50 ambigrams on the name of all the states in the US.[173]
In 1987 a book of 200 of his ambigrams, together with a long dialogue with his alter ego Egbert G. Gebstadter on ambigrams andcreativity, was published in Italy.[5][12]
John Langdon is aself-taughtartist,graphic designer andpainter, who started designing ambigrams in the late 1960s and early 70s.Lettering specialist, Langdon is a professor oftypography andcorporate identity atDrexel University inPhiladelphia.[174]
John Langdon produced a mirror image logo "Starship" in 1972-1973,[175][176] that was sold to the rock bandJefferson Starship.
Langdon's ambigram bookWordplay was published in 1992. It contains about 60 ambigrams. Each design is accompanied by a brief essay that explores the word's definition, its etymology, its relationship to philosophy and science, and its use in everyday life.[75]
Ambigrams became more popular as a result ofDan Brown incorporating John Langdon's designs into the plot of his bestseller,Angels & Demons, and the DVD release of theAngels & Demons movie contains a bonus chapter called "This is an Ambigram". Langdon also produced the ambigram that was used for some versions of the book's cover.[169] Brown used the nameRobert Langdon for the hero in his novels as an homage to John Langdon.[139][177]
Blacksmith Records, the music management company andrecord label, possesses a rotational ambigram logo[178] designed by John Langdon.[179]
Scott Kim is one of the best-known masters of the art of ambigrams.[78] He is an Americanpuzzle designer andartist who published in 1981 a book calledInversions with ambigrams of many types.[18][177]
Nikita Prokhorov is agraphic designer,lettering artist and ambigram designer. His bookAmbigrams Revealed showcases ambigram designs of all types, from all around the world.[38][180]
Born in 1946,Alain Nicolas is a specialist of figurative and ambigramtessellations. In his book, he performed many tilings with various words like "infinity", "Einstein" or "inversion" legible in many orientations.[47] According toThe Guardian, Nicolas has been called "the world's finest artist ofEscher-styletilings".[181]
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