The phrase to the left can be read two ways: right side up and upside down. It’s called an ambigram, and it’s the hottest trend in typography since Helvetica. This one was created by professional puzzle designer http://www.scottkim.com/ Scott Kim, who has worked with invertible text for 35 years. "We’re wired to look for symmetry," he explains. "Ambigrams have an almost mystical quality to them." You can find them on everything from doormats (reading COME IN or GO AWAY, depending on your angle) to tattoos (which are awesome in the mirror) to Angels & Demons (the best-selling novel that hits the big screen on May 15). Here’s a quick tour through the world of ambigrams.
credit Scott Kim
Scott Kim designed this logo for his alma mater in 1990. He studied music and graphic design at Stanford and continued to experiment with ambigrams. In 1981, he released a book-length collection of his unique lettering called http://www.amazon.com/Inversions-Scott-Kim/dp/1559532807/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239149804&sr=8-1 Inversions.
credit Scott Kim
Kim went on to become a professional http://www.scottkim.com/puzzles.html puzzle and http://www.shufflebrain.com/ game designer. He later created this ambigram to celebrate the geek touchstone Tron, about a computer programmer who gets uploaded into a game.
credit Scott Kim
Kim’s ambitious attempt to make an ambigram out of one of the most recognizable logos in the world.
credit The Charles E. Tuttle Company
Ambigrams have been around for more than a century. Peter Newell’s 1893 picture book Topsys & Turvys concluded with an image that read "The End" right side up and "Puzzle" upside down. This is the first known ambigram.
Many of the most visible ambigrams have been names and promotional logos. The brilliant industrial designer http://www.raymondloewy.com/ Raymond Loewy dreamed up this logo for French clothing company New Man in the 1960s. Loewy also designed logos for Shell Gas and Hoover vacuums.
credit Lovember Records
Washington, DC, glam rock outfit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_(band) Angel sported this psychedelic ambigram on its 1977 On Earth as It Is in Heaven album cover. The album art effectively demonstrates that the rockers’ hairdos look just as awesome upside down.
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After rebooting DC’s Justice League in the JLA series in the 1990s, Grant Morrison brought the X-Men back to life with renowned artist Frank Quitely, the illustrator of this ambigram cover. Morrison had a 40-plus issue run, starting with his New X-Men #114 debut.
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Cary Elwes and Robin Wright Penn discover fantasy can be reality on the 20th-anniversary DVD cover of The Princess Bride. The movie’s title is an ambigram, reading correctly in both the right-side-up Westley version and the upside-down Dread Pirate Roberts version.
credit Pocket Books
In Dan Brown’s 2003 novel Angels & Demons, symbologist Robert Langdon must uncover the mystery of a mark burned into the chest of a murdered physicist—in addition to stopping the Illuminati’s not-so-secret blood feud against the Catholic Church. This ambigrammatic cover effectively conveys the idea that Rome has a hidden underbelly.
credit Red Chapter Clothing
Ambigrams have become a fashion accessory. Red Chapter Clothing http://www.redchapterclothing.com/ makes ambigrams wearable and stylish, with stars like Jamie Foxx sporting its designs. The man behind Red Chapter, Mark Palmer, is also a prolific ambigram http://archive.wired.com/culture/art/multimedia/2009/04/https://www.wowtattoos.com/wow/ambigram-tattoo-designs-gallery-one.php tattoo designer.
