Father & Mother | OCT 2006
Written in the sand of Langland Bay on the Gower in South Wales. Go visit!
Gallery
Ambigrams are cunning little typographical gee-gaws, and a concept simultaneously ‘invented’ (if that’s the right word) by Scott Kim and John Langdon. I found Scott’s website several years ago and was fascinated by the idea – and since then I’ve been practising (and getting better!).
This gallery is a growing compendium of my designs to date, and I hope to add a new one each month, if possible. Keep watching!
An ambigram (also known by the more literal moniker ‘inversion’) is a symmetric design that, more often than not, reads the same when turned upside down.
But they don’t just work like that, and if you get thinking, there’s lots of other ways to play tricks with words and typography.
RECENT ADDITIONS
Faith | AUGUST 2006
A simple word and an attractive, ‘swoopy’ design. I like the ‘H’ particularly!
Father’s Day | JUNE 2006
The slightly dodgy readability perhaps means this one could do with a little extra work…
Grid | MAY 2006
A simple design that I scribbled in a few seconds, for no adequately explained reason.
Easter | APRIL 2006
Another seasonal design, that makes use of some with clear, geometric letterforms.
Forty Two | MARCH 2006
The pleasing rty/Tw ligature does the heavy lifting in making this design work.
Masters of Magic | JAN 2006
A complex design, but one that I was never 100% happy with – maybe I'll finish it one day.
Christmas | DECEMBER 2005
A really fun ambigram, with lots of interesting details that create a coherent design.
Bill | NOVEMBER 2005
Fits together very neatly and is suprisingly readable (once it’s been coloured it in, that is).
Neil & Karen | OCTOBER 2005
Particularly pleasing is the inclusion of a fully formed and artfully curly ampersand!
Hartney | SEPTEMBER 2005
These fat and friendly letterforms have a cheerily light-hearted feel to them.
Dominic | AUGUST 2005
An idiosyncratic rotational design which works rather better than it ought to!
Angela | JULY 2005
A patchwork ambigram with simple geometric glyphs layed out on a square grid.
Dan & Ruth | JUNE 2005
A design that turned out very different from how it started, which was a nice surprise!
Perplex City | MAY 2005
If you’ve never heard of Perplex City, then you probably will. And soon.
Thirteen | APRIL 2005
A simple rotational design that achieves some interesting and coherent typography.
OLDER DESIGNS
Brett James Gilbert
Given that this was one of my first attempts at creating an ambigram, it’s not half bad.
Graham
A good example of a basic chain inversion – another early, and successful, design.
Helen
So far the only example of a bilateral inversion (one with mirror symmetry).
Martin
The cursive serifs of this design is a trick I have borrowed from the brilliant Scott Kim.
Lydia
Another chain inversion, but one that used a more cursive and expressive letterform.
Becca & Dave
A double design – two patchwork ambigrams for the price of one!
Samantha
Another rotational inversion, although this one was a little trickier than usual.
Tina & Nick
A rare example of a chain inversion that reads differently in its two orientations.
Margaret & Mark
As with other chain inversions, the trick was to decide which was the crucial letter pairing.
Silas
The fat, cartoon-style letterforms evolved out of the needs of the individual letters.
Maureen
A rather more sophisticated take on the idea of a patchwork ambigram.
Ali
Created for my sister’s birthday, and is an elegant example of a simple inversion.
Rosanna
Each design presents its own challenges – the tricky bit here was making both ‘n’s a success.
James
Another chain inversion, although one with some welcome idiosyncrancy.
Rob & Helen
I wanted to come up with a pure, rotational inversion for the happy couple’s big day.
Andrea
This is something new: the same glyph is used to make all six letters of the name.
