Ambigram Fever
Seeing a lot of threads about ambigram lately makes me feel itch to show mine as well. So here they are, some oldies but goodies.
MAM, short for Merdeka Ataoe Mati:
http://merdekaataoemati.com/works/dec08/entry02/01.swf
http://merdekaataoemati.com/works/dec08/entry02/08.swf
http://merdekaataoemati.com/works/dec08/entry02/10.swf
jimmy AND/OR minim:
http://merdekaataoemati.com/works/dec08/entry03/01.swf
DIK, short for Design Is Kinky (a contest submission):
http://merdekaataoemati.com/works/dec08/entry12/02.swf
MEW:
http://merdekaataoemati.com/works/jan09/entry04/01.swf
PS: You can zoom, rotate or mirror them if you view them on my site.




2.Aug.2009 2.16pm
Well, I don't want to be harsh but the only ambigrams here are the DIK and MEW.
Ambigrams are words that after rotating them 180 degrees look the same... None of MAM symbols does that, neither jimmy (even though I like it most).
And besides - it probably wasn't very hard to make a MEW ambigram, huh? ;)
If I'm wrong - let me know. I'm not 100% sure...
- Filip Łysyszyn
2.Aug.2009 3.42pm
Yes, indeed. MEW was easy. :D
And, yes, I'm affraid you are wrong. because actually there are many types of ambigrams:
- MAM is a 'mirror-image' ambigram.
- jimmy/minim is a 'mirror-image', 'rotational', 'symbiotogram' and 'natural' ambigram.
2.Aug.2009 4.03pm
Damn. Every day (or night in this case) is a school day:)
Thanks for explaining!
- Filip Łysyszyn
2.Aug.2009 4.08pm
You're welcome. Good luck with your home-schooling. :D
3.Aug.2009 8.52am
Well, if people are showing their ambigrams, here are a few I have on DeviantArt...
valentine
charlotte
Beijing Olympics
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Ever since I chose to block pop-ups, my toaster's stopped working.
3.Aug.2009 1.34pm
"beijing" is elegant!
7.Aug.2009 8.45am
If you're going to talk ambigrams you have to reference the master 'John Langdon' who is credited with inventing them. His site is a great resource of great examples.
----- snip ------
"In the early 70s, trying to do with words what Dali and Escher did with images, I invented (or discovered) what came to be known as "ambigrams." In 1980, I discovered that Scott Kim had invented them, too, almost at the same time."
----- snip ------
John Langdon Website
7.Aug.2009 8.49am
Trying to design an ambigram is a great mental exercise and I'd recommend it to every designer looking for a new challenge in creative thinking. Below are a pair of options I did for a friend who was looking for a tattoo idea.
7.Aug.2009 8.57am
Yeah, I've got his Wordplay book. one of Langdon's students, Dave Bailey, posts on here from time to time.
"Magli", right? Yeah, that's working & has potential.
(I tend to work on ’em just far enough to see that they're working, but then am too lazy to finesse ’em into something beautiful...)
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Ever since I chose to block pop-ups, my toaster's stopped working.
9.Aug.2009 9.36am
I too have ambigram fever
Here are a couple of my own
'matt'
'give/take'
i designed this one for a friend's band called 'antilove'
'shape'
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Read Between the Leading podcast | Pixelspread
9.Aug.2009 10.25am
A thread I started to help clarify ambigrams, palindromes, semordnilaps and pangrams.
@mattmc: Re your give-take piece, I believe you successfully created a hybrid ambigram/semordnilaps. Very impressive.
16.Aug.2009 9.21pm
@Christopher Dean:
Look what Mr. Paul D. Hunt did. :D
17.Aug.2009 11.26am
Yes, I recently noticed this too. But as far as a wiki goes, I actually don't know how to search through it. Am I missing something?
17.Aug.2009 4.26pm
No, you're not. But I've added it to the Typowiki's list of terminologies now.
28.Aug.2009 7.08pm
I've tried my hand at a few of these. Here's my best one.
28.Aug.2009 8.59pm
Great! It's Equinox, right?
31.Aug.2009 6.24pm
Right you are. It seemed like the kind of word that would lend itself well to an ambigram. I developed it for my publishing company back in the day.
9.Sep.2009 11.18am
2 more ambigrams I designed recently
'elite'
'better/worse'
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Read Between the Leading podcast | Pixelspread
9.Sep.2009 9.27am
What does the bottom one say?
9.Sep.2009 10.02am
Better/Worse
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Read Between the Leading podcast | Pixelspread
9.Sep.2009 10.49am
mattmc
"shape" reads to me as "shade." looks like a lowercase h and d
ShAdE
9.Sep.2009 11.11am
I went through a lot of variations with the SHAPE ambigram. there were comprises made (which is kind of the art of ambigram design) but I do think the one posted is the best version of it
adding another stroke to pull the P together looks like:
kind of like 'S4APE'
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Read Between the Leading podcast | Pixelspread
9.Sep.2009 1.03pm
My fav has to be http://www.blacklist.tv/