Sunday, March 8, 2009

Rendezvous with Ambigrams

Ambigram - ambi means bi and gram means word
The first ambigram i came across was 'Illuminati' . People from abmigram world would know the origin of this word. But for the people who don't know the origin of this word let me tell you where this has come from.This word has come from the famous book 'Angels and Demons' written by Dan Brown. John Langdon was the creator of this Ambigram. John Langdon is by far the best ambigram designer i have ever come across.He has created the famous Illuminati diamond consisting of four words Fire,Earth,Water and Air.







The Origin

Ambigrams have been independently invented by a number of artists. According to John Langdon, ambigrams were independently invented by himself and by Scott Kim in the 1970s. Langdon and Kim are probably the two artists who have been most responsible for their popularization, but other artists, notably Robert Petrick, who designed the Angel logo, claim to be independent inventors. Some earlier ambigrams are known, but each of the artists created those ambigrams created only one or a few.


My Motivation

I read angels and Demon's and was instantly fascinated by this art and developed a special interest about this art.Firstly i started creating these on paper and created a lot of ambigrams.But then i was always confused by the fact of uploading them on pc or creating them digitally.

I tried to create them using Ms Paint but it had a lot of limitations.Then i came across a blog from a ambigramist Nikita Prokhorov and got lot of suggestions on how to create them.

Initially it was a little hard to create them.I couldn't innovate much.My imagination was also limited.But I found a wonderful site named wowtattos.com.Mark Palmer a leading ambigram tattoo artist is the author of this website.He has some pre-created custom designs which are really fascinating and eye-catching. This Site got my thoughts rolling and i started to innovate in my designs. I started finding words which were easy to convert to a ambigram. The more i created ambigrams more comfortable i got with words.

The key to creating ambigrams is just playing with words.You need to be comfortable with words.For instance when i look at a word, i visualize that word upside down in my mind. Then i have a raw design of that word.Anybody can create ambigrams it is just a matter of practice

I think design of an ambigram is the perception of the creator. It is not mandatory that the viewer will have the same perception.Some of the ambigrams that are created by professionals are abstruse.They have a design in their mind and they put it on paper.The beauty is revealed when we keenly decipher the design.At that point of time we are amazed by the perception of the creator.So a person new to the ambigram world may not understand that word in the first go until and unless the design is pretty clear.

So people who are keen to jump into this art are welcome.

You can drop in a mail to prajyot.ambigrams@gmail.com or jotorqued@gmail.com.


I am uploading some of my ambigrams,please put in your views about the ambigrams.
1) Tryst
2) God

3) Zenith

4)Nadir


5) yash


6) Ajit



7) Life


8) Machine

9) Rock On


10) Inspire


11) Survive


12) Mystry 13) Music