ambigrams, palindromes, and perspectives

zonabi — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 03:16:03 +0000

ambigrams, like the one to the left, are words drawn in such a way that they can be rotated around, commonly by 180 degrees, and still be read (they usually say the same thing both ways but that doesnt always have to be the case). pretty amazing stuff let me tell you. the showcased ambigram here was done by famous artist and philosopher john langdon. he is a genius at ambigrams, as is obviously depicted. the close relative of the ambigram, albeit much less visually appealing, is known as the palindrome. these are sentences or words whose comprised letters can be read forward or backward and still spell the same thing. examples of this would be "star rats" or "radar." usually, the longer the sentence the more impressive the palindrome, but theres some short ones that are brilliant. another: "poor dan is in a droop." note that the seperation of letters into words usually doesnt break up the same way when read backwards. both of these unusual ways of viewing letters, language, syntax, and symmetry intrique me deeply; they let you view things from a different and new perspective. not only that, but from a viewpoint of balance and harmony in such a unexpected area: letters and words. they are stronger than most people think or are lead to believe! some other smart palindromes are:

a man, a plan, a canal, panama!

god lived as a devil dog

but the top palindrome, at least in my book, is in spanish. it goes:

’se verlas al reves’

and that translates to: ‘ i know how to see them backwards ‘
i mean, it doesnt get much better than that!

zonabi » design

ambigrams, palindromes, and perspectives