The Art & Science of the Ambigram

Hey dudes, I'm taking a break from studying for a moment to post.

Now may not be the best moment to post about the art & science of the ambigram as I'm not in the state of mind to write a coherent post, but since when was that a problem? I'll edit this post later (so there).

So folks, I'll give you here some tips on how to go about creating your own ambigram.

Well, a good place to start is to think of a word to ambigram. Like maybe: "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" (I have done it, but it's freaking atrocious). OK, maybe not, but your name, friend's names and nicknames are always a good place to start, unless their name is really long. 'DOG' is really easy to ambigram, "Wordplay" is also quite easy. Just don't choose something naturally symmetric like "MOW". But remember, short doesn't mean easy.

Or you can choose two words to flip unto each other. It is no harder than a regular ambigram if both words are of the same length, but much more difficult if the two words are vastly different in length.

Next step: Write the word down just so you won't do something really stupid like misspell the word as you go along ambigramming. If need be, write the word again upside down so you know what it looks like that way. You might want to write the word in UPPERCASE too.

That was easy, now comes the hard part. You try to make the word look like it does upside down. Somehow. This can take anywhere from 5 - 20 mins for me. When you are done, this is your first draft. If you're stuck for a particular letter combination the ambigram.matic is here to help (it gives crap results, but whatever). Don't be too discouraged if you can't get past this step. You can try different types of symmetry, or maybe variations of the word.

The good thing is, you only need to do half the word unless it's a two word reflectional ambigram. Now, just turn the half-word over to complete the ambigram.

Next step... The longest one... Tweak... tweak... tweak... to make it as legible as possible. And tadah! That was an ambigram.

That was the basics. Now, here comes the more advanced part--

What makes a good ambigram?

Well, a good ambigram must meet the following criteria in order of importance:

1) Symmetry - this is what makes it an ambigram in the first place!

2) Legibility - Ambigrams are words, and words need to be legible (i.e. readable). A good ambigram should not look like runes or scrawling or something, it should look like a word. Most of the time, legibility is sacrificed for symmetry.

3) Aesthetics - Also known as the 'prettiness' of the ambigram. Most ambigrams don't fulfil the second criteria, let alone this one. Some ambigrammists though would use aesthetics to compensate for the lack of legibility. Aesthetics could refer to the 'appropriateness' of the script for the word, and the feel for the ambigram itself. Rounder scripts are more feminine, while more geometric scripts are more mechanical.

Some tips I figured or gathered over the years. I'll post examples some other time.

For symmetry:

1) Know letter thy letter forms. Some letters can take on several forms, like 'a'. Observe posters, signage etc... to determine accepted letterforms. 'g' is also a good example. Pairing appropriate forms could ease the creation process. Maybe one of the reasons I'm good at ambigramming comes from the fact I have bad handwriting. ;)

2) Learn from others. There's plenty you can learn from others, even those whom you think are bad... Just google 'ambigram'. It doesn't hurt.

Well, the established masters in any case are:
John Langdon and Scott Kim

Punya Mishra and Robert Maitland also have tonnes of ambigrams, and thus you're bound to learn a thing or two from them.

And then there's me :)

3) Some letters are naturally symmetric, like o, s, z and N. Try to map them unto themselves. Other letters pair nicely like: p/d, w/m.

4) Don't be restricted by 1-1 mapping. Some letters like 'M' just beg to be abused. You can stuff up to 4 other letters into them. Some letters can be mapped into two other letters.

Also, there is this thing called 'fluorish' (decorations and extra strokes), it begs to be abused, too, but suspicious fluorish detracts from aesthetics.

For legibility:

1) Kerning, otherwise known as spacing between letters should be approximately constant. Check this out:

kerning
k e r n i n g
ke rn in g

Obviously the first two are more legible than the last one, but that's not even an ambigram. It's type. What more if it is an ambigram?

2) Baseline. The baseline, the imaginary line the words are upon should be approximately straight. Wavy ones are OK, but not too much. But hey, you have artistic licence.

3) Weight. Certain strokes of letters can be made darker and thicker to give it more weight.

4) Serifs and fluorish. These give direction to the letters and help lead the viewer's eye.

5) Proportion, well, try to keep the ambigrammed letters pretty much proportional. It doesn't have to be exactly proportionate, but it has to seem that way to the viewer.

6) Size matters. Try to keep your letters roughly the same size.

7) Eliminate parallel diagonal strokes. Well, this tidies up the ambigram some. Turn it into a ligature if need be. That's one of the reasons that makes my 'Dawn' ambigram beautiful. If you don't think so, try generating the same ambigram on the ambigram.matic.

I would say the first and last letters of the ambigram would be exceptions to the rules above.

For aesthetics:

1) Try not to mix upper and lower case letters. I would give exception to the first letter of the ambigram. Some people consider this as part of legibility but I consider it part of aesthetics.

2) Style, context and consistency. Well, obviously some words are allowed to be 'blobby and organic' while others are allowed to be 'squarish'. Some want the elegance of formal script, while to some words can live with all styles. Obviously you should not mix styles. A square letter cannot be placed next to a round one, and DEFINITELY not next to an organic one. Some words beg for special treatment, like 'Tiger', which I have done to resemble tiger stripes.

3) Learn from existing fonts. Well, obviously if your ambigram resembles an existing font with little deviation, it's gonna be more both more legible and more aesthetic.

Here's a good site:

Font Pool

Good categories of font to abuse into ambigrams are: Blackletter (Carmen), Script(Olivia) and Geometric. Well, this is a pretty recent tip, when I did those ambigrams I was referring to Blackletter as 'the cool font on some Certificates', Script as "bloody fake handwriting" etc... And I didn't even know what the heck a serif was. And the only fonts I ever used were Arial and Times New Roman. But I knew enough to hate comic sans. ;)

As a reward for reading thus far, I give you a 'crapigram'.



"Adeline"

Shh... I think it's trying to communicate.

Okay, maybe I should show you a decent one instead:


"Genetics"

Uh... maybe a better one:



"Debate"

Alright. That's it for now :)