Hello my friend, I have some good news.

 

Hello Vassilis, what news?

 

We’ve found a new way of reading things. Which means, we’ve found a new type of ambigram.

 

What do you mean by a new way of reading things? Can you explain?

 

Remember in the previous chapter we discussed how we take several things for granted and how we take advantage of this in order to create new types of ambigrams?

 

Yes, I remember that figure-ground ambigrams exploit an unknown way of reading, that is reading black on white, but at the same time we can read white on black, using the negative space.

 

That’s correct. Now, can you imagine what other standard we have set and are not able to deviate from?

 

Hm… No, can you give me a hint, please?

 

Yes, it’s about the direction we read. You see, we normally read from left to right, and from top to bottom. Of course, there are some languages where it’s the opposite, such as Arabic, Hebrew etc, but the point is that there is a standard way of reading in each language.

 

Now, look at this typographic poster, by Mark Gowing.

 

 

For some reason, we read Fishing. And that’s what the artist intended for us to read. But, even though it’s a single word, its letters are spread apart. Yet, our mind reads the word easily.

 

Right, I see this, but what does this have to do with ambigrams?

 

Let me show you some more examples like this and I’ll get to it. Here is “il vento” (the air) by Monica Fratesi, “Dark” by Sam Steiner and “Anesthetize” by Berkay Taş.

 

 

All of the posters above have a unique goal. To guide you read the letters in the correct order.

 

I see. These are great pieces, but I wonder how they relate to ambigrams.

 

Now, before we dive in, let me reiterate. We can read typographic pieces even if the letters are not in order. That’s the standard we are going to completely exploit and create amazing pieces!

 

And that’s how we can create…

   Arrangement ambigrams 

 

Here’s a piece by Vassilis, what do you read?

 

 

It’s CORAL. Oh… It’s CAROL! It’s corals singing carols. It’s both!

 

You’re right. Let’s take a look at what happens here.

 

As we said, we usually read from left to right, and from top to bottom. When you saw the piece, you started reading the C. Then, there are two possibilities. You would either jump all the way to the right and read the A. Then the R, O and L. So you would have read CAROL. Or, after you started reading the C, you would jump all the way to the bottom and go for the O. Then the same for R, A and L, to read CORAL.

 

Here’s another one, by John Langdon.

 

 

It’s rose.

 

Oh! And it’s Eros! Amazing!

 

See what John did there? Putting R on the top guided you to read Rose at first. But he also put E on the left, so you read Eros.

 

I love this!

 

I love that our minds are capable of finding multiple ways of arranging seemingly random things. In this case, letters.

 

That’s cool. Are there more pieces like this?

 

It’s an unknown type of ambigram, and I couldn’t find more pieces. So I created some.

 

 

Is this an iced dice? Cool…

 

Literally! Here’s another one for our Spanish and Italian friends.

 

 

I see, the hands of Mona lisa. That’s Mano and Mona.

 

You’re right. Here’s a piece with many letters.

 

 

Eleven + two? 13. Ok, but where…? Oh! Twelve + one? You’re kidding me!

 

I had the same reaction when I read about this anagram couple. Amazing, right? 

 

Yes! So, arrangement ambigrams are actually anagrams? Why are we calling them ambigrams?

 

It’s simple, my friend. Remember what an ambigram is? It’s a typographic piece of art that has at least two ways of being read. And that’s exactly what’s happening here. These pieces show letters here and there, and the viewer arranges them and reads both interpretations.

 

The clever thing here is that the artists do not play with the form of the characters themselves, as in other ambigram types, but with how he guides the viewer to read what he wants.

 

I get it. But, are they anagrams?

 

The words that appear on the pieces we saw are anagrams. But the piece as a whole is an ambigram. An arrangement ambigram. Let me break it down for you.

 

Here’s a piece of mine. I mean, literally a piece of mine, because I’m the one in the image.

 

 

That’s silent. And listen. I know this anagram pair. In order to listen, you must be silent.

 

That’s right. But we do not analyze it further if words fit nicely together. Silent-listen works nicely as a pair, eleven+two and twelve+one works as well, but an iced dice… man… what was I thinking? Whatever, back to our image. What do you read?

 

I told you. Silent and listen.

 

Something else?

 

No, that’s it.

 

That’s good. Because the piece is meant to be read in these two ways. Specifically, if you take a top to bottom path, you will read ‘silent’. If, on the other hand, you read from left to right, you will read ‘listen’.

 

But there’s no way of reading ‘tinsel’. Or ‘inlets’. Or ‘enlist’.

 

So?

 

So, the words used in an arrangement ambigram may be anagrams, but the piece itself is not. If it was, you would read all of the anagrams: silent, listen, tinsel, inlets, enlist or even intels. It uses the letters strategically in order for the viewer to read the exact words.

I get it now. I’d like to try to create my own arrangement pieces.

 

Give it a go, my friend! This is a great exercise.

 

So, as far the mind category map goes, where is this type placed?

 

Interpreting the way letters are in order gets right under… well… here.

 

 

I’m so happy the map is expanding.

 

I share your feelings, my friend. I’m happy as well.

 

So, where are we heading in our next chapter?

 

Hold on. I can’t tell you exactly, but we’ll be here, in the mind category.

 

That’s another way of interpreting things?

 

Well, yes.

 

Can you tell me more?

 

No.

 

Oh!

 

Come on my friend, squeeze your mind a little bit. We saw how our minds can read not only in black on white (figure-grounds), and not only in a standard way (i.e. left to right). What other standards are there that we take for granted? Take those, and turn them into opportunities.

No matter if you’re squeezing your mind or not, drop a message at [email protected] if you have an idea of what’s going to be on our next chapter.

 

If it’s the first time for you here, and you’re excited about what you learned today, you can write you name and email below. The ones who did, learn the news quicker. Piece!