Hello my friend, there’s something missing!

Hey V. What? What’s missing?

It’s us. We’re missing a new Ambigram Horizons installment! Oh, and there’s also something missing from this poster.

Yes, I see it. Or maybe I don’t?

But can you read it?

Of course! It says “we see what we want”.

See? You saw what was intended, even though something is missing. The author (unknown) covered up some parts of the letters, but still, we can read it. In fact, the phrase they used is brilliant, because we don’t see what we want to see, but what the artist wanted us to see.

The same happens with this piece by Mustafa Ömerli. Can you read it?

Sure. It says “imagine”.

Good. Here are some more pieces that we can read, even if there are some parts missing.

It’s “Destruction” by Bansri Thakkar, “Live with less” by Chiara Cavagion and “Berlin” by Nathan Godding.

These are great pieces. But what do they have to do with ambigrams?

You see, our minds can fill the gaps in each piece and reconstruct the initial form of the letters.

So?

So, we can take advantage of this mind ability and create some cool…

   Fill the gap ambigrams 

Like this one, by me!

Hey, that’s a nice dress. It’s a press dress. Cool!

You know why it’s cool? Because a part of the first letter is hidden, so we can imagine either a D or a P there. Of course, the woman wearing this newspaper dress leads you to read ‘dress’ and/or ‘press’.

That’s an interesting idea, right there!

That’s right. Or…. that’s light?

Wow!

Hehe, I’m glad you like it my friend. I like it too! I’ll be sitting on the beach all summer long, drawing ‘fill the gap’ ambigrams eating my favourite fruits. Grapes, strawberries, peaches… wait a minute! Here’s another one.

I see what you did there. So, ‘fill the gap’ ambigrams work by using an object in front of a letter in order to hide a part of it and create ambiguity?

It doesn’t have to be an object, actually. You can create a piece that justifies those hidden parts. Like this one.

This reads ‘mature’, right? Oh! I can see ‘nature’ as well! How does this work?

It’s easy. In these two words, nature and mature, the ‘fill the gap’ effect must take place in the first glyph. Uppercase N and M share a lot of their strokes. I used some of their common strokes and left some gaps on purpose. In order to justify those gaps, I used them in all the letters.

Oh yeah! Can you show me some more?

Here’s another one, using those gaps.

So, did the pilot choose the fast route or the east route?

It’s up to you to fill this ‘gap’. But I know a detail that I used in order for you to read both ‘fast’ and ‘east’. Had I not used an E in the piece, you’ld probably read just ‘fast route’. But, in order to be sure that this upper part of F can also be read as an E, I used the same glyph in the word ‘the’ in the beginning. It’s subtle, but having used this plus a lot of Es in the phrase lead you read ‘east route’ as well.

I get it now. In order to create such an ambigram, I must somehow occlude a part of a letter. I can either put an object in front of it or create gaps in all of the letters.

You are a clever person, my friend. There’s so many creative ways to do this! I’ll show you a couple of methods I found. Here’s a piece where I’ve thrown the letters out of the canvas.

Oh… a blue blur.

Or you can use just the shadows of the letters, like this one.

Is this a Mall? Or Mali? Or Male?

It’s all of them. We’re not restricted to just two words. You can have multiple reads if you use ‘missing’ parts smartly. And you’re smart, don’t forget it.

I’m so excited about this! So… is there more?

More? In this chapter, we’re talking about ‘less’ my friend. We’re talking about limit-less possibilities, that will be flaw-less if justified right, which will leave the viewers breath-less.

I see what you did there, V. So, this ambigram type is undoubtedly a mind ambigram. But where shall we put it? I’m lost. I’m… how can I say it… map-less.

Now I see what you did there… That was a good one, my friend. Here’s the mind category of ambigrams.

‘Fill the gap’ ambigrams fall under the interpretation sub-category, for sure. First of all, we don’t focus somewhere specifically in order for these ambigrams to work. What we do instead is imagine, or interpret what these ‘gaps’ are and we just… well… fill the gap.

That’s amazing! I learnt something new.

Give it a go! I can’t wait to see what you’re about to create.

I’ll definitely try it, Vassilis. But now I’m curious. What’s the next chapter about?

Don’t rush, my friend. Give yourself time to relax, absorb, experiment and distill this type. You’ll see in a while. We’ve explored so little in this green horizon. Plus, there is some theory that I want us to talk about. And there’s more in the blue horizon, the geometric ambigrams. Plus there is…

Director: CUT!

D: Remember that you made a promise not to give away too much, V?

V: Oh, yes I do. I just can’t wait.

And if you are just like me, and you can’t wait for the next chapter to come up into your email, there is this form down below. Put your name and email and you’ll be the first to know about what other ambigrams types are there.

Did I say that you can always write to [email protected] if you have an idea of what’s going on next? I see people reading, but I don’t see people writing.