Hello my friend, I’d like to drink a coffee with you. I mean, if I could, I would literally sit next to you and have a conversation about ambigrams.
Hey V. I just made a coffee and started reading Ambigram Horizons. What do you want to talk about?
About ambigrams, in general. What are they? How can we know if a new typographic piece counts as an ambigram? Why are we attracted to some ambigram types more than others?
That’ll be an interesting conversation. Where do we begin? And, haven’t we discussed what an ambigram is already?
We did, yes. I have some new ideas I’d like to discuss. Just to begin, do you remember how we defined an ambigram?
Yes, an ambigram is a typographic piece of art that has at least two ways of being read.
Fantastic. I would say that there is a second definition, that’s the other side of the same coin. And that is “an ambigram is a typographic piece of art that remains readable after a transformation happens”. This is the same as before, but it shows that in order to get the second way of reading, there must be a transformation. Thus, the geometric and mind ambigrams, requiring geometric and mind transformations respectively.
Moreover, studying those transformations is how we get the ambigram types, right?
You’re an excellent student, my friend. The coffee is on me. Now, is the word NOON an ambigram?
Well, yes.
Do you think it’s an interesting ambigram?
Actually, no.
Why?
Because, maybe, it’s natural?
Which means?
Which means that there is not a design choice there. NOON is just a word that has natural rotational symmetry in its letters.
I agree with you, but if I want to challenge you, I would say that you cannot write the word NOON in every typeface and have a rotational ambigram. There are fonts where the N is not symmetrical to itself. So, there is a design choice there.
Well, technically yes. But it’s not an interesting design choice.
That’s right. NOON is a natural ambigram, because we can immediately say that N is symmetrical to itself. It’s obvious. So, shall we disregard words like these as not being ambigrams? I’m talking about NOON, SWIMS, MOM etc.
They are ambigrams, they’re just not interesting.
Why is that, then?
It’s because it’s a matter of finding the right words. Words with symmetrical first and last letters, second and second to last letters, and so on. There is not a letterform manipulation in these natural ambigrams, apart from this minimal font choice. I miss the ‘solving the puzzle’ feeling that’s fun in ambigrams.
Now we’re getting somewhere. So, should there be a letterform manipulation in order to have a good ambigram?
Well, yes.
You’re right… almost. In the majority of the ambigram types we’ve discussed, there has been a letterform manipulation of some sort. But, and this is the interesting part, arrangement ambigrams do not have a letterform manipulation as a prerequisite. Are they not ambigrams, then?
They are. But, they also have a sort of graphic design manipulation. It’s not in the letterforms themselves, but it’s in how the letters are arranged on the canvas instead.
So there is a design choice, along with the word choice.
Exactly!
I see two things here, my friend. There are word choices and design choices. There are easy ambigrams (aka. natural) and there are challenging ambigrams. We are more attracted to the latter ones, pieces that require a certain degree of design manipulation over those with a safe word choice. It’s this element of design decisions that excites us!
I agree with that, V.
Now, having discovered some mind ambigram types that I’ll discuss in the next chapters, I feel that some of them share the same essence as the natural geometric ambigrams. This is, there are mind ambigrams that are natural, if I may say, just like NOON is natural. And I though it will be nice to explore what we find attractive in ambigrams as a piece of art.