Ambigram

The word ambigram was coined in 1983 by Douglas Hofstadter, an American scholar of cognitive science best known as the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the book Gödel, Escher, Bach.

Among them, the expressions "vertical palindromes"[13] by Dmitri Borgmann[14] (1965) and Georges Perec,[15][16] "designatures" (1979),[17] "inversions" (1980) by Scott Kim,[18][19] or simply "upside-down words" by John Langdon and Robert Petrick.

In ancient Greek, the phrase "ΝΙΨΟΝ ΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑ ΜΗ ΜΟΝΑΝ ΟΨΙΝ" (wash the sins, not only the face), is a palindrome found in several locations, including the site of the church Hagia Sophia in Turkey.

Mirror writing in Islamic calligraphy flourished during the early modern period, but its origins may stretch as far back as pre-Islamic mirror-image rock inscriptions in the Hejaz.

The words "bud", "bid", or "mom", form natural mirror ambigrams when reflected over a vertical axis, as does "ليبيا", the name of the country Libya in Arabic.

The book Ambigrams Revealed features several creations of this type, like the word "Failure" mirroring in the water of a pond to give "Success", or "Love" changing into "Lust".

[46] With Escher-like tessellations associated to word patterns, ambigrams can be oriented in three, four, and up to six directions via rotational symmetries of 120°, 90° and 60° respectively,[47] such as those created by French artist Alain Nicolas.

In Korean, 곰 (bear) and 문 (door), 공 (ball) and 운 (luck), or 물 (water) and 롬 (ROM) form a natural rotational ambigram.

The logo Sun (Microsystems) designed by professor Vaughan Pratt[84] in 1982 fulfills the criteria of several types: chain ambigram, spinonym, 90° and 180° rotational symmetries.

The Swedish pop group ABBA owns a mirror ambigram logo stylized AᗺBA with a reversed B, designed by Rune Söderqvist [sv][85] in 1976.

Shared tens of thousands of times on the social networks, this humorous ambigram made the buzz via several French,[103] Belgian[104][105] and Swiss[102] medias.

[27] or Anna by Luc Besson around a vertical axis,[110][111] The American artist and writer Peter Newell published a rotational ambigram in 1893 saying "Puzzle / The end" in the book containing reversible illustrations Topsys & Turvys.

The first features an angry pig trying to make the main protagonist leave by showing a sign that says; 'big boy go away, dis am home of mr h hog', up side down it reads 'Boy yew go away.

Étienne Lécroart, cartoonist, is a founder and key member of Oubapo association, and has composed cartoons that could be read either horizontally, vertically, or in diagonal, and vice versa, sometimes including appropriate ambigrams.

[115] The Canadian artist Kelly Klages painted several acrylics on canvas with ambigram words and sentences referring to famous writers' novels written by William Shakespeare or Agatha Christie, such as Third Girl, The Tempest, After the Funeral, The Hollow, Reformation, Sherlock Holmes, and Elephants Can Remember.

[116] The German conceptual artist Mia Florentine Weiss built a sculptural ambigram Love Hate [de],[117] that has traveled Europe as a symbol of peace and change of perspective.

In 2013, this center orders advertisements that could be inserted in magazines to make readers aware of the problem of depression among young people, and the communication agency notices the symmetrical aspect of the logo.

As a result, it begins to produce several ambigrammatic visuals, staged in photographic contexts, where sentences such as "I'm fine", "I feel fantastic" or "Life is great" turn into "Save me", "I'm falling apart", and "I hate myself".

Readers noticing this logo placed at the upper left corner of the page with an upside-down typographical catchphrase rotate the newspaper and visualize the double calligraphed messages, which call out with the SOS.

[106][130] These ads are so influential that Bekah Miles, an American student herself coming out of a severe depression, chooses to use the "I'm fine / Save me" ambigram to get a tattoo on her thigh.

[131][132] To educate its students, George Fox University in the United States then relays the optical illusion in its official journal, through a video totaling more than three million views[133] and the information is also reproduced in several local media and international organizations, thus helping to popularize this famous two-way tattoo.

[134][135] Less fortunate, another teenage girl, aged 16, committed suicide, with her also this ambigram found on a note in her room, "I'm fine / Save me", reversible calligraphy today printed on badges and bracelets, for educational purposes.

Like certain anagrams with providential meanings such as "Listen / Silent" or "The eyes / They see", ambigrams also sometimes take on a timely sense, for example "up" becomes the abbreviation "dn", very naturally by rotation of 180°.

[149] For many amateurs, designing ambigrams represents a recreational activity, where serendipity can play a fertile role, when the author makes an unplanned fortunate discovery.

[150] In Wordplay: The Philosophy, Art, and Science of Ambigrams,[151] John Langdon mentions the yin and yang symbol as one of his major influences to create upside down words.

Ambigrams are mentioned in Metamagical Themas, an eclectic collection of articles that Douglas Hofstadter wrote for the popular science magazine Scientific American during the early 1980s.

Several clothing brands, such as Helly Hansen (HH), Under Armour (UA), or New Man [fr], raise an ambigram logo as their visual identity.

[160] The special edition paper sleeve (CD with DVD) of the solo album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard by Paul McCartney features an ambigram of the singer's name.

[164] The cover of the studio album Create/Destroy/Create by rock band Goodnight, Sunrise is an ambigram composition constituted of two invariant words, "create" and "destroy", designed by Polish artist Daniel Dostal.

[165] The reversible shot glass containing a changing message "Drink / Drunk", created by the typographer Mark Simonson was manufactured and sold in the market.