Ambigrams, Logos, Word Art: Advice on Making Ambigrams

Have fun, be patient, don't expect miracles (for a while).

I discovered the ability to create ambigrams by playing with words. If you keep a playful attitude, you may discover something even better than ambigrams, and that would be your personal specialty.

Study and draw conventional letterforms.

When you're doodling while you're talking on the phone, draw letters. The more familiar you become with knowing, understanding and loving conventional letters, the better you will become at creating unconventional letters. You'll know exactly how much manipulation you can get away with and how to know when you've gone too far.

When a word or a name you're trying to make into an ambigram seems impossible, or if the result is too hard to read or hideously ugly, don't call it an ambigram.

Call it trash and throw it away. For the first year, just keep looking for words that will cooperate, not forcing words that won't. The longer you use that approach, the more words will cooperate.

Never force the ambigram into any pre-conceived style.

I tell all the people commissioning ambigrams that the style of an ambigram is almost 100% determined by the manipulations required to make it readable and aesthetically harmonious.

The Actual Nuts and Bolts of Creating Rotational Ambigrams

I begin by writing the word or name in all capital letters. I then look at the word upside down. (I have learned to write upside down just to save the trouble of inverting my sketchbook every time.)

I look at the letter that’s farthest to the left (actually the last letter of the word) and try to imagine it as the first letter of the word. Let’s use the word VISTA as an example.

When I look at

(an upside down A) and try to imagine a V, it’s pretty easy to see that removing the

(horizontal stroke of the A) will leave a V remaining.

Moving to the next letter, I look at the

(upside down T) and try to imagine an I. That’s just as easy, if not easier. To make the vertical of the T a bit more convincing as an I, I’ll put a dot above it.

And, hey, look! The S is an S even when it’s upside down.

In order to make the I into a T, it needs a horizontal stroke at the end opposite the dot.
Adding that horizontal to make the T doesn’t have any diminishing effect on the recognizability of the I. This is due to one of the most important factors regarding the success of rotational ambigrams: We “read” (recognize/comprehend) letters using information we get from their tops, more than from their bottoms (much like recognizing people, as well).

is about the easiest word to make an ambigram from that I can imagine, except, of course for words like NOON, of which there are probably a few. But the basic process remains the same even when the manipulations are much more challenging.

There is one major departure from what I’ve described above: sometimes a letter facing one way needs to be created by combining letters that face the other direction, or perhaps parts of letters. An easy example to picture would be a lower-case style M, , that, when inverted would become lower case ITI, , (three vertical strokes connected in a cursive manner, at the bottom.

When a word resists becoming an ambigram on a one-letter-to-one-letter basis, it may sometimes be solved by starting with just the vertical strokes. But the number of verticals may be flexible as well: a capital R will comprise two verticals, while a lower case will have just one. It’s important to remain open to all the imaginable options in order to create an ambigram.

In order to explore and take advantage of those options, it’s critical to determine what the essence of each letter is: what can be eliminated, added, or twisted without losing its basic identity. Many of the capital letters, (, for instance) have a simple vertical “stem” (to use the typographic term) from which the more unique characteristics branch out. With the exceptions of the L and T, eliminating the vertical stem will leave a completely recognizable letter. . So perhaps the number of verticals could be flexible for that reason as well.

In the case of the letter X, the essence is that two strokes cross, and almost certainly at least one of the two crossing strokes will be a diagonal. Capital Xs and lower case Xs are the same, and that essence remains the same in as many calligraphic and typographic styles as I can think of.

Many letters of the alphabet vary from capital to lower case forms. The shapes of a few lower case letters have changed a bit from what they were when they first evolved from capitals, and in a couple of cases, both the older and the newer versions are still used. For instance, there are at least two familiar lower case As () and Gs (). Each of these will have an essence that’s distinct from the others.

Creating ambigrams is, at its essence, an exercising in breaking rules. As a rule, words only read from one vantage point. As a rule, a letterform only needs to represent one sound. As we attempt to create words in ways the alphabet never had in mind, we have to subvert those conventions, and we have to be openminded to doing things we’ve always considered “wrong.” For instance we will often need to mix capital letters with lower case letters.

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of studying and drawing conventional letters from classic typefaces. Knowing them intimately, like knowing people, will bring understanding, respect and love. When you have those as the primary aspects of your relationship with letters, you’l find that they can be very compliant — they’ll be willing do just about anything you want.

Good luck and have fun!

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