Ambigrams by Stefan Gustavson

Ambigrams

Ambigrams are words or phrases written ambiguously, so that they can be read in at least two different ways. A fascinating kind of ambigrams are called inversions. An inversion can be read both right side up and upside down, or as a mirror reflection. It can either look the same both ways, or spell something else when inverted.

An excellent book by a true master in the field is "Inversions" by Scott Kim, published by Byte Books. The book was out of print for a long time, but is now available again from Key Curriculum Press. I really recommend it.

I am just a novice in the trade, but creating inversions has quickly become an enjoyable distraction. I have been concentrating on names. I find names more fun to play with than ordinary words, for a number of reasons.

A few of my creations are shown below. I am quite proud of some of them, while others might be somewhat illegible, ugly, or both. The graphic design for most of my ambigrams is, using a nice word, "clean", or, using a less nice word, "crude". This is mainly due to lack of time to do something more. I am not a calligraper nor a typeface designer, but I do know how to draw letters better than the single-width, single-stroke lettering you see in most of the images below, and I would really like to have more time to play with the design style and include finer detail like serifs and swashes in my ambigrams if I could only find the time. (Incidentally, this web page could use some design work, too.)

Apart from the disclaimer above, I make no comments - I let the inversions speak for themselves. I will update this page continuously to include future work. There is definitely more to come, even though it is done at a slow pace and at irregular intervals. I really like doing this!

Visit Scott Kim's web site (contains ambigrams, puzzles and wordplay)

Visit www.ambigram.com (The site hasn't been updated for a long time, but it exists)

Back to my homepage

Two of my first creations - my own name (Stefan Gustavson) and my wife's name (Carina Qvarford)

Me and my wife, with last name initials only (Stefan G / Carina Q)

Our Christmas card for 1996
"God Jul o. Gott Nytt År" is Swedish for the phrase "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year". (The mirror design should actually be contributed more to my wife than to me. We both like doing this.) A bigger image is available by clicking on this small version.