Ambigramania

I first learned about ambigrams a couple of weeks ago when I saw the cover for the new Princess Bride DVD. This inspired me to think about Bach's crab canon, which led me to create this little animation. However, I also started thinking about creating my own ambigram; a couple of days ago, I came up with one. I wouldn't be at all surprised if someone's done this before (and much more elegantly), but I'm proud to have designed it myself. It's not as complex as many of the ones you'll find here, but it is one of the most legible I've seen.



In this video, you get to see the ambigram created from both ends at once so that it unfolds something like Bach's canon. The analogy isn't perfect because the canon tune is just heard against itself backwards - the ambigram involves a set of symbols that appear against themselves both backwards and upside down. What I like is the way that the symbols just "played" forward don't mean anything, but they create something interesting when ambigrammed. Well, I think it's interesting.