Ambigram Magazine » angels and demons

“Illuminati Diamond” Signed Prints Available

Editor — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 21:52:56 +0000

John Langdon‘s beloved “Illuminati Diamond” triple ambigram from Angels and Demons is now available as a fine art print for the first time ever.

Illuminati Diamond Signed Print

Each print will be hand signed and numbered.

Dan Brown describes this ambigram in “Angels and Demons” as:

“A flawless diamond, born of the ancient elements with such perfection that all those who saw it only stand in wonder.”

To find out more about this limited offer, please click on the thumbnail below for the full ordering details:

Signed Print Offer Details

Angels and Demons Premiere Footage

Editor — Mon, 11 May 2009 12:00:06 +0000

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has already provided a way to see the world theatrical premiere of ‘Angels and Demons‘, which was held in Rome just last week.

the Da Vinci Code Blu-Ray Disc

…just use your existing ‘Da Vinci Code’ Blu-ray disc.

What? You don’t have a ‘Da Vinci Code’ Blu-ray disc? No problem. We’ll help you out with that in a minute.

First, we wanted to tell you what you’ll need to do in order to see it.

The exclusive footage from the ‘Angels and Demons’ premiere can be accessed by simply inserting your Da Vinci Code Blu-ray disc into a BD-Live capable player and accessing the disc’s BD-Live menu. The BD-Live feature enables new content to be provided via the Internet for titles that support it and Sony has been very proactive about providing additional and exclusive footage to owners of Blu-ray titles.

Now, what can you do if you don’t have the ‘Da Vinci Code’ Blu-ray disc? Well, you’ll need to get it.

To make that easier on you, below is a coupon for $5 off the price of the disc that works with any retailer. You’ve got to use it soon, though. It expires May 19th, 2009.

Download $5 Da Vinci Code Coupon (PDF)

Angels and Demons “Illuminati” iPhone App

Editor — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:30:56 +0000

Sony Pictures has released the “Illuminati” app for the iPhone. Illuminati is a puzzle application that doubles as a teaser for Sony Picture’s upcoming movie “Angels and Demons”, which will release on May 15th, 2009. The application has four different areas of play, corresponding to the four ambigrams in the movie: Earth, Air, Fire and Water.

The app provides two modes of play: Diamond mode and Element mode. In Element mode, you choose Earth, Air, Fire or Water and play just that puzzle. In Diamond mode, the elements are run back-to-back (just as the ambigrams are in the Illuminati Diamond… someone at Sony Pictures was paying attention to the details).

Illuminati Intro Screen

The Earth puzzle involves rotating the screen to use gravity to move the target object into place. Definitely a tough puzzle to start off with.

The Illuminati “Air” puzzle uses essentially the same graphics engine as the previous “Earth” puzzle, and again involves rotating the screen for movement.

The “Fire” puzzle is essentially the game of “Mastermind”, but with different levels of “fire” instead of the playing pieces in the classic game. If you are familiar with “Mastermind”, you’ll get this game right away. If not, you will probably struggle a bit.

Finally, the “Water” puzzle finishes off the game, and is arguably the best puzzle, and the most fun game play in the entire app. You really have to think in 3D to finish this one, and unlike the “Fire” level, there is no metaphor for this puzzle to draw from strategies you may have already learned. In our opinion, this is the best puzzle in the app by far.

Still, even with the fun that there was in the “Water” level, we feel that Sony could have done much better by incorporating something a little more interactive with the user, like the ability to create Angels and Demons style custom ambigrams directly within the application (a la iAmbigram).

Also, we found it rather interesting that while the four elements were present in the app as ambigrams (Earth, Air, Fire, Water), the Illuminati ambigram was actually nowhere to be found.

Overall, not a bad download, and you can’t beat the price: free.

The Top 10 Most Famous Ambigrams

Editor — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:30:20 +0000

While thousands of ambigrams are in circulation, only a handful of these magical designs have risen above individual usage to become part of mainstream products.

To make our list of the Most Famous Ambigrams, an ambigram had to 1) be part of a mainstream product, 2) be exposed to a large number of people and 3) be a rotationally symmetric ambigram.

Here is the list of the “Top 10 Most Famous Ambigrams” from Ambigram.com:

Paul McCartney - Chaos and Creation in the Backyard

Paul McCartney’s album “Chaos and Creation in the Backyard” featured an ambigram of the words “Paul McCartney” on the album cover. Although the album was not a huge commercial success, the album was the biggest to feature an ambigram on the cover.
Princess Bride 20th Anniversary Edition

The 20th Anniversary Edition of the movie “the Princess Bride” featured an ambigram on the cover of the DVD and Blu-Ray releases created by Menagerie Creative. The Princess Bride ambigram was accompanied by a photo that appears at first as a reflection, but upon closer inspection has some subtle insights into the story’s plotline.

As a side note: there is a second ambigram inside the DVD booklet of the words “True / Love”, but that particular design isn’t famous enough to make our “Top 10″ list.
Glam Rock Band "Angel"

Glam rock band “Angel”, whose members always dressed in white, adopted a Robert Petrick ambigram logo of the band’s name in 1976 and continued to use it until 1992.
"New Man" Clothing Company's ambigram logo

French clothing company “New Man” began using thisRaymond Loewy designed ambigram in 1969…and they are still using it today.
NASA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) logo

Scott Kim created the logo for NASA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), and since there is no “up” in space, the satellite’s logo is a rotational ambigram.
Angels and Demons Illuminati ambigram

The first ambigram encountered in Dan Brown’s book “Angels and Demons” is the Illuminati ambigram, which launches the lead character Robert Langdon (played by Tom Hanks in the movie adaptation) on his quest. The ambigram was drawn by artist John Langdon, who lends his surname to the lead character in the story.
"Angels and Demons" Earth Ambigram

Since the “Angels and Demons” book was such a big success (reportedly the second most popular book in America among people 32-43 years old), the rest of this Top 10 list is monopolized by the designs in the book. Here is the Earth ambigram, drawn by John Langdon.
"Angels and Demons" Air Ambigram

The “Air” custom ambigram from “Angels and Demons”, by John Langdon.
"Angels and Demons" Fire Ambigram

The “Fire” ambigram from “Angels and Demons”, which is at the center of one of the most gruesome parts of the story.
"Angels and Demons" Water Ambigram

Finally, to round out the Top 10, here is the Angels and Demons ambigram of “Water”, also drawn by John Langdon.

There you have it. The “Top 10 Most Famous Ambigrams” from Ambigram.com, with fully HALF of the list from author Dan Brown and artist John Langdon!

In fact, if we were to extend the list further to the “Top 12 Most Famous Ambigrams“, the “Illuminati Diamond” final ambigram in “Angels and Demons” and the books ambigram title (in certain regions) would populate the remaining spots!

So, to say that “Angels and Demons” has had an impact on the ambigram space would be a huge understatement.

The History of Ambigrams

Editor — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 21:01:25 +0000

Dan Brown states in his novel “Angels and Demons” that ambigram words are four hundred years old. However, the known historical data is actually much shorter.

One of the earliest published ambigrams (June, 1908)

Here are the known milestones in ambigram creation history:

1893 First known ambigram published by Peter Newell (THE END / PUZZLE)
1902 Second known ambigram published by Peter Newell (THE END / PUZZLE2)
1908 The Strand publishes 10 custom ambigrams by four different artists
1964 Peter Jones and Douglas Hofstadter start creating ambigrams
1965 Dmitri Borgmann reprints ambigrams from The Strand, calling them “vertical palindromes”
1969 Raymond Loewy creates NEW MAN logo
1972 Tom Carnase creates 72
1974 John Langdon creates STARSHIP ambigram logo
1974 Robert Petrick creates Canned Heat and Non Sense logos (receiving a Philadelphia Art Directors’ award in 1975)
1975-1976 U&lc magazine publishes ambigrams by Petrick and Langdon, starting with SANTA/ELVES by Petrick in June, 1975 issue
1975 DMC, the logo for the De Lorean Motor Company, first used
1975 Robert Petrick creates the ANGEL ambigram logo
1976 Angel (the band) starts using Angel ambigram (through 1992)
1976 Jefferson Starship uses Starship ambigram
1979 OMNI publishes ambigrams by Scott Kim in Scot Morris’s “Games” column
1979 Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter, published, with 3-D ambigrams on the cover
1980 OMNI publishes ambigrams by Langdon and Petrick
1981 Scientific American publishes ambigrams by Scott Kim in Martin Gardner’s Mathematical Games column
1981 “Inversions: A Catalog of Calligraphic Cartwheels” by Kim is published
1984 Douglas Hofstadter coins the term “ambigram”
1987 The book “Ambigrammi” is published (in Italian) by Hofstadter
1992 Wordplay: Ambigrams and Reflections on the Art of Ambigrams by Langdon is published
2000 Angels & Demons by Dan Brown is published
2008 Development of the Ambigram Generator from Glyphusion is complete, enabling anyone to create ambigrams using a web browser.
2009 The movie adaptation of “Angels & Demons” is released, directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks

(milestones in ambigram history originally assembled by Roy Leban)

New Angels and Demons Video

Editor — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 22:23:09 +0000

A new promotional video for “Angels and Demons” has just been released, and it’s a great hint at the excitement to come.

The video starts with a call to symbologist Robert Langdon.

“Professor Langdon. We’ve received another threat.”

(Langdon reviews the Illuminati ambigram and comments)

“That symbol has been considered a myth for four hundred years! It’s Illuminati…and they’ve come for their revenge.”

Take a look at the one minute video clip to catch a glimpse of what’s in store.

Regardless of what you thought of “The Da Vinci Code”, this looks like it might be the Dan Brown adaptation we’ve been waiting for.

Angels and Demons vs. The Bible

Editor — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 02:05:36 +0000

The Holy Bible

What is America’s favorite book?

The top spot should be no surprise. The Bible comes in as America’s all-time favorite book.

However, a recent Harris poll of adults had some revealing insights into America’s second favorite book.

According to that Harris Poll of over 2500 people, the second favorite book among 32- to 43-year old adults were Stephen King’s “The Stand” and Dan Brown’s ambigram filled, controversial Catholic church thriller “Angels and Demons”.

The list ordering varies according to demographic, race and gender factors, but “Angels and Demons” appears frequently on the top 10 list, as does the author’s previous work, “The Davinci Code”.

Angels and Demons

With the controversies surrounding Dan Brown’s books (especially among members of the Catholic church), it is somewhat ironic that the Bible should appear on the list of America’s favorite books next to Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons.

Ambigram Tattoos

Editor — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:45:55 +0000

Angel / Devil Ambigram tattoo (on lead singer of Fuel Toryn Green)

Ambigram tattoos have been rising in popularity for years, and for good reason. No other design allows someone to present two messages to the world within the same physical space, and in such a cool way.

Of course, they are also a great conversation piece, as anyone with an ambigram tattoo will tell you. Anyone who is familiar with ambigrams will have no problem commenting on it.

“Hey, cool ambigram. What does it say upside-down?”

Although there are a few different artists specializing in ambigram tattoos, the Picasso of ambigram artistry is Mark Palmer, who has created literally thousands of ambigram tattoo designs. You can even create your own ambigram tattoo from Mark Palmer’s artwork at his WowTattoos web site.

Ambigram tattoos have become even more popular as a result of the success of Dan Brown’s book Angels and Demons (and the Ron Howard movie by the same name). Although exact figures are not known, it is estimated that tens of thousands of people have found these artistic creations worthy of a permanent spot on their bodies.

Although the popularity of ambigram tattoos remains, ambigram jewelry is also heating up, possibly since it keeps the same “coolness” without being quite as permanent. For example, you can get an ambigram necklace or an ambigram ring at the FlipScript ambigram products web site.

So, whether your tastes lie in ambigram tattoos or ambigram jewelry, Wired magazine said it best when they claimed that “Ambigrams are the hottest trend in typography since Helvetica” (May, 2009).