Angels and Demons

VATICAN CITY – Last month we wrote about the possibility of the Vatican issuing a boycott for Angels and Demons.  However, after seeing the film at the official world premiere Monday in Rome, reviewers at the Vatican’s newspaper have found the religious thriller “harmless”, although they did say that the work was somewhat commercial and inaccurate.  Their summary was that it was not a danger to the church.

L’Osservatore Romano ran a review and an editorial on Wednesday, May 6th, critiquing the movie based on the Dan Brown best-selling novel of the same name. The newspaper wrote that the movie was “a gigantic and smart commercial operation” filled with “stereotyped characters.” The paper suggested moviegoers could make a game out of finding the many historical inaccuracies in the plot.

However, L’Osservatore praised Howard’s “dynamic direction” and the “magnificent” reconstruction of locations like St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel.  Much of the film was shot on sets that painstakingly recreated church landmarks.

The film offers “more than two hours of harmless entertainment, which hardly affects the genius and mystery of Christianity,” L’Osservatore’s reviewer wrote.  It’s “a videogame that first of all sparks curiosity and is also, maybe, a bit of fun.”

“Angels & Demons” features Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon of “The Da Vinci Code” fame, played by Tom Hanks. In the film, the Vatican turns to Langdon after an ancient secret brotherhood called the Illuminati kidnap four cardinals considered front-runners to be the next pope, and threaten to kill one an hour and then explode a bomb at the Vatican.  Each of the cardinals is branded with an ambigram just before being killed.

The editorial said the novels presented the church’s positions in a “simplistic and partial” way. It said the success of Brown’s works should push the church to rethink the way it uses the media to present its message.

John Langdon's ambigram of his name

The year was 1972, and Langdon would continue to practice his craft for decades, becoming widely regarded as one of the two co-inventors of modern ambigrams.   However, his was a lonely craft, with only a small demand for his unique designs.

That all began to change in 1999 when author Dan Brown contacted Langdon to produce some enigmatic and mysterious symbols for his second book entitled “Angels & Demons“.

Now that the book is becoming a Hollywood blockbuster starring Tom Hanks and directed by Ron Howard, we caught up with Langdon to discuss his contributions to the Angels and Demons phenomenon.

John Langdon: “I don’t think that anyone really expected [Angels and Demons] to become as big as it did. Keep in mind that when Dan Brown wrote “Angels and Demons“, he wasn’t the bestselling author that he is today.  He was just a guy who had recently fallen in love with my ambigrams, and a struggling author who was writing a book, and needed some illustrations to go along with the plot.”

Angels and Demons Ambigram

Ambigram.com: “Yes, but you contributed more than just the designs for the book.  Our understanding is that the character gets many of his quirks, his interests, and his surname from you.”

John Langdon: “That’s true.  I need to know a lot about universal symbols to be successful at designing logos, and Robert Langdon shares that love of symbols.  The character is also knowledgeable regarding things like word origins and etymologies, which is another field that is quite close to my heart.  His phobias regarding heights and water are similar to quirks of mine. However, seeing Robert Langdon in the Da Vinci Code, I was surprised at how much better looking he is than I am.”

“After Dan had written much of the book, he called to tell me that he had decided to name the main character after me. He never did tell me why, but I just assumed it was a way of thanking me for the ambigrams.”

Ambigram.com: “Let’s talk about the ambigrams for Angels & Demons in a little more detail.  Between the book contents and the cover, we counted seven ambigrams total, and they became the first exposure that most people have ever had with ambigrams.  In fact, in our own list of the Top Ten Most Famous Ambigrams, fully half of the spots are filled with your ambigrams from Angels and Demons.”

John Langdon: “Yes, I saw that.”

Ambigram.com: “What was the trickiest part of designing those particular ambigrams?”

John Langdon: “Honestly, Earth, Air, Fire and Water were not particularly hard words to turn into ambigrams.  Getting them to all have a similar look was a bit trickier, but the Gothic Blackletter style is the most cooperative and forgiving letter style for ambigrams, so it was fortunate that the Blackletter style fit Dan’s needs so well.”

Earth	Air
Fire	Water

“The Illuminati ambigram was harder, as it has a lot of similar shapes that repeat frequently, and not enough individuation of letter shapes.  I tried to tell Dan that the Illuminati ambigram wasn’t going to work, but as it turned out, I was wrong.”

"Angels and Demons" Illuminati ambigram

Ambigram.com: “In addition to the designs you’ve done for Dan Brown, you authored a book filled with ambigram designs and methodology called “Wordplay“, which was released in its second edition in 2005.  Any advice for someone considering reading this book?”

John Langdon: “No one should read it unless they are prepared to be challenged on their assumptions about themselves, other people and the universe around us, as well as entertained and occasionally amazed in the process.”

Ambigram.com: “Thank you, John.  We appreciate your time.”

John Langdon: “My pleasure.”

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:

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  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.
  

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  "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.
  

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  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.
  

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  "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.
  

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  "Angels and Demons" Air Ambigram

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

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  "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.
  

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  "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.

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)

The Holy Bible

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.

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).

Tom Hanks in Angels and Demons

ROME — The Vatican appears to be preparing for an official call for a boycott of “Angels & Demons,” Ron Howard’s big-budget follow-up to “The Da Vinci Code”

The Vatican’s official newspaper “Avvenire” recently ran a story noting that the church “cannot approve” of such a problematic film. The Turin daily La Stampa, said that the Vatican will soon call for a boycott of the film.

Producers who had earlier requested permission from church officials to film parts of “Angels & Demons” in the Vatican were denied.

However, Archbishop Velasio De Paolis warned against a “boomerang effect” that could call attention to the film and actually make it more popular than if the boycott had not occurred.

Scores of church officials called for a boycott of the movie based on Dan Brown’s previous book “Da Vinci Code” when it was released in 2006, but the calls had little effect on the popularity of the thriller, which earned about $760 million in worldwide boxoffice receipts.

“Angels & Demons” is set to open worldwide May 15 and news of the movie is being tracked on ambigram.com due to the six John Langdon ambigrams which feature prominantly in the movie.