Ambigram Magazine » Fire

Angels and Demons Brands

Editor — Sat, 16 May 2009 15:01:25 +0000

The four Angels and Demons brands are shown only briefly in the movie adaptation of Dan Brown’s book. In case you wanted to see them in a little more detail, here are the four ambigrams branded onto the chests of the Preferiti

"Angels and Demons" Earth Ambigram

The first brand was found on the cardinal buried underground. It reads “Earth” no matter which was it is turned. All of the ambigrams in “Angels and Demons” were drawn by artist John Langdon and are reproduced here with permission.

"Angels and Demons" Air Ambigram

The “Air” ambigram was found on the cardinal whose lungs has been punctured.

"Angels and Demons" Fire Ambigram

The “Fire” ambigram was on the cardinal being burned alive in one of the most gruesome parts of the story.

"Angels and Demons" Water Ambigram

The last brand was on the chest of Cardinal Baggio, who was attempted to be drowned in the Fountain of the Four Rivers. In the book, Cardinal Baggio dies, but in the movie he is saved by Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), later to be named Pope.

Angels and Demons Illuminati ambigram

Although not used a brand, the other ambigram design presented in the movie is the fax that launches Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) on his quest.

The “Angels and Demons” book also presented the “Illumanati Diamond” as the final brand that the Camerlingo uses upon himself. The movie replaces this final brand with a crossed keys symbol (not presented here), presumably because the Illuminati Diamond would have been too complex to digest in a 3 second close-up during the movie.

There you have it. The four Angels and Demons brands used in the movie, in a little more detail to give you a good look.

Meet the Artist: John Langdon

Editor — Fri, 01 May 2009 12:00:57 +0000

John Langdon got the inspiration for his first ambigram design late one night after his wife was asleep. Armed with a cold beer, a new pad of paper, a new pencil, a fresh pack of Marlboros and his favorite Electric Light Orchestra album playing in the background, he was feeling good and wrote the word “Heaven” on the page. After writing the word he suddenly realized that he could make it read the same way upside-down, launching him on a decades-long journey into a previously unknown art form.

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.

Ambigram.com: “Thanks for taking some time to talk with us during the exciting month of the movie release of Angels and Demons, John. Did you have any idea that Angels and Demons would become such a big hit?”

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.”

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.