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.
  

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  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.
  

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  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.
  

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  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 Glyphusion ambigram generator 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)