Ambigrams
The new logo of BSE looks great. 
The first thing that struck me about this logo is that it is an ambigram - a word that reads the same in more than one angle. If you rotate the BSE logo by 180 degrees, you will still get the same logo.
Some famous examples of ambigrams are the Sun logo (90 degree rotations)
and the logo of the pop group ABBA (horizontal rotation)
There are also natural ambigrams like the word SWIMS.
I got to know of ambigrams from the book "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown. Surprisingly both dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster online don't recognize the word at all. Does that mean that this word was coined specifically for the book? A bit of googling suggests otherwise. There are websites with ambigrams, and websites for ambigrams. From what I can see there have been books on ambigrams from the early 1980s.
There has been a book by John Langdon called "Ambigrams and Reflections on the Art of Ambigrams". It is interesting that the lead character in Angels & Demons is also called Langdon. Coincidence or just influence?
One more interesting piece of info that I got is - "Angels and Demons" is Dan brown's first novel. After it flopped, Dan released his second novel "Da Vinci Code", which was a phenomenal success. Piggybacking on the success of DVC, A&D was re-released and it became a best seller this time around. Ain't that one cool marketing strategy or what?
The first thing that struck me about this logo is that it is an ambigram - a word that reads the same in more than one angle. If you rotate the BSE logo by 180 degrees, you will still get the same logo.
Some famous examples of ambigrams are the Sun logo (90 degree rotations)
and the logo of the pop group ABBA (horizontal rotation)
There are also natural ambigrams like the word SWIMS.
I got to know of ambigrams from the book "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown. Surprisingly both dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster online don't recognize the word at all. Does that mean that this word was coined specifically for the book? A bit of googling suggests otherwise. There are websites with ambigrams, and websites for ambigrams. From what I can see there have been books on ambigrams from the early 1980s.
There has been a book by John Langdon called "Ambigrams and Reflections on the Art of Ambigrams". It is interesting that the lead character in Angels & Demons is also called Langdon. Coincidence or just influence?
One more interesting piece of info that I got is - "Angels and Demons" is Dan brown's first novel. After it flopped, Dan released his second novel "Da Vinci Code", which was a phenomenal success. Piggybacking on the success of DVC, A&D was re-released and it became a best seller this time around. Ain't that one cool marketing strategy or what?
posted by Jammy at 12:22 PM
12 Comments:
i hate to correct, but i couldn't help myself-
"If you rotate the BSE logo either horizontally or vertically by 180 degrees, you will still get the same logo"
Actually the above should have read as- If you rotate the BSE logo either clockwise or anticlockwise by 180 degrees, you will still get the same logo.
horizontal or vertical rotation would mean seeing the mirror image from the side or from bottom respectively. if you observe carefully the S in the logo will change in any such rotation.
the sun logo will be the same for every 90' rotation - clockwise or anticlockwise. but again it will not be the same in any horizontal or vertical rotation.
The ABBA logo will be the same for a horizontal rotation - here you are right.
Oye ram, you have not touched about the BSE-Illuminati connection and the conspiracy to rule the world that we spoke about during lunch...what man? I thought I'll see some thoughts in order here, that Vinay and me planned to pass onto the world...
@Smriti
Yep, more and more companies are now resorting to ambigrams. I even saw couple of sites where people have listed the ambigrams that they have made for these companies.
@Ravi
Clockwise rotation of 180 degrees and anticlockwise rotation of 180 degrees are the same. You will end up with the same thing in both cases. It should have been just "vertically by 180 degrees". I'll correct it.
You are right about the Sun logo.
@Kedar
I stopped with this beacause I felt that I've already touched upon too many things. I'll write about the alleged conspiracy in the next blog.
Ram have u read Deception point by Dan Brown.. aduvum nana irukum..
am now half way thru with the digital fortress :)
@Heidi
nope, haven't read deception point. I'm planning to read few other authors b4 coming back to Dan Brown.
I haven't got any good feedback on digital fortress. ATB :)
digi fort is sumaar dhaan once u read A&D and DVC. Dec. Pt. is kina good. By the way, John Langdon is a professor(symbologist) at MIT(i guess) with whom brown worked closely while writing DVC and A&D and hence named the main character after him.
maybe Harvard, not MIT
@M.E.
http://www.johnlangdon.net/New_Pages/Angels_Demons.htm
they certanly look cool on revolving signs, i seem to recal a fiew banks haveing ones that spun, anywhoo. good post, just a random viewer, i have only read davinci code, it was a cool book, FICTION that contained lots of fact, and factual theory. good book.
joe
Lookin good, loved your blog site! Bookmarked it.
I have a Ceiling Fan Pull And Knob site/blog. It pretty much covers Ceiling Fan Pull And Knob related stuff.
Come see it when you get time.
Great info. I am glad I stopped by for a while.
- Indie
WHOLE HOUSE WATER FILTERS.com
I loved Angels and Demons. It started my ambigram fascination. The guy over at www.wowtattoos.com has some pretty cool ambigram designs. He seems to pretty much be the best ambigram artist putting out new designs.
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