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An ambigram is a word, art form or other symbolic representation, whose elements retain meaning when viewed or interpreted from a different direction, perspective, or orientation. The meaning of the ambigram may either change, or remain the same, when viewed or interpreted from different perspectives. Douglas R. Hofstadter describes an ambigram as a "calligraphic design that manages to squeeze two different readings into the selfsame set of curves." Different ambigram artists (sometimes called ambigramists) may create completely different ambigrams from the same word or words, differing in both style and form. ==Discovery and popularity== The earliest known non-natural ambigram dates to 1893 by artist Peter Newell. Although better known for his children's books and illustrations for Mark Twain and Lewis Carroll, he published two books of invertible illustrations, in which the picture turns into a different image entirely when turned upside down. The last page in his book, ''Topsys & Turvys'' contains the phrase THE END, which, when inverted, reads PUZZLE. In ''Topsys & Turvys Number 2'' (1902), Newell ended with a variation on the ambigram in which THE END changes into PUZZLE 2. From June to September, 1908, the British monthly ''The Strand'' published a series of ambigrams by different people in its "Curiosities" column. Of particular interest is the fact that all four of the people submitting ambigrams believed them to be a rare property of particular words. Mitchell T. Lavin, whose "chump" was published in June wrote "I think it is in the only word in the English language which has this peculiarity," while Clarence Williams wrote, about his "Bet" ambigram, "Possibly B is the only letter of the alphabet that will produce such an interesting anomaly." In 1969, Raymond Loewy designed the rotational NEW MAN ambigram logo, which is still in use today. The mirror ambigram DeLorean Motor Company logo was first used in 1975.〔(Car and Driver, July 1977, showing photograph of 1975 prototype ); (Us Magazine, Nov 1, 1977, showing photograph of 1975 prototype ). In 1977, only the single 1975 prototype existed. Note that there are multiple visible differences between the prototype vehicle and later production models, including the design of the front end.〕 John Langdon and Scott Kim also each believed that they had invented ambigrams in the 1970s. Langdon and Kim are probably the two artists who have been most responsible for the popularization of ambigrams. John Langdon produced the first mirror image logo "Starship" in 1975. Robert Petrick, who designed the invertible ''Angel'' logo in 1976, was also an early influencer of ambigrams. The earliest known published reference to the term "ambigram" was by Hofstadter, who attributed the origin of the word to conversations among a small group of friends during 1983–1984. The original 1979 edition of Hofstadter's ''Gödel, Escher, Bach'' featured two 3-D ambigrams on the cover. Ambigrams became more popular as a result of Dan Brown incorporating John Langdon's designs into the plot of his bestseller, ''Angels & Demons'', and the DVD release of the ''Angels & Demons'' movie contains a bonus chapter called "This is an Ambigram". Langdon also produced the ambigram that was used for some versions of the book's cover.〔 Brown used the name Robert Langdon for the hero in his novels as an homage to John Langdon. In music, the Grateful Dead have used ambigrams several times, including on their albums ''Aoxomoxoa'' and ''American Beauty''. In the first series of the British show ''Trick or Treat'', the show's host and creator Derren Brown uses cards with rotational ambigrams. These cards can read either 'Trick' or 'Treat'. Although the words spelled by most ambigrams are relatively short in length, one DVD cover for ''The Princess Bride'' movie creates a rotational ambigram out of two words: "Princess Bride," whether viewed right side up or upside down. The ''Transformers'' movie series have logos that are a robot face whether viewed right side up or upside down. There are two such logos, one for an Autobot, and one for a Decepticon.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://society6.com/reverse/TRANSFORMER-ambigram_Print )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://hdw.eweb4.com/search/transformers+logo/ )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://hdw.eweb4.com/search/transformers+logos/ )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「ambigram」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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