Saturday 25 September 2010

AMBIGRAMS - A COVER STORY

RIGHT WAY ROUND.................................... UPSIDE-DOWN


For those who don't know already, an ambigram is a word or phrase that can be looked at from more than one angle. (Ambi = Both / Gram = Word).

When I first discovered ambigrams, the artist side of me recognised at once that this was something I had to try. As I worked on the "Justin Thyme" logo, I realised that an ambigram would illustrate perfectly how there's more to this book than first meets the eye, (and more than one way of solving the mystery), so I decided to incorporate the logo into my dust-jacket design.

It's a design-concept that's certainly captivated target-age readers (many eager to try creating ambigrams of their own name) - and Book-sellers have found that displaying two copies together, side-by-side, with one upside-down, really catches people's attention.

I think I was perhaps fortunate with my choice of character name / book title; ambigrams are incredibly challenging - and designing one that's legible enough for a book cover is near impossible (unless your book is called something like "SWIMS"). I have managed a reasonably successful ambigram of "Eliza" - but most of the other characters simply don't work! It's fun trying, though. Why not have a go with your own name and let me know how you get on!

Megan Rapidoxa

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