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“Ambigrams are the hottest trend in typography since Helvetica.”
Wired Magazine 4.20.09 
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05.24.09The Red Carpet premiere was a blast! And the movie’s really good!
04.14.09Robert Langdon boldly |
This Angels & Demons display is in front of the Sony Building on Madison Ave. in NY, featuring animated ambigrams! (Start spreadin‘ the news...)
I'm interviewed at http://www.ambigram.com
Photo © Frances Schwabenland 2008.
Used with permission.
I designed my first quarter-turn ambigram for J S Mayank's 8-minute film/music video, “Ethereal Pondering of a Sightless Gaze,” which also features my “Carpe Diem” ambigram, in beautiful company. The film is playing at the Newport Beach Film Festival, Saturday, April 25. [You'll find it under LMU shorts] and the London Independent film Festival, April 17–27. [You'll find it under official selection 2009, international shorts]
Following a short theatrical run in England, Monkeyshine was recently released on DVD, exclusively on Amazon.com. A year and a half ago, I created an ambigram that plays, shall we say, a pivotal role in this film. The BBC has acclaimed Monkeyshine highly as “a little gem”, “grounded and believable”, and “expertly shot.”
Three of my logo-inspired paintings will appear in the Cade Center for Fine Arts Gallery at Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold, Maryland. The exhibition is entitled 'Transaction Analysis' and will run from March 11 to April 14. (The college and gallery will be closed March 23 to 29.) On Wednesday, March 11, there will be a gallery talk at 12 noon, and a reception from 6 to 9 pm.
Nikita Prokhorov has set up an “Ambigram Sketchbook Exchange: Digital Edition” on his “Ambiblog,” inviting several ambigram artists to submit the pre-computer stages of their work on an original ambigram. I developed a LOUIS ARMSTRONG chain ambigram for the blog.
A recent interview at Web Designers' Interviews:
John Langdon: What Lies Beneath Ambigrams
My Visit to the Set of Angels & Demons, Sept. 22-26 In May, the people at Sony asked me to create some new ambigrams for the Angels & Demons movie that was being filmed this summer. I'd love to show them here, but they're under wraps until the movie opens in May of '09. But I can show you the ambigram they requested to identify the table where Tom Hanks relaxes between takes, an A&D official Sony Pictures bike, and a couple of other snaps. Continue reading...
New ambigram in the Ambigrams page.
Along with my Inkblot partner, Eric Zillmer, I‘ll be presenting at the XIX International Congress of Rorschach and Projective Methods in Leuven, Belgium. The Congress is held at the KatholiekeUniversiteit Leuven from July 22 – 25. Our presentation, “Open To Interpretation” will be made on Thurs, July 24, 1:30 to 2:30 pm.
Jeffrey Price (left, scholar and collector of M.C. Escher's prints) recently presented Bruno Ernst — who was a friend of Escher's and has written extensively about his work — with a very special birthday present. Jeffrey commissioned me to create an ambigram for the occasion. He then framed the print to become the top of a beautiful custom-made box for Mr. Ernst.
A recent ad campaign for Western Union, created by Grant McCann in Sri Lanka is getting some international acclaim, and enthusiastic reviews. Based on ambigrams I created, the campaign promotes the ease of transferring money by way of Western Union across countries, continents and currencies: from rupees to pounds, rupees to riyals, or rupees to dollars, and vice-versa.
Maggie Macnab included several of my ambigrams and logos in her terrific new book, DECODING DESIGN. This is an unusually thoughtful book on the relationship between corporate logo design and archetypal symbols and the universal principles and processes they represent. I highly recommend it.
New Ambigram created for Burkard Polster, Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Monash University in Australia.
Professor Polster's book EYE TWISTERS, for which I wrote the Foreword, has recently been published and is available from Amazon.com. EYE TWISTERS is a wonderful and comprehensive book with lots of new variations on ambigrams, and many, many other fresh and unique optical illusions that should delight and amaze anyone.
“Open to Interpretation”
The Art and Science of Inkblots
January 9 — February 8
Leonard Pearlstein Gallery at Drexel University
Derren Brown is an English psychological illusionist. His career includes many performances both on stage and on television. His latest series, Trick or Treat, debuted in April of.07 on public service British television station Channel 4. The opening of the show teases the audience with the TRICK/TREAT ambigram I designed for Objective Productions and Derren Brown.
Naguib and Fadilah, who host a terrific ambigram website/blog asked me to provide a challenge for their monthly competition. I proposed the word SINGULARITY. You can see many of the entries here. Nagfa (as they refer to themselves) selected ten of the entries and sent them along to me for my critiques. You may see these ten and read the critiques here.
Flexion awarded in the Type Directors Club 07 Annual.
