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Puzzle Challenge: Visual Wordplay Captivates Online Readers – A new puzzle challenging readers to create words that appear identical when flipped 180 degrees is gaining traction online, sparking creativity adn linguistic exploration.
The concept, known as an ambigram, was popularized by cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter in his 1996 book, ambigrammia, and recently featured in a puzzle column by Alex Bellos in The Guardian. Hofstadter, a professor at New York University, first encountered ambigrams created by calligrapher Scott Kim in the early 1980s, inspiring his extensive research into the phenomenon.
Isn’t it clever? The dots underneath the “r” and the “t” do not distract from the letters, but when upside down are clearly the dots on two “i”s.
Hofstadter describes each ambigram as a “pocket-sized creativity puzzle.” Bellos presented the challenge to his readers, inviting submissions and sharing solutions.
Flipping Words: A Design Challenge
Design an ambigram for the following words:
1. DAVE
2. OHIO
3. UTAH
4. RED
5. Your own name
The aim in an ambigram is legibility. You want the word to be as readable as possible. Usually an ambigram has perfect symmetry (mirror or rotational) as in the the two examples above, but not always, as in ‘GREEN’ in the top image.
You can use upper case, lower case, or a mixture of the two. You will need to experiment at first. How much you can tweak a letter without making it unrecognisable, and how much you can add without overwhelming the eye?
With DAVE, the A and the V are (almost) inversions of each other. Harder is to see how to make an E into an upside down D.
Bellos will be sharing Hofstadter’s designs for the challenge words at 5pm UK time. Readers are encouraged to submit their own name-based ambigrams via email to bellospuzzle@gmail.com or by tagging Bellos on X (formerly twitter) or
