“Designatures”

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And now for something completely different...

While recently researching an article to appear in the Conspiracy section of this site, the following graphic caught my eye:

Clever. It reminded me of an article I saw many (many!) years ago while browsing through an Omni magazine. It featured some amazing manipulation of letters. The article's author, Scot Morris, was intrigued by Scott Kim's idea of how far letters could be stretched and still remain readable. Kim found that he could produce some remarkable effects- the most stunning being words which could be read either right side up or upside down. Morris dubbed these unique forms "designatures". One of Kim's most elegant creations follows:

UPSIDE

DOWN

Flipping the word “upside” (ie. rotated 180°) Gives the word “down”.

A part of Scott's false is true!

Great stuff! Needless to say, I had to give it a try. After demonstrating the idea for some friends, it was not long before I was being asked to produce custom designatures. One of more startling of these reveals a friend’s given name one way and when flipped spells out her family name.

Shawna

Hunter

Admittedly, that one was a little difficult to make out at first glance. The limits of my graphic skills are also quite evident. :-)

This example was knocked off during the Calgary Olympics. It is my personal fave. Not only does it read Calgary one way and Alberta when rotated, but I think I managed to capture some of the western flavor of the city in the script itself. Judge for yourself:

Calgary

Alberta

Here are a few more Quixote's Horse designatures that did not appear in the original Grab Bag post. Flip them upside down and they read the same.

Grab a pencil and paper and give it a try. Letters are remarkably malleable. Why suffer creating boring, humdrum scratch pad doodles when you could be creating graffiti with flair! We are talking ART... and best of all you need never be embarrassed if someone should hang your work upside down. :-)
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