Tolistoj (a.k.a The case of the ambiguous ambigram)

After coming up with this ambigram design (which reads the same upside down) I showed it to the other half of id-iom who was a little perplexed as to what it said. After bringing the debate to a wider audience on Facebook it would seem that I opened a tin of worms as it’s apparently not at all clear what it says and I had numerous different answers as to what it might be.

I realise I could tweak the image to make it less vague and ambiguous but I decided I quite liked the idea that it wasn’t entirely decipherable and was more like trying to decode graffiti tags so decided to run with it. To celebrate the various different answers I received I’ve come up seven different versions of the design and each one has been titled in dymo letters with one of the guesses. It’s pretty plain to me what it says but then I guess perception is in the eye of the beholder so I’ll leave it up to you to decide.

They’re on A2 paper and made using the magic of stencils and spraypaint. The ‘Ace of Aces’ bit is pretty cool if I do say so myself. Drop me a line if you’re interested (or confused).

Cheers

id-iom

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Moiety

This picture really does have it all. A classy design, laser cutting, hand painting, crystal resin, silver leaf, variegated blue/green gold leaf, glitter, a word that it turns out most people don’t seem to know and a dymo printed definition of said word. Just to clear things up a bit. Apparently use of the word ‘moiety’ was much more prevalent in the 1800’s. My brain refuses to tell me where it came to my attention but it’s been rattling around in there so I just thought it deserved to be let loose so it can be used a bit more. So here it is in all it’s redesigned id-iom glory. You’ll be hearing it more if I can manage to shoehorn it into a write up…

Cheers

id-iom

Words are like weapons, they wound sometimes

Graffiti small print – ‘Jean Paul Sartre as paraphrased by Cher’

As I’m sure we all know French existential philosopher Jean Paul Sartre once said ‘Words are loaded pistols’. I think we can all appreciate the sentiment behind this statement as surely we’ve all said something we regret every once in a while. And once those words are said the pistol has been fired and there’s no turning back.

Original image of Jean Paul Sartre which our design is based on

This design started life as the image of existential French Jean Paul Sartre’s head with his loaded pistol words alongside but as I love an earworm if I can possibly get away with it I took some inspiration from the world of music to see if I could get Cher’s seminal 1989 hit ‘If I could turn back time‘ playing unheeded in your brain.

In the song Cher utters the immortal words ‘Words are like weapons, they wound sometimes’ and this rang a bell in my brain as it seemed close enough to Sartre’s words to make use of. Hopefully that will strike a chord in your brain and you’ll be singing it all day. Mission accomplished!

Whilst we were painting it some hapless busybody decided to try and let me know that I’d misquoted Sartre but, of course, I hadn’t as she had neglected to read my ‘Jean Paul Sartre as paraphrased by Cher’ small print graffiti. id-iom 1 – random passerby 0. Ha! In your face!

Cheers

id-iom

Celebrity wordsearch

Game on! Here’s a 1m x 1m piece which also functions as a giant celebrity wordsearch. Can you work out what it says? It’s a little tricky but i think i’ve got there…

Below that is a similar wordsearch on an abandoned wall.

CELEBRITY WORDSEARCH ON CANVAS

CELEBRITY WORDSEARCH ON WALL