ambigrams

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turn the picture upside down
upside-down optical illusion are quite labile, and can be
cognitively manipulated.
you can decide to ‘make a ceiling into a floor’,
and suddenly see it that way.
‘the neat waiting-maid’ -
this illustration shows a waiter behind what
appears to be a skirted table with two place settings.
the vision turns into another waiter carrying a food tray.
this visual trick utilizes a mirror-image effect to
achieve two distinct pictures.
‘the necker cube’ -
is another figure reversal illusion.
the way you see the orientation of the cube depends
on which vertex you decide is closer.
upside down illusions are often a combination of
both techniques.

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matchboxes
rightside-up and upside-down faces
are among the most popular optical illustrations in history.
a collection of upside down art adorned match boxes
during the late 19th and early 20th century.
these whimsical images were cleverly drawn so
as to be viewable right side up or upside down.
noses become forehead creases, mustaches
become sweet little curls on a girl's head...

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upside down comics
every image should not only be reversible on its own,
but should also fit into the story.
gustave verbeck (1867 - 1937) was the son of a
dutch missionary in tokyo. he grew up in japan and
studied arts in paris. he moved to the united states
(where his name was misspelled as ‘verbeek’ by an
immigration officer. he continued using both names).
he worked as a cartoonist, illustrator and painter,
he's remembered for his incredible upside-down
cartoons (he made a total of 64).
‘the upside downs of little lady lovekins
and old man muffaroo’ series appeared in the
new york herald from 1903 to 1905.

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‘the margaret thatcher illusion’
originally presented in thompson, p. (1980)
‘margaret thatcher: a new illusion.’ perception.
although the two downside images may look a bit
different, neither should seem too odd.
when you flip them vertically you can see the faces
right side up... a surprising effect!
the illusion illustrates the fact that rightside-up and
upside-down faces are processed differently,
which some people take as evidence that parts of our
brain are specialized for (normal, rightside-up)
face perception.