Inversions: A Catalog of Calligraphic Cartwheels

by Scott Kim

Book Overview

Word Designs Demonstrate Symmetry Introduce your students to the basic concepts of symmetry with more than 60 mind-boggling lettering designs by Scott Kim, whom Isaac Asimov called "the Escher of the alphabet." Each word in Inversions exhibits striking geometrical symmetry. For instance, the word mirror is written with reflectional symmetry; symmetry reads the same upside down; and infinity spirals off to infinity. The accompanying essays connect...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0716720442
• ISBN13: 9780716720447
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: W.H. Freeman & Company
• Length: 125 Pages
• Weight: 0.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 9.0" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Inspiring letters

I can't stop looking at this book. I already used his concepts to do the alphabetic origami that he does so well for friends and family. Then I actually read the text (side irony: I was too involved in looking at the words to read) and the ideas he gives are great food for thought. Delicious in fact.

Yes except for the Sun logo!

I bought this book after reading Douglas Hofstadter's GEB. I liked it a lot; I'm the type who fiddles with logos and word- and letter-forms a lot.The Sun Microsystems logo is a well-known "inversion" that Scott Kim didn't make. I even tried to congratulate him on it once. It's by Vaughn Pratt.Kim, according to a comment on his web site, did the original Silicon Graphics (SGI) logo.

Excellent book for unique typographical posibilities

I think that every graphitti artist should read this book before defacing a wall. It was written by the designer of the logo for Sun Microsystems and a few others. It is a really facinating book, it shows you how to think the same way as the author, and how to design text that can be read as one word right-side up, and as another up-side down. I highly recommend it.Darius