Fractals, ambigrams & more

by | Sunday, July 29, 2018

Photo & and design © Punya Mishra.
The photo of bubbles was taken with cell phone camera (equipped with a macro lens). 

Fractals are mathematical/geometrical structures that exhibit self-similarity at increasingly small (or large) scales. Fractals were popularized by Benoit B. Mandelbrot in his 1982 book “The Fractal Geometry of Nature.” Recently, Ambigram.com magazine set up a competition to design fractal ambigrams, i.e. design and write words related to fractals in such a way that it could be read in more than one way.  I was inspired to create a bunch of designs that, in one way or another, attempt to capture fractals typographically.

Here for instance is a typographic fractal design for the word “Fractal.” You can see an animated version of this and many more designs here

Enjoy.

Topics related to this post: Creative Work

A few randomly selected blog posts…

Design at Apple (a his-story)

Fast Company has compiled an oral-history of design at Apple. It did so through interviews with many of the key players in Apple's history. It is a his-story because, though there are some women who show up... the main narrative is about guys, Steve Jobs, Jonathan...

It Takes Two: A scientific romp using AI

It Takes Two: A scientific romp using AI

Dark 'n' Light is an e-zine that "explores science, nature, social justice and culture, through the arts and humanities." It is a labor of love by a small, dedicated team led by Susan Matthews, former legal and policy wonk, turned editor and podcaster. I came to know...

The incredible drowning man (returns)

It's good to be back at Twente, meeting old friends and making some new ones. I had a pretty light day yesterday, which was good because I had gone around 30 hours without any sleep. After checking into the hotel and getting a short but much needed nap, I took a walk...

12 Days of Christmas, the desi version

I love mongrel culture the mashing and creative remixing elements from different cultures and traditions to construct something new and, hopefully, wonderful. A great example is something my daughter, Shreya, showed me the other day. It is the 12 Days of Christmas...

Today’s Internet cliché award goes to:

Sara Black, a professor of health studies at St. Joseph's University for the following insightful quote: "The Internet can be a great tool, like any tool, it can also be misused." Check it out on CNN.com in a story titled "#@*!!! Anonymous anger rampant on...

Miami / Globe Video Update

Miami / Globe Video Update

I had posted earlier about the work our design initiatives team is involved with at Miami Junior-Senior High School. Essentially the entire faculty and leadership at the school have taken on the challenge of re-imagining the 7/8 curriculum through an integrated...

When tech comes first: The Khan Academy as leading pedagogical change

As I go around the country talking about the TPACK framework, one of the questions that is always put to me is, about which comes first when planning a lesson, content, pedagogy or technology. The standard answer is that content comes first since it is only after we...

The death of the university?

Zephyr Teachout (supposedly an associate law professor at Fordham University, a writer, and an online entrepreneur) has a great article on bigmoney.com, titled Welcome to Yahoo! U: The Web will dismember universities, just like newspapers. His essential argument is...

1 Comment

  1. Alessandro

    Hi Punya.
    I really appreciate your ambigrams: they are well made indeed!
    Just for you to correct a wrong link: the monthly competition is not on ambigram.com (the site, alas, is dead after a crash), but on ambigr.am
    Do you know about other competitions around the world?
    Have a nice day
    Alessandro, an Italian in Germany

    Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *