2020 has been a heck of a year… and maybe in hindsight (hindsight, of course, being 2020) it will all make sense. But, I think we can all agree that it is time to let it go.

A lot has changed this past year but one tradition we wanted to keep alive was the short videos we create to welcome the new year—a family tradition since 2008. Our videos are usually typographical in nature with some kind of an AHA! moment built in. This year’s video is somewhat different in that it is entirely created on the computer. This is something we have resisted doing since a large part of the fun has been designing the props and the process of shooting/editing to create the final video. However, as my friend Neelakshi pointed out, in some ways it is fitting that this year’s video should be entirely created on a computer since that’s where we did everything!

Check out the latest video, saying goodbye to 2020 and welcoming 2021. May this year be one of joy and peace for all.

You can see all the previous years’ videos here. As you can see we have had a lot of fun over the years.

The idea behind the video?

The video hinges on writing the word “zero” in such a way that it reads “one” when rotated by 180 degrees.

Such designs (that let you read words in more than one way) are called ambigrams. You can learn more about ambigrams (and the underlying mathematical ideas behind these designs) here or by watching the video below.