See Opposite: Twelve Antigrams
An antigram is a rare type of anagram. If you take a word or phrase, and using all the same letters, make another word or phrase with the opposite meaning, or antonym, then the new word or phrase is called the “antigram” of the original. For instance, the antigram of “united” is “untied”—same letters, opposite meaning.
Every year Pentagram designs and publishes a small greeting booklet, usually designed around a game or activity, that we send to our friends, clients and colleagues. This year’s edition is See Opposite: Twelve Antigrams, designed by Angus Hyland and his team in our London office. The book contains twelve antigrams, with clues on the facing pages (“see opposite”). We have adapted the puzzles for an online version here.
Go to See Opposite: Twelve Antigrams
See if you can figure out the antigrams. For each, the subject word or phrase is given at the top of the page. You can then work out the antigram with the help of the clue and the illustration.
A gallery of our previous holiday books, from 1971 to 2008, was featured in Wallpaper; last year’s greeting was our popular What Type are You typography test.
Project Team: Angus Hyland, partner-in-charge and designer; Fabian Herrmann, Zara Moore, Alex Johns, designers. Writer: David Gibbs. Website development by Niko Skourtis.