John Langdon

Who is John Langdon?

John Langdon is an American graphic designer, ambigram artist, painter, and writer.

The son of George Langdon, a teacher at The Episcopal Academy in Merion, Pennsylvania, John Langdon attended that school from 1950-1964. He received his bachelor's degree in English from Dickinson College, graduating in 1968. A self-taught artist and graphic designer, Langdon has free-lanced as a lettering artist and logo design specialist since 1976. Known for his ambigrams, which he began developing in the late 1960s and early 70s, Langdon featured those and his essays in the book Wordplay, published in 1992. Langdon is known mostly through his association with Dan Brown, and the novels Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol and Inferno. The protagonist of these novels was named Robert Langdon as a tribute to John Langdon, and he will continue to be so for his next 12 books, an estimate given by Dan Brown himself.

Langdon is now a professor of typography and corporate identity at Drexel University in Philadelphia. He continues to do work on ambigrams, as well and fine art works that incorporate language, type, and philosophy.