In the 1980’s, Oscar Reutersvärd (the father of the impossible figure) was honored in Sweden with the release of three postage stamps featuring his impossible art.  These items were not in circulation for very long and have since become sought after collectibles.  Below is one of the stamps that features a twisted figure that bends in an impossible manner.

The other two postage stamps featuring impossible designs can be seen in the full post below.

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Fritz Müller Perlwein is a German sparkling wine made by Jürgen Hofmann.  Their unique packaging and labels use horizontal black and white stripes, and this poster uses offsetting black and white stripes a “phantom” bottle of their product.  No bottle exists here, but you certainly cannot help but to see it.

The original label and packaging for Fritz Müller Perlwein can be seen on the photograph below.

(via Fritz Mueller)

More detail can be seen in the photograph below (especially the image on the right that shows the contour of the portrait).

(via Andrew Myers)

John Langdon designed this ambigram titled Philosphy, Art, & Science in 2009 as a personal project.  When rotated 180 degrees, the text reads exactly the same.

Here is the rotated version of this design.

To see more of John’s designs, have a look at his True/False ambigram and Love figured/ground design.

(via John Langdon)

Jane Perkins takes ordinary objects that she finds in various places and arranges them into something completely new.  Shown below is her recreation of Dutch painter Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring.   She finds most of her materials at charity shops, boot sales (a kind of flea market popular in the UK), and recycling centers.  Her friends and neighbors donate interesting things that they find as well.  Most of her pieces take about three weeks to complete as she works the found materials into their final form.

(via Jane Perkins)

Here, streetpainter Tracy Lee Stum can be seen bringing the Grand Canyon directly to the streets of Santa Monica, California.  She was tasked by the Arizona Tourism Board to create this remarkable piece of street art in an effort to get Californians interested in visiting the National Park at some point in the future.  The real Grand Canyon is 277 miles wide and over a mile deep in some spots.  I would think that it would be quite a challenge to recreate such a breathtaking landscape with chalks and paints on a flat surface, but Tracy and her team did a tremendous job with it.  Great work Tracy… you can tell the Arizona Tourism Board that I will be booking my reservations shortly as I have never had the privilege of visiting the Grand Canyon.

(via Tracy Lee Stum)

The Blu-Ray+DVD cover of the 20th Anniversary Edition of the movie The Princess Bride features an ambigram.  The romantic comedy adventure movie, originally released in 1987, was directed and co-produced by Rob Reiner and received a rating of “two thumbs up” from Siskel & Ebert.  The text in the middle of the cover reads the same when viewed right-side-up or upside-down.  Seen here is the cover viewed one way where the lead male (Cary Elwes as Westley/Dread Pirate Roberts) and female (Robin Wright as Buttercup) cast members can be seen looking young and very much in love.

An inverted version of this cover featuring the same two individuals looking much older can be seen below.

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