Stunning optical illusion takes viral TikTok trend to the next level

By Amelia Bamsey
published

The milk crate challenge goes 2D.

A woman sat on top of the milk crate challenge street art.
(Image credit: Naomi Haverland)

Ah, the milk crate challenge — a light-hearted viral trend where users simply climb up and down a staircase-shaped pile of milk crates. Sounds easy right? It's not. The instability of the crates means that it's incredibly difficult to balance on, hence the large number of milk crate-based fail videos circulating the internet. 

The TikTok challenge is actually super hard, and a countless number of videos have since been banned in fear that participants could cause themselves some serious damage. But fear not, milk crate challenge fans, we have found a far safer version of the risky challenge for you. Fancy making your own TikToks? Make sure you check out our list of the best TikTok lights. 

A post shared by Naomi Haverland (@naomihaverland)

A photo posted by on

That's right, this pile of crates is actually a clever optical illusion designed by Naomi Haverland. The street art appeared on Maple Grove in Minnesota and the people (and dogs) passing by seemed to love the ingenious design. The illusion was drawn with chalk and cleverly uses perspective to make a 2D image look 3D.

A dog sat on top of the street art design of the milk crate challenge.

One happy pup enjoyed the street art (Image credit: Naomi Haverland)

Haverland took to Reddit to speak about the her work, saying, "my friend gave me this idea to make a milk crate challenge out of chalk." The artist went on to explain that she didn't have any milk crates to create a reference from, so she posted to a 3D design community on Reddit, and one user created a 3D model of the crates for Haverland to use. We love it when we get to see the art and design worlds collide.

A 3D model of milk crates stacked on top of each other.

This 3D model of milk crates was used as the reference for the chalk street art (Image credit: Naomi Haverland)

Redditors loved Haverland's design and many were quick to compliment her artistry. We think it's amazing that Reddit was able to bring together two artists to achieve this one piece of innovative work.

the_safest_milkcrate_challenge from r/woahdude
the_safest_milkcrate_challenge from r/woahdude
the_safest_milkcrate_challenge from r/woahdude

While we don't think we will be trying out the milk crate challenge anytime soon, we love this hand drawn optical illusion. If you liked this street art-based mind-boggler then you will definitely want to see this fantastic illusion in Rome. And we've created an exciting list of street art to get you inspired to make your own.

Read More:

Thank you for reading 5 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access

Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription

Join now for unlimited access

Try first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

Amelia Bamsey
Amelia Bamsey
Staff Writer

Amelia is Creative Bloq’s Staff Writer. After completing a degree in Popular Music and a Master’s in Song Writing, Amelia began designing posters, logos, album covers and websites for musicians. She now enjoys covering a range of topics on Creative Bloq, including posters, optical illusions, logos (she's a particular fan of logo Easter eggs), gaming and illustration. In her free time, she relishes in the likes of art (especially the Pre-Raphaelites), photography and literature. Amelia prides herself on her unorthodox creative methods, her Animal Crossing island and her extensive music library.

Related articles