Obviously, the internet is packed full of stellar optical illusions, but spotting them out in the wild is even better. And a brilliant example of a clever illusion has resurfaced on Reddit, in the form of a piece of album art found on a vinyl record released back in 2005.
Fascinatingly, viewing the illusion digitally is a totally different experience from how the art was intended to be viewed. Taking the form of a checked black and white square, the title of the artist and album can only be seen when viewing it from far away. When handling the physical record, this can only mean walking away from it, but the digital version means zooming out on your keyboard (or walking away from the screen), or viewing it as a thumbnail. Check it out below, and see our optical illusions roundup for more incredible examples.
Spotted the writing? For those who can't see it yet, the top-right corner contains the words Soulwax (the artist), with NY Excuse appearing below it (the name of the album).
Fans on Reddit (opens in new tab) questioned how the effect was achieved, with Kraenerlus (opens in new tab) suggesting that "the white squares inside the text zones are smaller than the outside ones so the black lines are thicker". This was backed up by KingKopaTroopa (opens in new tab), who confirmed that they have "achieved this by doing 2 different halftone sizes, then simply mask one over the other (using type as the mask)".
Perhaps more exciting than finding new optical illusions to marvel at, is the opportunity to create one yourself. Enthusiastic photographers were recently stunned by a brand-new way to photograph the Eiffel Tower that created a mind-bending optical illusion.
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