Mighty Optical Illusions

Ariel Stain Remover Optical Illusion

2010-02-09T16:21:46Z

As always, if you are into marketing, and would like your marketed product to gain as much attention possible, be creative! This is what I’m constantly promoting to my fellow marketers. Optical illusions contain just that special ingredient of design/mystery, thus helps numerous brands that decide to use them as part of their advertising. Check our Billboards section to see what I’m talking about! And no, (unfortunately) I’m not compensated for any of these posters I put on my site. The reason they’re hear is because nicely done optical illusions, are often manufactured by professional design companies, most of the time as byproduct of some advertising campaign. Still, the reason they get viral probably lies in the things I already mentioned. Just think about it – I believe Über-success story is when you YOUR AD goes VIRAL (equals = free marketing and branding)! For example, take a look at Ariel poster for their new stain removal product. They cleverly used one of the most recognized color adapting illusions, and got that WOW EFFECT for their ad. This isn’t the first time Ariel did something creative. More examples inside.

Rainbow Ghost Optical Illusion

2010-02-08T15:42:24Z

You might remember back in 2007, when John Shadowsky introduced us for the first time to the new kind of optical illusion he invented. I’m talking about one that gave us ability to see black and white photos in full color! This is the closest you get to having super-hero powers. It was really an extraordinary value added to the optical illusions field, but also an interesting phenomena brought to attention of those studying visual sciences. The below rainbow is just one of many emerging samples, based on John’s discovery.

To see this optical illusion in it’s full capacity, wait for the animated .gif to loop to its start. You’ll know you’re there when you see a full colored rainbow appear. Now stare at the center dot for few seconds, and at one time the animation will switch. But don’t move your eyes from central dot just yet! What do you see? If you followed my procedure precisely, sooner or later you’ll find out that the animation below consists of two similar images. Only difference between them, is that one is in color, and the other is black and white. After staring at the color rainbow’s central dot, negative colors burnt in your retina, and you were able to see the black and white photo in full color!

Ocean Ripple Optical Illusion

2010-02-07T18:06:59Z

I received this peculiar photo back in January, which was sent to me by one of our fans. With your help, together we can solve the mystery behind it. What is so strange about it, you might ask. Well, some of you may see it as an ordinary photo, of what seems to be a simple column wall, surrounded by rippling water floating behind it. But many may see the columns differently. Some of my colleagues argued that the columns are themselves immersed in water, and that lower part of the column-wall is actually just a reflection on a fluid surface. What is it then? Few of you may even guess that the reflection is in fact part of the wall that can be seen through water surface. However, this solution is unacceptable for many reasons, but just to name one – simple physics shows us that water bends light, so if we were seeing what is below the surface, it would be bent in a way similar to this one. Lets discuss this!

Cool Optical Illusion, Bro!

2010-02-05T14:59:39Z

Ever seen something so dumb, that it’s actually good? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you obviously missed Evil Dead trilogy, and haven’t seen a single SNL episode. Well, when I opened my mailbox to see some optical illusion trends, I was amazed to see how popular this photo became in such a short notice. It still bugs me, but I decided to share it with you! Could this instead be the most complex magic trick ever? I surely doubt so… Watch how this dude pulls an optical illusion, sort off.

Magnum Light Optical Illusion

2010-02-03T17:34:54Z

Hehe, probably not as misleading as those Sexy Feet, Paper Breast or The Lamp Optical Illusion were, but still what we have here is one awesome poster created by Miko for their popular ice cream brand Magnum.

Be honest, what’s the first thing you see when you observe the picture on your right? Is it something sexy by any chance?

If you like this kind of illusions, be sure to check the tags I added at the bottom of this post. There are much more similar ones included! Oh, and don’t worry – I was careful enough to make them safe for all ages! I remind you of my policy, that there is no explicit material on this site, and there will never be anything I consider unsafe.

Still, you should be aware that us Europeans are a little more liberal when it comes to drawing a line between explicit and safe content, though ;)

Michael Kai’s “This Side Up”

2010-02-01T12:58:48Z

Michael Kai is a German-born, and Australian-based photographer who won the First International Photographic Art Prize - Arte Laguna back in 2008. Below you can see a sample from his photographic collection, entitled This Side Up. Rest of the collection can be seen in the embedded gallery, just below the tennis court photo. Kai’s photographs look normal at first glance, but look again and you’ll quickly realize he has cleverly tweaked the pictures to disorient the viewer. Even though it’s obvious that these pictures were digitally edited, they still make you wonder if you’re looking at them the right way around. For me personally, it’s hard to distinguish where normal view ends, and upside-down view begins.

Body of work is about optical illusion and the manipulated perception of space.- Michael Kai

Liquor in Street Art

2010-01-29T17:41:25Z

Today I learned about another talented pavement artist, called Manfred Stader. We had few of his works posted on Mighty Optical Illusions over the years, but I didn’t have a clue Manfred was the artist behind those. So I carefully went through our 3D Chalk Drawings category, and updated belonging posts with correct tag. As you see, 3d street art has been in the spotlight of marketing agencies as of late. Specially for those orientated towards liquors and soda drinks. Manfred has closed some pretty huge marketing deals with major brands, including Jack Daniel’s. Below you can see some of his newest drawings that were done on a flat surface. Many of you requested I should post additional photos, showing 3d chalk drawings from different angle. Because I listen to all of your suggestions, I have included additional gallery beneath these photos, where you can see some of the paintings from opposite angle. Enjoy!

See those Liquor ads from different angle:

A Man Walks in a Building in Tokyo

2010-01-28T15:15:04Z

There was a post about 3D Floor Tiles, published two years ago. Pattern used when assembling the floor is a well know Escher inspired optical illusion. But in my opinion, no one ever bothered to explain how this works in little more detail. If you saw them tiles somewhere around the internetz previously, you probably learned they can be seen in two completely opposite directions; both as ascending, and descending stairs made out of blocks. From my experience, I learned that some people have hard time visualizing both. So I opened Photoshop, and made some changes to the most recent photograph made by Reuters. My edits were subtle – I added a second businessman, vertically flipped him, and then positioned him on the right part of the photo. Those bold outlines were added by me as well. I hope this will help you to try and visualize the left businessman stepping down, while in the same time seeing right businessman climbing up the blocks. NMN pointed me to this illusion, and I added his funny comment below the picture:

Is this a giant game of Q*Bert? – NMN

Media Manipulation Illusion Example

2010-01-26T21:36:04Z

UPDATE: We had a critical situation here – a database crash, and website ceased to function over the last couple of hours. Luckily backup was available, so everything should function correctly again. But I still need you to help me identify if there are any errors on this site left! Please report all your findings and experience during the down-time.

I don’t know if these shots were taken from an actual photojournalism, or were they just used as a theoretical example, but either way consider this a pretty powerful demonstration. See for yourself how our our perception can be easily shaped, and manipulated with by the media. I believe it isn’t necessary to explain this optical illusion. Photos speak for themselves. Imagine you worked for an administration that wants you to show how soldiers have no mercy when it comes to war. You would use the cropped picture on your left in that case. However, if you worked for the other side, and wanted to depict soldiers as human beings, you would crop the right part of the original photo. There you have it! Such powerful example amazes me, but in the same time scares the sh*t out of me. Which makes me think, should we be more skeptic to stories medias bombard us with?

Advanced Rollers Optical Illusion

2010-01-24T17:40:57Z

In the beginning we had rollers and snakes, optical illusions born accidentally, probably as a by-product to some sort of color experiments. Most of them were invented by a Japanese professor, Akiyoshi Kitaoka. Since then, optical illusion societies have grown. Just look at our website, for example. Many enthusiasts began experimenting with existing material. While during the process, some of them developed their own style, adding great value to this particular topic.

Observe the patterns below, and you may find them somehow relaxing. Even though posing as static images, they manage to give you that motion feeling, making our head hurt and eyes spin. Which one was your favorite? I like the one including Volkswagen Beetles, but I believe we had that one already.