Can You See the Parallel Stripes in This Optical Illusion?

Magical entertainer and illusionist Victoria Skye makes the impossible seem possible for a living. There aren’t any smoke and mirrors involved in her latest trick: Her “cafe wall” optical illusion is the result of some clever design.

In the image above, the darker blue horizontal stripes appear to lay at zig-zagging angles across the frame. In reality, they’re perfectly parallel to one another. The slanted effect is created by the use of alternating patterns (in the top row, the interior pattern is drawn to lean slightly to the left while the one beneath it leans slightly to the right, and so on).

The alternating colors also contribute to the illusion. As The Telegraph points out, the illusion was inspired by a tiled wall that can be found in Bristol, England. The staggered nature of the white squares against the green makes it seem as if the parallel rows were built at different angles. Though the Bristol wall is the original, there are plenty of examples of cafe walls around the world if you’re looking for more illusions to make your head spin.