--- title: Carpet Optical Illusion Goes Viral description: Twitter can't handle the wild optical illusion of this store's carpet, which seems designed to trip up customers. canonical: https://time.com/4953379/evil-viral-carpet/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-22T16:34:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:47:28.284Z og:title: This "Evil" Carpet Design Is Driving the Internet Mad og:description: It's an illusion og:url: https://time.com/4953379/evil-viral-carpet/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt90477af919a6c409/6988611a8e0601324346213f/frank-stella-retrospective-whitney-museum.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: frank-stella-retrospective-whitney-museum og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This "Evil" Carpet Design Is Driving the Internet Mad twitter:description: It's an illusion twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt90477af919a6c409/6988611a8e0601324346213f/frank-stella-retrospective-whitney-museum.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This 'Evil' Carpet Design Is Driving the Internet Mad > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=488a63aa-2241-4c61-a55a-d9ba834c43f7&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Sep 22, 2017 4:34 PM UTC  The flatness of Stella’s early work was no decorative choice. It was an article of faith—that serious art was played on a 2-D field. But as soon as he introduced pulsing color, as in Gran Cairo (1962), back came the illusion of deep space The flatness of Stella’s early work was no decorative choice. It was an article of faith—that serious art was played on a 2-D field. But as soon as he introduced pulsing color, as in Gran Cairo (1962), back came the illusion of deep space Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Friends of the Whitney Museum of American Art 63.34  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Sep 22, 2017 4:34 PM UTC This is one illusion that we could all probably do without. A store’s wildly disconcerting [space-time continuum](http://time.com/3951160/the-space-time-continuum/) carpet design has gone viral after a Twitter user snapped a picture of the trippy [optical illusion](http://time.com/4895429/viral-optical-illusion/) and tweeted it out, sending viewers into a tizzy. (Such a tizzy, in fact, that it was liked more than 90 thousand times as of Friday afternoon.) “Whoever designed this floor is evil,” Twitter user @MrMuselk noted. “THATS \[sic\] A FLAT CARPET.” The wavy grid pattern on the (magic?) carpet makes it look as though the floor has potholes scattered across it — and whoever manages the store decided to put the display kiosks only on the spots that appear flat, giving the illusion even greater impact. As [_Nerdist_ reported](http://nerdist.com/how-to-make-your-home-look-like-the-space-time-continuum/) in the past, the carpet is from [Ege Designs](https://www.facebook.com/pg/EgeCarpets/photos/), and would be a great decor choice for those interested in visualizing the fabric of our universe on the daily. Regardless of the science and math behind it, Twitter is in agreement that the design is pretty evil for the casual passerby just trying to safely cross the floor. > [](https://twitter.com/MrMuselk/status/910738757019566086) > [](https://twitter.com/yesnicksearcy/status/911047325237121024) > [](https://twitter.com/anigeluk/status/910844364053676033) > [](https://twitter.com/MortarChelle/status/910820956532363269) > [](https://twitter.com/devansh1103/status/910933074023653376) > [](https://twitter.com/stephencass/status/910901013648986113) Of course, someone else had to one-up this floor with a tile design of equally sadistic proportions. > [](https://twitter.com/DuncanCook10/status/910941171593117697) And this bathroom, which may make some visitors think twice about taking a trip to the loo. > [](https://twitter.com/ccluster99/status/910930616849457154) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4953379/evil-viral-carpet/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4953379/evil-viral-carpet/"},"headline":"This 'Evil' Carpet Design Is Driving the Internet Mad","datePublished":"2017-09-22T16:34:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:47:28.284Z","description":"Twitter can't handle the wild optical illusion of this store's carpet, which seems designed to trip up customers.","url":"https://time.com/4953379/evil-viral-carpet/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt90477af919a6c409/6988611a8e0601324346213f/frank-stella-retrospective-whitney-museum.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt90477af919a6c409/6988611a8e0601324346213f/frank-stella-retrospective-whitney-museum.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"frank-stella-retrospective-whitney-museum","caption":"frank-stella-retrospective-whitney-museum","creditText":"Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Friends of the Whitney Museum of American Art 63.34","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4953379/evil-viral-carpet/","name":"This 'Evil' Carpet Design Is Driving the Internet Mad"}}]}] ```