In October last year, we collaborated with Wallpaper* magazine to produce 'Moving Wallpaper*'. The issue — which utilised the pre-moving image Ombro Cinema technique — was Wallpaper*'s second best-selling issue of 2010 and one of our favourite projects from last year. Following its success, they asked us to work with them on another issue.

Our task was to design an A2 poster insert for Wallpaper*'s first ever fashion-themed issue. As with 'Moving Wallpaper*'. we were asked to bring some future magic to the traditional print format, but this time around the theme of colour. The brief was ideal: we needed to produce a colour-based print experiment that, in the words of Wallpaper* art director Meirion Pritchard, would induce 'brain fry'.

We started to explore the fringes of what can be done with static imagery and settled on the area of optical illusions.This led us to the work of psychologist Professor Akiyoshi Kitaoka in Kyoto, who we think of as a kind of vision scientist/wizard. He is known for his work producing apparently dynamic optical illusions but also for experiments which alter our perception of colour. Professor Kitaoka's work is academically extremely rigorous whilst at the same time appearing playful and engaging.

With the benefit of Professor Kitaoka's wisdom and previous experiments, we developed a graphic version of the Munker Illusion. In his original version, the apparent orange and purple red shown in the upper row are actually the same red, and the apparent yellowish-green and bluish green displayed in the lower row are actually the same green. And here's how …

When a graphic area is enclosed by a coloured surround and both are partly occluded by a coloured grating, the area appears to be tinted in the same direction as the colour of the grating (assimilation) as well as in the direction opposite to the colour of the surround (contrast). The illusion works through this combination of assimilation and contrast, tricking the eye into perceiving colours that are not actually present.

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Even those who make the images are tricked. the agency designer Camille Bozzini — who created the Wallpaper* images — says, 'You can't teach yourself not to fall for them. Even if you've created them, you are always surprised by the result'.

Wallpaper*'s Fashion Issue featuring the agency's 'Colour Illusion' work is on sale from today.