The Chameleon Party Game
This card game box practically jumped off the shelf at me. The bright blue and highlighter yellow stand out from everything else around it. Not only that, but the text takes advantage of optical illusion to succinctly reflect the spirit of the card game, which is to blend in. It was hard to capture with my camera, but from many angles the text was really hard to read. However, step back, and the text is revealed. Reduced legibility is typically a risky move, but it is applied very purposefully here in a fun way. The best way to experience this digitally is to zoom out (ctrl+scroll or cmd+scroll). In the off-center photo below, one can see how legibility increase as one reads from the closest side (left) to the furthest (right).
That game design sure does catch the eye. Apparently the strategy of hiding messages in ordinary objects is called steganography. With that being said this seems to be a perfect example of it. I have seen similar illusions before but this one does an impressive job hiding the text. What is even more impressive to me is the complete opposite color choice that also still manages to hide the text. The artist must have varied the shape and size of the small squares in order to get the text to appear. Even the cards in the game have the same optical illusion to them. The concept of the game is for everyone to have a word, but the chameleon is unaware of the word. All of the players go around in a circle and say a word that is supposed to relate to the word but not give it away. It is the chameleon’s job to come up with a word that could relate, but not know the actual keyword.