Wall Illusion: Easy Forced-Perspective Wall Art (Without Using a Projector)

Step 2 Pick Your Wall, Pick Your Image

SELECT YOUR WALL:
You want to pick a place where two (or preferably three) surfaces meet. I picked the dreary and ugly corner pictured below. Some considerations to take into account when picking your wall:

• Does it have a clear line of sight to where you want the illusion "focused"? (Even the coolest image in the world isn't going to "pop" unless you have a good place to view it from. Pick a place that's far enough away [4m+] from where you'll be viewing it.)
• Does it have enough room for the image? (the most appealing illusions are going to be rather LARGE... the bigger the better. Does the wall have enough room to accommodate the scale of the image?)
• Will mounting the image be a problem? (Is the wall rough or stippled, or will it present any impediments to the specific mounting-method you are going to employ? How high up is it? Do you have a ladder?)

SELECT YOUR IMAGE:
I worked with a single-color image. This makes printing costs quite a bit more reasonable and the contrast makes it "pop" more. I bet some cool effects could be accomplished by using images other than linework... but it's going to make it more complicated. Try to limit yourself to fewer (ideally "one") color to save some headache... (or, hell, go all-out... I'd be excited to see what you can come up with if you pull it off). Some considerations to take into account when picking your image:

• Can you get it in vector format? (Not a requirement for the project, but it makes things quite a bit easier.)
• If you're not working with Vector, is the image's resolution sufficient to blow it up to the size you want? (Not going to go too far into this in this instructable, but there's probably an internet forum out there who could help you if you're unsure about what constitutes "big enough".) It's to your tastes and your quality-standards, ultimately. I wouldn't make something of anything close to this size without a 2000px raster image, minimum. Your mileage may vary. Additionally: There are many ways to vectorize raster graphics... Poke around for an instructable if you're interested. Some methods produce great results, some not-so-great; and some are easier than others.
• Will this image look cool in forced perspective? (Personally, I like how geometric images come together in forced perspective, but I've seen some awesome organic shapes, as well. Typography would look nice; high-contrast looks nice... Give some thought to finding the perfect image; there's tons of 'em out there).

I ended up going with the following logo. I found it on Wikipedia where it is available as an SVG (vector) file on the image's download page. It's also public-domain, which I'm very thankful for... I wouldn't want to be the target of Abahlali BaseMjondolo's high-powered ivy-league lawyers.