A subtly gradated rainbow of CMYK shades broken into pieces, 1000 Colours is a gorgeous, mind-blowing puzzle.

Designer Clemens Habicht says the idea came to him while he was “enjoying the subtle differences in the blue of a sky in a particularly brutal jigsaw puzzle.” Without the presence of image details to guide him, he says, “I was relying only on an intuitive sense of color, and this was much more satisfying.”

So he created a puzzle that would multiply the effect. Unlike ordinary puzzles where you reassemble a specific image based on a reference, the 1000 Colours puzzle clues you in to where pieces belong based on their hues.

“There is a real logic in the doing that is weirdly soothing, therapeutic,” he says of the challenge of fitting together dozens of similar-looking pieces that look from a distance like a colorful blur. “As each piece clicks perfectly into place, just so, it’s a little win, like a little pat on the back.”

Check out the time-lapse video of the puzzle being assembled below.

Via Boing Boing