When Dylan Sadiq was 21, he emptied his savings account on something his mother (perhaps understandably) considered a completely frivolous expense — not an Xbox or closet full of Nikes but rather 600 individually wrapped Rubik’s Cubes. “It was a few thousand dollars,” he recounted with a laugh on a recent call with Nice News.
Sadiq, now 26, was a college student at Rutgers University at the time, but his in-person education had been waylaid by the COVID-19 pandemic. Bored at home and itching to build — something the biomedical engineering major had been looking forward to in his university experience — he played around with a few different projects, like creating solar panel cars and 3D printing. But he yearned to do something a bit more creative.
Then, inspiration struck. He’d been solving Rubik’s Cubes since the age of 10, and one day he realized they had something in common with digital images. “Pixels are quite literally just tiny digital colored squares, and my Rubik’s Cubes are kind of like physical colored squares,” Sadiq explained, adding: “It seemed like in theory, if I had enough Rubik’s Cubes, I’d be able to make some really cool images.”
If that sounds like a wild leap to you, you’re probably not an engineer. “That’s, like, what engineers do,” Sadiq shared. “They just have crazy ideas, and then spend all their money and then hope that it works out in the end.”
@thecollegecuber Is Shai ready to be the face of the league? 👑 #game7 #fyp #explorepage
♬ original sound – The College Cuber
Having taken several courses on computer programming, he coded a custom program that breaks down any image into pixels and converts the colors to white, yellow, orange, red, blue, and green, allowing him to map out exactly how to create artwork using the puzzle toys.
The first piece of cube art he created was a portrait of then-Dallas Mavericks point guard Luka Dončić (who now plays for the Los Angeles Lakers). Made of 560 cubes and measuring about 4 feet wide by 5.5 feet tall, it took Sadiq around 12 hours to complete.
In April 2021, he posted a video to social media of his creation, assembled in a wooden frame he’d also built himself, and tagged the Mavericks — who saw it, commented, and reposted. From there, other sports teams took notice, which encouraged Sadiq to hone his newfound skill. He spent the next six months creating, shrinking his build time for each each piece down to about two-and-a-half hours.
Soon, he was being invited to create his cube art live at sports games and other events, getting the crowd involved in the process. Calling himself The College Cuber, he brings piles of the puzzles with him and teaches attendees how to solve one side of the cube at a time to get the color he needs for a specific part of the artwork. “It’s a lot easier than you think it is,” he insisted.
@thecollegecuber I can’t believe I made artwork for Game 4 of the NBA Finals 🤯 @Pacers @YouTube
♬ original sound – The College Cuber
Today, these interactive performances constitute a full-time job, and he’s branched out into Lego art as well. He’s created a cube mosaic of SpongeBob SquarePants for the 2024 Kids’ Choice Awards in Los Angeles, did a live build during Game 4 of the 2025 NBA Finals, and built a 900-cube mosaic featuring characters from the cartoon Paw Patrol for the 2025 Toy Fair in New York City. He also makes mosaics out of his art studio in New Jersey, sharing the videos with his over 600,000 social media followers.
His favorite pieces are portraits — and he has a preference when it comes to which images he selects as inspiration. “All my personal designs have the person smiling in them. Every single design that I have,” Sadiq explained, noting that it’s “just good vibes” and adding: “I think the best images of people are when they’re smiling.”
He said he has no plans to do anything related to his college degree for now, not because he isn’t interested in the field (he called himself “an engineer at heart”) but because his current endeavor is just too enjoyable.
“I have a lot of freedom in my life. I also have a lot of fun in my life,” Sadiq explained. “You know, I get to travel all across the country, work with clients that people dream of.” Next up, he’s considering starting his own management or consulting firm to help other artists make inroads for themselves as he has.
As for his mother? She’s since come around to her son’s out-there idea. “Now my mom’s, like, my biggest fan and supports everything that I do,” said Sadiq, who still lives at home, adding that having his laundry done and dinner made for him every night is “super helpful” too.
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