26/04/06
54New desktop wallpaper
I’m still slowly doing site updates, bit by bit, and one of the changes I want to make is refreshing the desktops I have on offer. These are 3+ years old now, and they need updating to new identity.
The first of these is Bloody Hippy, available here in enourmo-scope 1920×1200 resolution:
I have a question for anyone listening – do I really need to supply all the different resolution versions like Veer do? My Intention is to design them to be centred – so that it doesn’t matter if edges are cropped. Is that enough? Let me know if I’m missing a trick here!
Tags: desktops, hicksdesign, updates, wallpaper
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Indranil said 987 days ago:
Nice looking wallpaper. Good work.
Well, you really only need 2 versions, one widescreen, and one fullscreen, in my opinion. Make them damnably large, and everyone’s a happy hippy.
Jakob Wells said 987 days ago:
Lovely, but what’s with the edges around the center, colored hippiness? Some stray white pixels, or maybe it’s my iMac’s screen.
M.e. said 987 days ago:
1920×1200 is perfect for 1 size fits all. Looks great on my cinema and scales nicely on my iBook. Thanks for thinking of us big display folk.
Lauch said 987 days ago:
I hate to say this, as I really like the new logo (even though I hated the 70s styles), but I really dislike brown, especially dark brown. I’m really not sure why I hate the color so much, as I’ve been told it brings out the color in my blue eyes by my wife, but I can’t stand it. I’m sure there’s some childhood event that I’ve forgotten or blocked out that created this hatred for that color.
Anyway, the design itself is pretty nice. Simple and clutter free, which for a desktop, is essential. Would it be alright if I downloaded it and tweaked the colors? I swear I’ll leave the logo alone.
Shad said 987 days ago:
Interesting…
When I first saw the new logo, I wasn’t that chuffed about it, but figuring it was your site and your logo, I wasn’t going to say anything about it. But with the brown background…well, unlike Lauch, I really like it a lot better now that it has the brown in back. Nice work.
And I agree with Indranil…two sizes, one widescreen and one full screen, at a large resolution so people can size down would be good….
Jon Hicks said 987 days ago:
@ Jakob – yes there were some odd pixels. Should be OK now.
@ Lauch – a blue background version is coming!
Olav said 987 days ago:
Looks great, really makes your logo shine.
Having it centred suits me just fine, but yeah, you might want to provide a widescreen version..
Joe Burke said 987 days ago:
Really loving the dark brown background, it works great for the website and the desktop.
Michael G said 987 days ago:
I’m really liking that type face.
stephen said 987 days ago:
To answer your question:
I really cannot understand how anyone can afford personal server space on such huge images. The upload cost is a once off—but if everyone downloads it, your monthly bill is going to need a zipcode of its own!
If hosted at something like flickr.com, then, yeah, make and load every size from 320×240 to 1920×1200.
Sheesh, I just wish I had a monitor that could handle 1920 pixels wide!
I love the brown background of your logo, with your logo sitting like a shadowed button in the middle of one. I almost felt compelled to push the button to see what would happen!
Particularly like the verson on the right of screen with the logo sticking out the top. Brilliant. Inspirational!
Kevan Emmott said 987 days ago:
One widescreen (your 1920×1200 will scale great to me 1680×1050), one full (4×3 – I’d do like 1600×1200), and If you want to be really nice, do a 1280×1024 since that’s kind of the odd man out res at 5×4…
johnie1 said 987 days ago:
i like it
(:
Dane said 987 days ago:
Whoo-hoo! It fits my giant paperweight just fine!
And yes, I LOVE the brown. It fits my filthy hippy lifestyle.
Zac Clark said 987 days ago:
Offering a large resolution size is great even if some people are on smaller monitors. Even if you had offered multiple sizes I would have downloaded the larger version so it would scale on my 1024×968 monitor and, in the event that I got a new computer, I could just copy over my wallpaper folder and have nice, hi-res versions.
Oh, and awesome wallpaper, I love the colors.
giz404 said 987 days ago:
Great wallpaper, I would it in 2560*1600. No I don’t have a 30’ Cinema Display, but it would nicely fit on my dual-screen workstation.
Sajid Khan said 987 days ago:
I love it, especially the brown. If you’re thinking about offering different sized wallpapers, head over to \\mandolux to see the most polular screen resolutions.
And Jon, what cheese would you recommend to stuff in me pitta? It’s usually Red Leicester, and I’m getting bored of that :-)
Morgan Aldridge said 987 days ago:
I too love the logo even more now that there’s the brown! The site flows, like I expect from you. Excellent. The desktop is a great addition.
I’d say that only providing the high-res version of the desktop is fine. Most computers can scale images down very well (and Mac OS X even scales up pretty well), so since you designed it to be centered and cropped as well, you’ve got all the bases covered.
dandavies said 987 days ago:
I really love it Jon, great work. For some reason when I had a quick glance it reminded me of that Louis Vitton (sp?) pattern, heh.
:)
Tim B said 986 days ago:
If it’s too big to fit on my screen without cropping / re-sizing / generally fouling up – then could this be the reason I’ve been waiting for to upgrade to a 23” ?! :)
Drew said 986 days ago:
Love the brown. Love, love, love it. Thanks for the wallpaper!
Andrea said 986 days ago:
Yum! I love it. Thanks!
jordan said 986 days ago:
I’m severely tempted to put it on the computer I’m using as the background, even though we’re only allowed to have blue wallpapers here at school.
Matt Wilcox said 986 days ago:
I kept my mouth shut on the whole ‘logo’ issue, and I’m very glad I did. Before your recent site tweeks, i didn’t like the logo – but it’s amazing how much of a difference context can make. I love the new look, and the new wallpaper! And suddenly the logo too!
Adam Schilling said 986 days ago:
Thanks for the new desktop background, Jon. Scales nicely to 1680×1050 on my 20” iMac display.
Gerben said 986 days ago:
Nice to see the new logo a bit larger. Anti-aliasing seems to be a bit of at the top and right where the red meets the background.
I don’t thing multires. versions are nesseccary since most of your target audience knows how the resize an image.
Mark Jardine said 986 days ago:
No love for the 30” Cinema Display (2560×1600) owners? :(
Jon Hicks said 986 days ago:
Ha! No! Just hatred and raging jealousy!! 30” indeed…
YOP said 986 days ago:
This pictorial background colour photograph
Ethan said 986 days ago:
Fan-goddamn-tastic. Brown never looked so good.
tamole said 986 days ago:
I would think, that with a 1024×768 or even 1280×1024 resolution it could look a little bit too big… I mean the logo… But it’s not really important i think…
simen said 986 days ago:
Nice. Fitsright into the default Ubuntu “Human brown” theme.
Ricardo said 986 days ago:
reminds me … soft leather clothes… maybe chocolate too
I’d like to see this paper on a kind of purple-cyan or orange
this huge-sized one fits perfectly 1280×768
matthew said 986 days ago:
Jon, I am digging this new design the mostest. I probably don’t have the validity that some of these folks here have, but hey, like I said I dig it. However, the desktop has a little quirk for me, and I thought I’d check to see what you think? around the logo I see a really really thin line where the two shapes (bg and logo) don’t meet up?
Is it just me? It kinda distracts me?
Bennet McLean said 986 days ago:
Not big enough for my display resolution, and that is on a ‘small’ 19”.
The large size fits all option may not work that well for old computer users as the excess memory footprint may be enough to crash already unstable systems (I know it used to happen to me many years ago).
Paul said 986 days ago:
Wow! The only two complaints I had when you announced your new logo was the font and the website (not so much a complaint, more a looking forward to how the new identity will integrate with the site). I absolutely love it – especially the use of the browns against the colourful logo. This is amazing.
I also find it interesting how this site seems to go back to your roots a little – it reminds me a lot of how this site was two or so years ago.
Anyway, I just wanted to congratulate you on how the site upgrade is going, and how I’m really warming to this new identity (I never hated it, but I find myself loving it more and more!). As idenities go, it’s individual, original and just plain fantastic!
Luke said 986 days ago:
Lovely Jon! It’s quite a pleasant background to have on your screen—not too distracting but still eye-pleasing.
I still find there’s some weird anti-aliasing going on with the logo. It could be just a weird affect of red on olivey/brown/whatever (I too suffer a bit of the ol’ colour blindness ;)), but here’s a close-up of what I see on the edge.
Jon Hicks said 986 days ago:
There is still some crufty anti-aliasing going on – I need to redo the whole thing in Illustrator or Photoshop, as import to Fireworks doesn’t work very well. :o(
loops said 986 days ago:
The logo is definately growing on me and it makes the hicksbox look pretty sweet, just like this wallpaper.
Great job.
matthew said 986 days ago:
Hey cool.
Glad to see when the illustrator version comes out :) Luke, was able to say what I could only convey. Thanks Luke. The force is with you.
er… I better go, that was bad.
Jon Hicks said 986 days ago:
Matthew – its now live, re-download from the link in the article!
Ian McCorkell said 986 days ago:
Loving the new typeface – what is it Jon?
Elle said 985 days ago:
I like it! Very funky – am using it as my wallpaper now. I think people should be able to centre it themselves, as you say – no need to spend loads of time making different sizes.
Looking forward to the next one!
christian beher said 985 days ago:
i like your redesign … this time its a little bit different than on my last visit. It is great!
goodwitch said 985 days ago:
Jon, Thanks for the delicious new desktop…now to your question on size. I’m of the firm opinion that it is the aspect ratio that is most important. Check out the fantastic Video Standards chart at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Video_Standards.PNG and I think you can get away with 3 desktop sizes for each of the major aspect ratios: 8:5, 5:4 and 4:3. If you want to be pixel perfect, I suppose you could throw in a 16:9 too.
This Video Standards chart is what we used when designing a screensaver that diplays works of art. We sniff your aspect ratio and then feed you the best image size so we don’t have any distorted art.
Daniel Scrivner said 985 days ago:
Great desktop design! I love the browns in contrast with your bright and shining new logo. It’s so nice I even cleared off my desktop to be able to see the entire design.
On the new identity I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical when I came to your website and saw the new logo without the complete remodel of your website. But I have to admit that it’s a logo that definitely grows on you the more I see it expressed in different mediums like this desktop design. The beauty of the new logo is in it’s extrapolation into different mediums and different expressions. Bloody brilliant work!
Jon Hicks said 985 days ago:
@ Ian – Its House Industries ‘Chalet’. Chalet Paris 1970 to be exact!
@ Glenda – You’re a star, but I was hoping ot get away with just 2! ;o)
Aristotle Pagaltzis said 985 days ago:
I think best practice is to offer one high-res version for each aspect ratio you want to support, with 4:3 being the minimum requirement (1600×1200 seems to be the commonly chosen resolution). The rationale is that uniform scaling can be done automatically with sufficiently decent outcome, whereas operations which affect the aspect ratio cannot.
matthew said 984 days ago:
Jon. it looks sweet as it fades in to replace the veer desktops I’ve been rolling with, thanks for the hook ups :) Good fix on the anti-aliasing.
Chris Neale said 983 days ago:
I’m going to be awkward, and mention 2560×1024 and 3840×1024 – that’s 2 and 3 17” panels side-by-side
rAKeSH said 982 days ago:
Comeon how can you not make a 1024×768 resolution. which is the most used resolution. Apart from that 1600×1200 for me. Awesome vectors, great work Jon.
matt said 982 days ago:
I know it won’t make any difference to the world, but Initially I thought your new logo was a but naff, but it’s certainly grown on me now, and I like it.
/deposits 2 pence
Jeroen said 975 days ago:
Hi Jon,
I really like the desktop WP you put out recently and want to use it on my Powerbook. Can you do one thing for me though? please make a version without “Bloody” before the word Hippy? It would just make the feel a bit friendlier. I’d gladly put a version on the desktop with the name of your company. Hope I haven’t offended your artistic freedom!
Jon Hicks said 975 days ago:
Jeroen, there will be other versions without any naughty words coming.
Peter said 973 days ago:
Major kudos to you! Really neat desktop. I’m looking forward to the different versions…