After a more than one year hiatus, and generous ribbing by Jonathan, I’ve made a new 1280x1024 desktop background in jpg format. I wanted something very clean and simple, and spent almost four hours toying around in Photoshop yesterday, starting from scratch. I was lucky enough to manage the ribbon effect, which happened completely by chance with the right oscillation, the right canvas size, and the right gradient effect. I used my original generation, because I haven’t been able to produce quite the same results, and I’m afraid that I won’t be able to again.
My adoration of the Dali font is pretty obvious in most of the graphic design I do, and in this case I use it to balance out the dual circle graphic on the screen. Both pictures in the dual circle graphic were old stock photos I had taken a few years ago. I had forgotten about the start menu when trying to centre the entire area, so everything is shifted up about 15 pixels.
I’ll probably make versions for other resolutions. A problem I often have with background design is that I’m usually too much of a web designer, and end up with very complex, cluttered backgrounds that sometimes look like page layouts. I enjoy the filter effect, and how everything is almost white washed. The entire piece is a representation of the most neutral of my emotions lately, a kind of supine view of the world that makes everything level out. I think this one is my best backgrounds to date, and I’m rather proud of it.