Rewind 2023: Wallpapers

*Rewinding back to three of my favourite wallpapers of 2023.*

2023 has been a fascinating year. I released wallpapers in multiple styles, from simple cubist-inspired works to some AI-generated wallpapers, photography, and highly intricate pixel-precise technical images. I have enjoyed using this blog as a playground as I learn more about graphic design, and am astonished by how many people have enjoyed and shared their appreciation for these creations in kind. I plan to continue making an impact in the design space into 2024, but before looking ahead, let's take one more quick look back at three of my favourite wallpapers from the past year.

Saltern Study

On January 10, I published a trio of cubist wallpapers titled Saltern Study inspired by the aerial photography of David Burdeny, and those wallpapers almost immediately became some of the most popular wallpapers I've ever released. Perhaps most jaw-dropping was when Marques Brownlee shared his review of the M2 Mac mini, which prominently showcased one of the wallpapers throughout the video. Millions have seen that video, and having the piece featured by such a prominent individual in the tech community was a huge honour. Accounts including AppleHub, 9to5Mac, Max Tech, Zollotech and more have also featured the Saltern Study series, and I feel blessed by how much people have enjoyed this series.

Five months later, I followed up the Saltern Study series with Saltern by Night, a collection of nighttime wallpapers to complement my initial set.

OS X Rancho Cucamonga

Nearly a decade ago, Craig Federighi joked onstage that the next version of macOS could be called Rancho Cucamonga. But it seems Apple and their "Crack Marketing Team" didn't think the locale was iconic enough to merit a macOS release. So, I took matters into my own hands. On May 20, I released OS X Rancho Cucamonga, a minimalist desert-scape wallpaper inspired by the eastern California area of the same name. The wallpaper was recognized and used by many massive tech creators, including Luke Miani, Max Tech, and thousands of users across the web. I remember being on an island in the North Atlantic (aka Newfoundland), stunned by how well-received the wallpaper was when I posted it that morning.

By popular demand, I followed up my daytime version of OS X Rancho Cucamonga two months later with a nighttime version, Rancho by Night.

iPhone 15 Pro Schematics

Everyone has a few key dates circled on their calendar, times of the year that are more important than others. For me, that's become the iPhone launch and my third straight year of creating internal wallpapers for these devices. It took nearly two months amidst a challenging & busy period at my jobs, but the resulting product is something I could not be more proud of.

iPhone 15 Pro Internals

Honourable Mention

I'll add two more honourable mentions to my favourite wallpapers of 2023 list. The first is Accidental iOS 4, a wallpaper inspired by the droplet wallpaper of the iPhone 4, and the second is macOS Meets Van Gogh, an AI-experimentation project to reimagine famous macOS wallpapers

Accidental iOS 4

Published: August 14, 2023 | Link

One of my favourite iOS wallpapers over the years was one of the first: the Droplet wallpaper featured on the iPad 2 and iPhone 4. I was outrunning a hailstorm that threatened to turn my car into a golf ball, and when I was out of harm's way, I looked through the moonroof to find these perfectly formed droplets. I took the photo, fittingly with my iPhone, and overlaid the blue gradient to the design.

macOS Meets Van Gogh

Published: April 19, 2023 | Link

In 2023, I dabbled using the AI platform Midjourney to create a few wallpapers I posted. I have a love/hate relationship with AI; on the one hand, it helps unlock art styles & explore concepts I would never have been able to do otherwise, but on the other, I recognize that these can be rather soul-less creations: art without an artist, or worse, art created by scraping the works of other of artists without their permission. I've tagged all the works using AI with that tag to ensure that the origin of the work is clear, and I intentionally limit how many AI-derived works I share.

macOS Meets Van Gogh was an AI creation that took four of my favourite macOS wallpapers over the past two decades and attempted to recreate them in the impressionist art style of Vincent Van Gogh.

But Wait, There’s More…

There are dozens more wallpapers available throughout the 2023 Archive & Haberdashery for you to explore…

*A snippet of some of my favourite wallpapers created in 2023.*

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