What is a good wallpaper in your eyes?

Posted by Cathexis on March 3, 2013 02:57 am 10

A good wallpaper should not be an entire piece of art. A detailed piece of art should be framed and looked at, and the desktop is not that place because there are too many pieces of information and little distractions all over the screen. Icons and other UI elements get in the way of the art, and the immersion is ruined. Wallpapers need to be a different kind of art with different rules and they need to take into account interface elements as well as look good. A good piece of art may not look good as a wallpaper.

This is not a good desktop:

Kingdom_hearts_2_theme_by_goneandneverfound_medium

I think that a good wallpaper should be of minimalist design, but not minimalist to the point where it is just a bucket fill. I think that bucket fill wallpapers are too pretentious and scream "oh look I'm a minimalist." Simple geometric shapes, gradients and patterns are okay. I generally like them to have bright colors or have a dark theme.

Like these:

Wallpaper_01_medium

Cuben-12-space-8-ipad3-simoncpage_medium

Wallpaper_windows_8_beta_fish_by_gigagalactic-d58ciyv_medium

E4oyc_medium

Not like this:

Icecream-01_medium

A good wallpaper should not have words or messages in it unless if it's a logo. I hate words on art because it is a distraction and people want to read it. I get that people like to have a motivational message on the desktop, but it just doesn't look good most of the time, and looking good it what wallpapers are supposed to do.

This is not good:

Stop_war_text_art_by_d4rk3n_medium

One_planet_version_3_by_harajukumatt-d1mbmy5_medium

This is okay:

Mountain_wallpaper_medium

A good wallpaper should have a center focus. However, this is not always necessary. Simple wallpapers like gradients and patterns don't follow this rule because they don't have a subject, but wallpapers with a subject should. The subject of the wallpaper should be in the middle because people put icons on their desktops, and they could be on the top or bottom, left or right. Therefore, the best place to put the subject is in the center.

This is not good:

Dodge_charger_by_roobi_medium

This is okay:

Wallpaper_windows_8_beta_fish_by_gigagalactic-d58ciyv_medium

Going around on the wallpapers section of DeviantArt, in the popular all time section is just full of bad wallpapers in my opinion. Maybe my standards are just too damn high, but what do you think is a good wallpaper?