A Little Bit of Personality
A picture speaks a thousand words
In developing the personalization features, we knew that we wanted great content for people to express their personal style. Because the desktop background is such a vibrant surface, we wanted to focus on providing quality content that demonstrated how creative people could be with this feature. When folks send us screenshots using the feedback button, we are regularly inspired by the rich diversity and personality of the wallpapers that people choose.
As we thought about how we wanted to approach personalization in Windows 7, we knew one way was to honor our lineage. In the past photography has been featured heavily Windows. Some of that photography has been quite beautiful and has become a proud tradition we wanted to maintain. In addition, we also wanted to explore new territory and expand our visual palette. In the realm of photography, we kept a theme focused on landscape photography which is our tradition, but added new themes for architecture and nature. Much of the this imagery is from our stock imagery partners, but we also had the good fortune to work with a talented local photographer named Will Austin, who has photographed all over the world on many subjects with an emphasis on architecture. Will’s photos provide a little bit of the local flavor of the Seattle area that we are proud to call home.
Raising the bar of inspiration and delight
With the photography covered, we tried to broaden our coverage to include additional images that would inspire, delight and invigorate people’s imaginations. We wanted to stretch into some new content that felt unique, timely, and with a distinct point of view. Our goal was content that balanced the timelessness of great photography with graphical illustrations that are energetic, modern, and fresh. On top of it all it was also important to achieve a rich variety in the illustrations to appeal to different tastes, genders and ages, color ranges from quiet to loud, and from large compositions to small and detailed.
Inspired by our neighbors in Zune, we worked with an agency called 72 and Sunny to search for illustrators around the world to create one-of-a-kind art work for you to have in Windows 7. In the process of looking through tons of samples, we sought a group of artists whose styles seemed both incredibly varied, to cover the broad diversity we were after, and maintained a common thread that we felt was applicable to the overall tone we were striving to achieve. Then began the fun part, with little more than some simple guiding words (light, energetic, inspiring, optimistic, etc.), the artists went off with a blank canvas to create concept sketches of their original pieces.
Iterate and refine
We still remember the first chance we got to review the artist’s initial sketches and concept work, and right from that moment, we knew that these images were going to be a lot of fun. The next step was to iterate back and forth a few times to make sure certain goals were achieved and get little details just right. For example, a couple of things that were important to us were how the image flowed under the new task bar and striking the right balance between visually compelling, and not too distracting when it came to finding that important file on your desktop. It’s tricky to find the right balance and we were fortunate to have an amazingly talented set of artists and our friends at 72 and Sunny to work with on this project.
Windows is for the whole world
Finally, we wanted to recognize the global audience of Windows by seeking out illustrators with varied backgrounds and styles with the intention of representing and appealing to people all around the world.
With that, we are honored to introduce the amazingly talented artists and the work that they contributed to Windows 7 personalization.
Yuko Kondo
From Japan, now resides in London, England
From Japan, now resides in London, England
Katharina Leuzinger
Born to Swiss and Japanese parents in Zurich, Switzerland, Katharina Leuzinger now resides in London, England
Born to Swiss and Japanese parents in Zurich, Switzerland, Katharina Leuzinger now resides in London, England
Osmand Nosse
Wicklow, Ireland
Wicklow, Ireland
Klaus Haapaniemi
From Finland, now based in London, England
From Finland, now based in London, England
Chris Sickles of Red Nose Studios
Indiana, United States
Indiana, United States
Punga
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Pomme Chan
Born and educated in Bangkok, Pomme Chan now resides in London, England.
Born and educated in Bangkok, Pomme Chan now resides in London, England.
Kustaa Saksi
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Paul Hwang and Benjamin Lee of Nanosphere
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Adhemas Batista
From Sao Paulo Brazil, now resides in Los Angeles, California
From Sao Paulo Brazil, now resides in Los Angeles, California
Kai and Sunny
London, England
London, England
Nan Na Hvass
Born to a Danish father and Chinese mother in Swaziland, Africa, Nan Na Hvass now resides in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Born to a Danish father and Chinese mother in Swaziland, Africa, Nan Na Hvass now resides in Copenhagen, Denmark.
We hope this post has given you some insight into the Windows 7 content. We also hope that we achieved the goals we set out for ourselves with this element of Windows 7.
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