When it comes to smartphone wallpaper, your options are most often geometric shapes and colors or maybe, if you’re lucky, some sort of landscape view orartist rendering. For the Pixel, the Google design team wanted to try something a little different, specifically something that “viewed technology through a living lens,” leading the team to focus a set of wallpaper on birds.
You’ll find the bird wallpapers as an option on the company’sPixel 7series phones, with others potentially making their debut on upcoming thePixel FoldandPixel Tablet.
Art Director Eunyoung Park and Bronwyn Jones, who works in Writing & Content Design for Android, recentlypublished an articleon the Google design blog (via9to5Google) explaining the decision to focus on birds for the Pixel’s wallpaper.
According to the post, birds were selected for the wallpaper in part because they’re both relatable and inspiring.
“We were attracted to the birds’ liveliness, positivity, and daring, because those are all qualities we associate with the Pixel brand itself. Birds also felt like a natural progression from the flower wallpapers we introduced in the previous generation.”
To make the wallpaper, the team photographed 30 different bird species, with the help of several experts. A bird specialist was also on hand for the photo session to feed, sing to, and communicate with the birds to ensure they were comfortable while the photos were being taken.
Afterward, the photos were gone through by the Google team, who enabled colors and tested versions on hardware before finally settling on the wallpaper collection that will be available on Pixel handsets as well as in places like print ads and billboards.
The final result includes 12 wallpaper images of the wings of a King Vulture, Pied Crow, Black Swan, and more.
Park says the wallpapers were created in conjunction with the new Pixel color variants to “inspire more joy around customization and self-expression.” Each wallpaper is designed to look great across the whole spectrum of Pixel color choices.
These wallpapers are also just the beginning, Park says that “because wallpaper is such a heroic representation of both the device and the user, we want it to evoke a positive emotion and even foster a sense of ownership and community. We have many new and exciting things planned to make your Pixel better – and more ‘you’ – with every release."
Google Pixel 7 Pro
Google has carefully crafted the Pixel 7 Pro to be both a tool and an accessory. The phone’s stunning cameras and capable performance headline most reviews, but design considerations like the Hazel variant’s subtle gold trim and beautiful matching bird wallpapers highlight the level of thought put into the finer details.
