Blog Action Day 2009

This wallpaper design is part of Blog Action Day 2009, a worldwide initiative started by Envato founders Collis and Cyan Ta'eed, now being run by Change.org. Blog Action Day exists to change the conversation on the web for one day by uniting thousands of bloggers around one important issue - this year, Climate Change. It's not too late to register your blog and participate.

Free Wallpaper from Ben the Illustrator

I've created an organic wallpaper design for you to download free. It illustrates the changing climate situation through the concept of melting and serves as a warning to start making changes now to ward off further climate problems. You can see more of my work at Ben the Illustrator site and I'm representation by Agency Rush.

Download this Free Wallpaper

Get your downloads now because they will only be available until the end of the month!

• 1024x768
• 1280x800
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• 1440x900
• 1680x1050
• 1920x1200
• iPhone

Conceptual Development of this Design

We started with a fairly open brief, essentially to create an illustration tackling the huge issue of climate change. As always, Fi (my wife and business partner) and I sat down to thrash out some concept ideas. Being renowned for creating images of idyllic landscapes, admiring nature and wildlife, we were never going to take a total doom and gloom angle on the topic, but instead wanted to emphasize the beauty of nature, but at the same time, really make a point of how fragile the planet is, and although it is a wonderful world, it's slipping out of our grasp, falling away, and not temporarily, this damage will more than likely be permanent.

While running through ideas, Fi dropped a single word which seemed to spark off the final idea... "melting." The word really struck a chord with us, and not in the more obvious manner of melting ice-caps, but more in a manner of everything melting, like how an ice-cube would in your hand, just melt out of your grasp. So we envisaged a world melting away to nothingness, still existing in part, as beautiful, colorful and inspiring as ever, but look around and it's all coming apart at the edges, it's dying away, it's melting.

With our idea set, I spent a day drawing out the rough, and started thinking about the effects I could make use of in Illustrator to really do the concept some justice. I knew I wanted the piece to be epic, almost filmic, so I planned on the sky/space looking a little more realistic than perhaps I would usually, and have the edges of the earth looking like they really are falling away, dusty, dirty, wasted.

The central part of the scene was fairly standard procedure, great colors, some nice simple techniques on textures and give it all a good fresh-on-the-eye style, but it was always the piece as a whole that had to work. I set out to create a seminal illustration, a piece that would catch the eye, be enjoyed, but also make people think, raise the topic, maybe even pull at a couple of heartstrings! It was great to be asked to work with Vectortuts+ on this project, and really gave Fi and I a great opportunity to be part of something, Blog Action Day and the greater global movement against climate change.

Check out a section of detail in this design below (100% zoom).

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