Google Pixel hero
As wallpaper lead for Google Pixel, it comes without saying that the native wallpapers in Pixel 7 Hero have been my largest contribution.
The countless hours I spent this year communicating with different parties, framing the wallpaper vision across Pixel products, and working on quality control have led to an end product of iconic wallpaper libraries.
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Pixel 6a Hero — Nature Swept
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Pixel 6 Hero — Bloom
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Pixel 7a Hero — Feathers
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Pixel 7 Hero — Feathers
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Pixel 7 Pro Hero — Feathers
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Pixel 7 Fold Hero — Feathers
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Pixel 7 Tablet Hero — Feathers
Pixel wallpaper production
The goal is to create beautiful, cohesive wallpapers for all Pixel devices and continue the brand legacy of nature-inspired themes that align with the tonality and mood of Material You.
Pixel hero collection
Android T Pixel 7 Hero
Wallpaper creative process
Hero ideation
Our team kicks off concepting by considering the goals of Android UX, Pixel Marketing, and the ID/CMF team. Concepting should start with a briefing from those teams.
High level themes are discussed (i.e. nature) and then our team begins research imagery and artists that both inspire them and fit the brief.
Concept selection
The wallpaper team presents the overall strategy, concepts and potential vendors (artists, photographers, etc) to the key stakeholders.
The goal of this review is to receive leadership alignment on the theme so that the same hero wallpapers can be used across devices and marketing.
Once the theme and potential vendors have been selected, vendor onboarding begins.
P7 hero development
For P7 Hero, we wanted to follow the theme of nature being presented with P6 Hero Bloom collection. Pixel hero focuses on a humanistic, organic narrative and moves away from the artificial and technical theme. Our photographer, Andrew & team spent 5 days capturing beautiful photos and videos of 30+ species of birds.
Photographer
Andrew Zuckerman
Product
Pixel 7 release
Wallpaper strategy
This year, we intended to create a cohesive family look that connects our different Pixel 7 product line-up. The strategy is to show an evolution from detailed feather shot on smaller devices to the full bird reveal on larger display.
Team alignment
Android UX, Pixel Marketing, and ID/CMF team.
Device
Pixel 7 entire product line
Cohesive wallpaper story — an evolution from detailed feather shot to fuller bird reveal
Initial selects
When the initial production work on the wallpapers is done, the artist/photographer will provide our team with their top selects.
We will find our favorites among the selects and begin to test them with varying compositions, color and scale. We’ll also test them with and without UI and against the CMF (color, material finish) of the devices.
The key considerations we had for this release were cmf color pairing, quality assurance, and compatibility with existing ui.
Battery/Power testing
Battery life of a device is incredibly important, and lighter colored wallpapers drain battery faster than darker colors.
All wallpapers must be below a 0.60 OPR (On Pixel Ratio) value in order to pass battery testing. OPR (on pixel ratio) is a device and ROM independent metric for gauging the power cost of a wallpaper design. It is a direct measurement of a wallpaper’s creative design.
Wallpapers will likely need to go through multiple rounds of retouching and battery testing until an acceptable OPR value is reached.
Another cross functional effort we had was collaborating with color team to make sure our UI color extractions from the wallpaper align with our intended visual quality.
An overview spread of how the wallpapers ultimately connect to both the software & hardware design languages, in terms of color pairing, visual quality, and cohesion.
Press & Media
This project was Pixel’s largest investment of resources and time to wallpaper.
The reception we received from media and users alike was proportional to the level of Google’s investment. After reading headlines such as “there’s nothing as refreshing as new wallpaper” and copy that highlights the “premium and gorgeous-looking wallpapers”, I am reminded that I love being able to create products for users to enjoy.
