There’s no avoiding the fact that the iPhone has revolutionised the mobile phone industry, becoming one of the most popular and talked about mobile device on the planet.

Now that the iPhone has become mass market, there is a huge market for personalisation, specifically with offering wallpapers designed for the iPhone’s resolution (currently present on Standby mode but soon to become part of the menu background screen in OS 4.0).

When I recently designed a promotional iPhone wallpaper for my Funky House Finesse show, I suddenly realised there was only a small area (320 × 267px) on the screen for getting a message across without being affected by surrounding text and functionality such as the time and unlock slider.

To make this process easier in the future, I created a standard template overlay which can be used to position graphical elements below before rendering.

Download the iPhone Wallpaper Template (32-bit semi-transparent PNG)

The above image can be used in most image composition tools like Photoshop or Fireworks and then hidden prior to exporting.

Hopefully, you’ll find this useful if you come to design your own iPhone wallpapers. If you do, be sure to post a link to your design in the comments.

Hed Kandi have decided to do an about turn and destroy the industry they were initially founded upon in the latest series of compilation releases “Destroy The Disco“.

Focussing on the “Twisted” brand Hed Kandi have built up over the last few years, usually consisting of breaks, electro and techno like sounds, Destroy The Disco seems like a rebrand more than something new. Admittedly, some of the tracks featured have a distinctively different sound to Hed Kandi’s usual stereotype, it seems like they’re also jumping on this year’s attempt at reinventing disco (such as the riduculously named “Space Disco” which has been cropping up throughout the year).

It may seem like quite a critical point of view. As much as a house advocate I am, since Hed Kandi was acquired by Ministry of Sound in 2006, I’ve always been concerned the brand will suffer from being overly commercialised in a somewhat niche market.

However, I’m personally quite fond of the design of this venture. Jason Brooks (the artist behind Hed Kandi’s look) has taken inspiration from Roy Lichtenstein’s Pop Art, originally inspired by comic book artwork. This look was made popular more recently by blockbuster movies like Frank Miller’s Sin City. The grungy illustrations lend well to the deeper side of house music, representing a somewhat darker experience at the club events.

It’ll be interesting to see how successful the Destroy The Disco brand works for Hed Kandi.

Destroy The Disco is released Monday 2nd November 2009 and is available to order from the following online stores:

• Play.com: CD (£9.99) and MP3 Digital Download (£9.95)
• Amazon UK: CD (£9.98)
• HMV: CD (£10.99)

Track Listing

Disc 1

1. Gossip - Love Long Distance (Riva Starr Remix)
2. Bloc Party - One More Chance (Alex Metric Remix)
3. Example - Watch The Sun Come Up (Devil’s Gun “Zeitgeist” Remix)
4. Calvin Harris - I’m Not Alone (Burns Rewerk)
5. The Young Punx ft Count Bass D - Ready For The Fight (Black Noise 6. Destroy The Disco Edit)
6. Fake Blood - Mars (Hervé Re-edit)
7. Double 99 - Rip Groove (Disco Damage Vs Hood Hooligan 2009 Remix)
8. AC Slater - Jack Got Jacked (Jack Beats Remix)
9. The Prodigy - Take Me To The Hospital
10. Polina - Shotguns (Trevor Loveys Destroy The Disco Remix)
11. Riton & Primary 1 - Who’s There?
12. Fatboy Slim - Star 69 (Rogue Element Remix)
13. Noisettes - Wild Young Hearts (Kissy Sell Out Remix)

Disc 2

1. Yves Murasca & BK Duke ft Angie Brown - Move Your Body (Funkanomics Remix)
2. Grum - Heartbeats
3. Lauren Flax ft Sia - You’ve Changed (War Games Remix)
4. Kraak & Smaak ft Ben Westbeech - Squeeze Me (Trevor Loveys 5. Skeezer Pleezer Jam)
5. His Majesty Andre - Peep Thong
6. Louis La Roche - Sunshine Hotel
7. Fake Blood - I Think I Like It
8. Noob & Brodinski - Peanuts Club
9. Sidney Samson - Riverside (Ralvero Remix)
10. The Young Punx - Juice And Gin (Riva Starr Mix)
11. Simian Mobile Disco - Audacity Of Huge
12. Sebastian Ingrosso - Kidsos

The Apple OSX bevelled effect isn’t exactly original now but, nonetheless, there are times when the style suits your design needs, especially when wireframing OSX/iPhone applications.

I’ve found a neat little method of creating the bevel effect in Fireworks which you can reuse quite easily:

1. Select the object you want to apply the effect to. (Note it works best on darker objects).
2. Apply a drop shadow filter to the object (Filters > Shadow and Glow > Drop Shadow).
3. Set the Distance to 1, Opacity to 20%, Softness to 0, Angle to 270 and the Color as #FFFFFF.

That’s it! See the following example of how it looks.

For added convenience, why not set this as a favourite style?

1. Select the object you’ve just applied the filter to (it should be the only filter applied).
2. Click the + button next to Filters.
3. Select Options > Save As Style….
4. Name the style, something like “OSX Bevel“.
5. Now you can apply the bevelled effect to any object you select in Fireworks by clicking the + button and choosing “OSX Bevel“.

Hopefully some of the designers out there will find this little tip useful.

If you can think of a quicker or more convenient way of applying this effect in Fireworks or have an alternative approach for all the Photoshop users out there, leave a comment below.

After a Sunday afternoon in Rugby town centre, my wife noticed this graffiti stencil next to one of the public car parks, immediately recognising it as the one and only British street artist Banksy!

Could it be? Has the great Bristolian put our town on the (art) map? What do you think?