Opera at SXSW 2008

In addition to telling SXSW attendees about Opera for Desktop, Opera Mini, Opera Mobile, and the like, we're also very proud to show off the My Opera Community.

My Opera is all about you, our community members, so I contacted two of the most prominent artists on My Opera, Oleg Melnychuk and Khadgar, and asked them if they would create some desktop wallpapers for the event. I only asked for two, but they sent me four! I hope you'll agree with me how awesome they are.

We'll be displaying these wallpapers on the computers at our booth, and we're also pleased to share them here for your enjoyment:

By Oleg:

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By Khadgar:

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Artist commentary

Oleg:

My aim for the first wallpaper was to link Texas, where SXSW will happen, and Opera Mini. Red rocks, reddish sand, lots of a free space and, of course, a mustang — I think that's a good association for Texas. With a mustang I've tried to present the power of Opera Mini. Since I have far from a powerful mobile phone and high taxes for mobile internet, every time I launch Opera Mini, I begin to feel that my phone isn't really as bad as I thought and that my taxes aren't so high, either! That's the power of Opera Mini, real horsepower for your phone

What about the second wallpaper? I had no idea what to paint. I just knew it should be something fresh, spring-like, colorful, juicy... Well, just yummy! Here, I should thank Øyvind Østlund (NoteMe) for his great advice about the Opera Dragonfly. It's really a magnificent creature, and I'm sure Opera is making something really magnificent too! It will definitely cover the planet so nicely, as seen in my illustration And what about the sunflower — it's a symbol of peace and harmony.

Khadgar:

The first wallpaper was just a chance to do something that's been in my head for quite some time. I decided to do it sort of like an album cover where the picture has nothing to do with what the music is or the title says. The picture is of a robot (probably piloted by Espen) that has speakers that can shoot lasers to blow up things. He has a crowd cheering him on as half of them are being blown to bits. I decided with the type to make it as simple as possible so it wouldn't take away from the imagery.

With the second I tried to do the complete opposite of the first one by focusing completely on using type, but that didn't mean I couldn't draw something using type. After seeing Oleg's first wallpaper where he advertised Opera Mini I thought I'd give a go at it as well but advertising the Rock Opera event at SXSW. I can see this in my head as a series of posters or ads where there's a phone, a wii, and a desktop computer all made out of type advertising the same thing... but it's just a desktop background and probably a good one for people who like things simple.