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Pixels Go Mad - The Celebration Of Pixel Art
May 5th, 2008 in Monday Inspiration | 162 Comments
Pixel art lives both in and beyond computer screen. Artists design pixel art posters, magazine covers, album covers, desktop wallpapers, paintings, “pixelish” video ads and even pixelated tattoos. And there is a good reason behind it: in times when popular design solutions strive for real-life-look or perfection pixel art offers a distinctive and creative artistic approach which is extremely expressive. In fact, pixel art can be impressive as well. This post attempts to prove just that.
Below we present over 50 excellent pixel art designs — illustrations, paintings and posters as a part of our ongoing monday inspiration series. Some of the works presented below have an extremely high level of detail which is why you can observe pixel art for hours and still miss some details it contains. You can find ever more resources related to pixel-art in an overview we’ve presented in the end the post.
Please be patient: the images may take some time to load.
The Celebration Of Pixel Art
Einstein in the Swiss patent office
Keen attention to details: the Swiss cheese looks tasty. An ad for SIM Global Education designed by eBoy pixel artists — the recognized masters of pixel art. Resulting pixel animation.
Lovepixel
Pixels gone mad. Jason Huang, a designer and illustrator from Taiwan has created a… well, unusual splash-page for his portfolio web-site. The “size” of this pixel city is over 10 Mb. Resolution: 10.000×10.000px. Well, that’s A LOT of pixels. We are speechless and feel smashed.
Polyfonken’s Pixel Art
Pixel art illustrations by Tuukka of Finland, Helsinki a.k.a Polyfonken of Ghost Monkey. Outstanding shadows and lightning.
Rubikcubism
Rubik meets pixel art. Don’t forget to check out Rubik Cubric’s Pow Poster Matrix.
Rod Hunt’s pixelart
Rod Hunt’s illustrations are realistic and colorful. The artists mixes vector graphics and pixel art.
Burp!
Brazilian and German bloggers Thiago, Pi, Jojo and Mariana present themselves as friendly and laughing pixel characters.
Illustration Friday: Green
What about using pixel art to visualize real projects? “This illustration started out as a way to help visualize what the deck on the back of our house is going to look like when it is finally done. This artwork was done pixel by pixel and then some raster art frames and shadows were added to m ake the piece look a bit nostalgic and antique.”
Pixel Art Desktop Wallpaper
This artwork was created by Juan Manuel Daporta (Caracas, Venezuela) in MSpaint in about 8 months in and out. Impressive.
3 Square
A painting in the pixel art style. Pixels also live beyond computer screens. Notice how well we can understand the idea behind the pixelated painting. That’s a hard thing to achieve.
Paul Robertson’s Pixel Art
Space battles, Super Robot Wars style. Roberson has his own style in the pixel artwork.
Adobe Air poster
A pixelated poster designed for Adobe Air launch. So many details in one single image. By the way, can you find a monkey on the image below?
Men’s Health: Back Pain
How would you interpret this artwork?
City of crazy dolls
This illustration is vector-based, but it is designed in the pixel-art-look. An interesting idea.
Kirby’s Cupcake
A painting in the pixel-art-style. Created by Ashley Anderson.
Pixel City
Pixel cities deserve their own post. This one has a beach, colorful baloons, a fishman and protesters.
King Henry
A vivid illustration of a theatre stage with King Henry and his court. Resulting animation
Make Pixel, Not War
Expressive and powerful. This artwork manages to deliver the message directly and reminds of Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
Playground
Space Invaders, Mario and Pacman on a pixelated playground. The black cat is pretty sweet, too.
Pixel City
Notice the how well different perspectives are used. For instance, Sony and Coca-Cola logos are orthogonal to each other.
Ms. Pacman
“This is part of a wedding gift I did for two very good friends. Guess what the other painting is.” Created by Ashley Anderson.
Einstein in front of the blackboard
Notice how well shadows are used. And coffee seems to be pretty hot. And yes, the mass-energy equivalence is actually E = mc2.
Christ the Redeemer
The famous statue in Rio de Janeiro in pixels. The guy at the top of the statue seems to be a pretty cool one.
Communication City
Pixorama one more time. iPods seem to be pretty happy. The six birds too.
Darth Vader
This one is freaky. José Eduardo Contreras Moral designs Darth Vader.
Panda Chart
We are not sure if pandas actually eat strawberries. Apparently, they do. A simple yet cute pixel artwork.
City Glow
Pixel art meets vector art. Multi-panel graphic installation at Union Square subway station in Japan. An interesting artistic approach. By Chiho Aoshima.
Don’t forget to fix your polaroids
Pixel art goes vintage. A creative approach.
Pixel Art - 1px Solid
“Just playing with some pixel art and 1px solid branding. That’s me sitting all alone on my Mac.”
Warrior of Light
Yes, that’s pixel art. The colors and shading are incredibly smooth. The used palette has only 32 colors.
Album Cover
A pixelated cover for Groove Armada’s album “Get Down”.
In a middle of nowhere
36 colors, 40 hours of work: stunning result. Notice how well shadows are designed. You can also take a look at how this image was created step-by-step.
Waiting Room
Of course, pixel artists have pixelated wallpapers in their offices. Example: Israeli pixel design studio “Three Squared”.
8BitBuddy V01
“Rendered in Cinema 4D, part of my 8BitBuddy Pixel inspired 3d 8 bit chaps.”
BerlinKiosk
BerlinKiosk is a game about combining over 300 pixel-products to form the layout of a berlin-underground kiosk. To pixelate 300 products a designer from Berlin, Germany needed two weeks.
Pixel Art - Sky TV
A pixelated advertisement for Sky TV.
Beer
Beer meets pixel art.
Pixel-Art in Real-Life
Sometimes pixels leave the boundaries of computer screens as designers sometimes experiment with pixels and “pixelate” their own environment. This design approach looks distinctive and somehow attractive. Maybe because we all have once stuck on some level playing Mario, Pac-Man or Space Invaders.
Wall designs at BNN/ 101 TV headquarters
570 5.25″ painted floppys glued to the wall. “Walldesigns created together with my buddy Formaddict. Interior design (not finished on this photo) by Workshop of Wonders.”
Pixel Art Wallpaper
Excellent for gift wrapping and interior design.
Panda Cross Stitch
A pixelated cross stitch. We’ve seen panda and strawberies above already.
Cooking the OXO way
We’ve all seen books like this. “Pixel art” from 1940s.
Baldomero el cocinero
Pixel art meets Lego.
Pixel Art Tattoos
Beautiful and unusual.
Bead Pixel Art
Pixelized video game characters built out of beads.
Pixelcouch: what about some nerd’s furniture for true pixel ninjas? Royal College of Art graduate (UK) Cristian Zuzunaga has devised a fabric based on a ‘pixel’ concept, which is being produced by Danish manufacturer Kvadrat and sold through Moroso. The price is unknown yet. [via]
It’s Raining Drea
Pixels meet architecture.
Pixel Block Chocolates
This chocolate bar also delivers a “social” message.
Richter’s Pixel Window in Cologne Cathedral
Gerhard Richter has recently redesigned the 113-square-meter Cologne cathedral window. The window is literally pixelated as it is made up of thousands of colorful squares of glass. “Pixel art” large scale.
Space Invaders
Ghost guys from Pac-Man are out there, in front of you and me.
Admire your handy-work
Not bad considering it was all done rather spontaneously over lunch one day.
Last Click
Arjan Westerdiep Pixel Art
This video documents the construction of a massive and minutely-detailed pixel illustration. It’s the work of Arjan Westerdiep, who created the image in MS Paint in a process that took him 560 hours. Arjan’s website allows you to click around the entire piece and watch it get drawn pixel by pixel.
Move Your Feet - Junior Senior
A pixel-based music video. Pixels old school. Smashing!
Game Over
“Game over” is an art project developed by the Swiss artist Guillaume Reymod. It consists of a series of collaborative animation movies which revive some of the very first video games. The pixels are replaced by a group of real human-beings that are moving from seat to seat in a theatre during about 4 to 6 hours.
Sources and Resources
- PixelJoint
- Pixel Art Flickr Pool
- Pixel art and Sprites
- Pixel Lovers Flickr Pool
- Pixelstamps
PixelStamps is a collection of stamps pixelated by the pixel artists of the world. Stamp price represents popularity of the stamp. [via] - Pixel Art Exhibition
- Collection of pixel art ads
- Pixel Art Paintings
- MrWon’s SoupPartments
The world’s tallest virtual building. Pixelated, of course. The project is terminated, but Goon Tower, a similar one, is still alive. - Edushi
Pixel art meets Google Maps meets Snap Shots. Pixelart Map of Hong Kong.
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Sander (May 5th, 2008, 2:22 am)
Nice pixels! but you forgot about pixel fonts, you can download some free ones from this page. Link [pixelfonts.style-force.net] Gotta love those pixels!
Rentrap (May 5th, 2008, 2:26 am)
Thx 4 fonts:)
Toby (May 5th, 2008, 3:09 am)
Hmm, where is the mention of Paul Robertson? Also, about 30% of all the works you showed here were from eBoy. There’s a lot of diversity in pixel art, this is in the end quite a shallow slice of it all.. Just browse through PixelJoint and you’ll tumble across LOADS of beautiful and varied pixel art and talented pixel artists.
Fouad Masoud (May 5th, 2008, 3:20 am)
wow this one is amazing!
my kind of art :D
love it!
Marc Dandoy (May 5th, 2008, 3:34 am)
I love it! Seems like a lot of work for just one piece of art though.
Rodrigo (May 5th, 2008, 3:38 am)
Nice choices! Pixel art rules!
RlemBCN (May 5th, 2008, 4:36 am)
one link is missing to ur amazing list : Edushi and their pixel cities on Google Maps !!
Link [hongkong.edushi.com]
Laura (May 5th, 2008, 4:38 am)
You brought it back! Another quality post from Smashing Magazine to prove you can do better than dodgy photo posts.
I love the way you explore more ‘out of the box’ ideas, like the paintings, tattoo and sofa, it makes for inspiring stuff!
Roy (May 5th, 2008, 4:45 am)
The latest SKY commercial has some amazing movie pixel art.
Link [www.ibelieveinadv.com]
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (May 5th, 2008, 4:56 am)
@RlemBCN: Edushi isn’t missing. Please check out the References section.
Sander (May 5th, 2008, 5:22 am)
Which software do they use to create it? Photoshop for example isn’t realy a good tool for this sort of jobs imho, and paint has to little options and tools. I realy want to know which software has been used for this one: Link [feels.ru]
Pat Dryburgh (May 5th, 2008, 5:30 am)
The indie-rock band “The Format” has a pretty awesome website. It is a pixel art flash-based website.
Check it out at Link [theformat.com]
Fodcj (May 5th, 2008, 5:38 am)
Absolutely love pixel art. Great article!
maccur (May 5th, 2008, 6:38 am)
mooooooooy bueno
Spellchecker (May 5th, 2008, 6:49 am)
you spelled excellent incorrectly in the bold text (2nd para)
pwenzel (May 5th, 2008, 7:06 am)
You forgot about pixelated audio!
For starters, there’s the infamous Link [www.beigerecords.com], and Link [www.8bitpeoples.com] record label!
Peter Hirschberg (May 5th, 2008, 7:18 am)
I can’t believe you didn’t mention my stuff.
Link [peterhirschberg.com]
Check out the Frogger animation, Chasing Ghosts characters, and Berzerk animations.
shasta (May 5th, 2008, 7:19 am)
Wow… great source of inspiration!
Just one thing that i miss here:
Link [www.nitrome.com]
Definitely the best browser game company out there, and if you play games like Dirk Valentine or Off The Rails, you definitely see why i think they should be listed here too… Just don’t click the link if you still have some work to do today.
btw, everyone who’s into pixel fonts and wants to create some on his own: Link [fontstruct.fontshop.com] - maybe you already know the page. if you don’t, you really don’t want to miss it if you like typography… definitely my favourite discovery on the web of the year so far.
kim (May 5th, 2008, 7:40 am)
Hey, thanks for adding my pixel illustration to the list. I am humbled to be included with such wonderful talent. And for those that want to know, I’ve never used anything but Photoshop since I started out making pixel art way back on version 2.0. Nothing else compares or gets the job done faster since I have used it for so many years. Kim Link [www.imwithsully.com]
Eric Daigh (May 5th, 2008, 7:58 am)
Great list. I respectfully submit my own pixel work:
Link [www.daigh.com]
thanks.
-Eric Daigh
Christy (May 5th, 2008, 8:21 am)
Love it!!! Totally awesome Monday inspiration, guys! Gave me a better kick than redbull and donuts. :3
Matt (May 5th, 2008, 8:36 am)
For some pixel artworks made of wood, check out Link [www.8ilver.de]
aardvarked (May 5th, 2008, 10:22 am)
Ms Pac Man looks like it was drawn by a 7 year old, no idea why it was included in this otherwise great showcase of fantastic art.
Tom (May 5th, 2008, 10:40 am)
The “Einstein in the Swiss patent office” reminds me of a lego creation!
Why Not This (May 5th, 2008, 10:42 am)
Um, what about Link [www.dieselsweeties.com] ? Only one of the coolest comics around…
Tonamel (May 5th, 2008, 11:13 am)
Link [www.isotown.net] is a fun webcomic about a town being built, step by step. No plot, and very little in the way of characters, it still somehow manages to be pretty charming, and well drawn in that pixel style we all love.
Adam (May 5th, 2008, 11:45 am)
The one you titled Space Invaders is not actually from space invaders, but from pac-man (it is one of the little ghost guys)
noah (May 5th, 2008, 12:07 pm)
Einstein was a white-haired old man when he was working in the patent office?
Mason (May 5th, 2008, 12:09 pm)
That must take lots of patience :-)
Lackey (May 5th, 2008, 12:13 pm)
Its the LEGO of computers!! :D
webaph (May 5th, 2008, 12:32 pm)
Link [www.pixelfreak.com] has amazing artwork… all by one man, Rene Miranda. check it out
Chris Trygstad (May 5th, 2008, 1:57 pm)
You can’t talk about pixel art without mentioning flip flop flyin! Link [flipflopflyin.com]
Daz (May 5th, 2008, 4:28 pm)
Some cool pixel t-shirts at the Link [www.kare.com]. I own the pencil one :)
Torley (May 5th, 2008, 5:09 pm)
Count on the hits to keep coming on Smashing Magazine! This is a great compilation; I was just browsing Flickr for various pixelart images the other day, including related BBS ANSI works. Gorgeous, crisp delights.
Tulku (May 5th, 2008, 5:18 pm)
Link [www.pixelblocks.com] FTW if you can find them.
Allison (May 5th, 2008, 6:35 pm)
It’s a pity they left out the entire genre of ‘dolling’, pixeling avatars like the ones used in palace chats over a decade ago.
Link [en.wikipedia.org]
Brian Slesinsky (May 5th, 2008, 9:03 pm)
You can try drawing a few pixels yourself over here: Link [pixeltoypixeltoy.appspot.com]
Blair McBride (May 5th, 2008, 9:59 pm)
Wow, this brings back memories!
And FYI, ‘Communication City’ has 7 birds, not 6.
K.K.Shankar (May 5th, 2008, 10:10 pm)
Cool. amazing collections. I am not seen anywhere.
Keep it up!.
MiSc (May 5th, 2008, 11:20 pm)
well, in the end, every digital image is made of pixels, right?
Justin (May 5th, 2008, 11:58 pm)
Link [littleoslo.com]
this is a very very very long pixel picture
jolio (May 6th, 2008, 12:10 am)
@Peter Hirschberg: I can believe they didn’t mention your stuff — it’s subpar, compared to the examples here. But I’m sure your ego will survive the fact.
Jodo Kast (May 6th, 2008, 1:28 am)
Pixel Art?! Ha! Anyone here used to program on 8-bit computers long ago?
If you ever tried designing a game on the Commodore C64 for example…that was the original “pixel art”.
HA! You yunguns!
TIM (May 6th, 2008, 1:54 am)
We are looking for a great pixel artist to design a footer for my new site: Link [timothysykes.com] - anyone interested, please use the contact form on the site and get in touch!
MrWong (May 6th, 2008, 2:37 am)
Anyone mention Link [www.quickhoney.com]?
Fredo (May 6th, 2008, 5:22 am)
Street-art & pixels : Link [ekosystem.org]
SV (May 6th, 2008, 6:30 am)
Well, arent Habbo original pixel art? Or maybe its just me. Great post :-)
Annie Liu (May 6th, 2008, 8:27 am)
I see 7 birds in “Communication City”
Lee (May 6th, 2008, 2:14 pm)
Some of these are very cool. Steve McKechnie developed an interesting pixel project for final year degree of my course last year. Entitled ‘Tiny Tours’ it was a pixel tour of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Link [www.stephenmckechnie.com]
mmhan (May 6th, 2008, 7:48 pm)
What an exhaustive list of pixel art designs and resource. Thanks.
You guys are as amazing as ever!
Keifer (May 6th, 2008, 11:15 pm)
You guys need to follow this up with a post on pixel art tutorials. That would be awesome.
David (May 7th, 2008, 2:40 am)
The new Christian Aid charity advert on UK TV is fully pixel art. Though I think it does unfortunately trivialize the current disaster in Burma.
keke (May 7th, 2008, 3:28 am)
Très très très impressionnant !!!
Vive le Pixel Art !
alsticky (May 7th, 2008, 4:07 am)
Let’s not forget the first pixelated image ever created: Link [www.ac-reunion.fr](aka ‘Lincoln In Dalivision’)
Gilles (May 7th, 2008, 8:49 am)
Magnifique… tout simplement magnifique !!
Merci Smashing.
Giovani Spitfire (May 7th, 2008, 11:25 am)
Oh… I really, really, really would like to be part of it! Sniff….
pixeltemple DOT com
Cheers,
Cospefogo.
Q (May 8th, 2008, 2:32 am)
the best ive ever seen
hoodlum (May 8th, 2008, 7:10 am)
that’s not pixel art.. *this is*
true demoscene art.. 32 colors or less..
WeeNeeds (May 8th, 2008, 10:21 pm)
Oh! My city of crazy dolls is here. So nice of you.
Thanks guys!
See ya
Kayzah (May 9th, 2008, 12:42 am)
Awesome!
Like everytime but this one is my favorite on smashingmagazine so far!
Sean Pamm (May 9th, 2008, 6:47 am)
There’s a great gaming site (Link [gamedriven.com]) that’s full of this type of art. Check out the maps. All the little buildings have pixel-art interiors that function as chat rooms.
Lukas Rieder (May 9th, 2008, 12:03 pm)
Pixel!!! TSCHACKA!
“Baldomero el cocinero
Pixel art meets Lego.”
-> This is no lego!
Greetings from Lukas Rieder
Melu (May 9th, 2008, 9:33 pm)
I love pixel art sooo much !
thanks for this article !
Denise (May 10th, 2008, 2:03 am)
The link to the piece with the title ‘Playground’ is actually done by Army of trolls
Link [www.armyoftrolls.co.uk]
not whoever you’ve linked to on Flickr. The flickr user seems to just be hosting a bunch of pixel work by a variety of people - myself included. Please change the link, and double check your research!
Thanks, Denise. (I’m also linked up there)
Link [www.styledeficit.com]
FlashRipper (May 10th, 2008, 11:18 am)
Cool. Tnx!
p.s offtopic:
Why you dont have a forum?
Hey, I’ have a design site for webmaster: Link [flashripper.net]
There a lot of icons i.t.p How is he?
Yumi (May 11th, 2008, 6:04 am)
Hi, there’s a video clip from a german electro producer named Anthony Rother, all pixelized too.
Watch it!
Link [br.youtube.com]
P.O.W. (May 11th, 2008, 12:56 pm)
Nice pixelart acrylics on canvas by this artist: Link [www.paolojacopomedda.com]
DZN (May 11th, 2008, 3:36 pm)
Also check out the work by Link [www.designrelated.com]
deniar (May 12th, 2008, 10:52 am)
Wow it’s amazing. I’ve found a city pixel art from Link [www.myflexiland.com]
Natalia (May 13th, 2008, 9:26 am)
I love pixel art!!! :-)))) Pixel art + Street art is awesome!
mo. (May 17th, 2008, 2:11 pm)
you “missed” two wonderful netlabel called 8bitpeoples.com and jahtari.org :) they make the perfect 8-bit-sound for pixel-graphics. both netlabels come along with wonderful pixel-artworks. enjoy, mo.
Alexander K (May 19th, 2008, 2:59 am)
I miss the absolut pixelmaster, DRUBUBU., some really impressive flash-pixel work.
Where pixels, flash and art meet, so to say: Link [www.drububu.com]
Invader (June 4th, 2008, 6:21 am)
The 4th one isn’t by Rubikcubism it’s by a guy called Invader - he uses the word Rubikcubism to describe his artwork.
www.arquiteturadigial.com (June 9th, 2008, 3:41 am)
very nice!
Link [www.arquiteturadigital.com]
Paul Stride-Noble (June 11th, 2008, 2:17 am)
Thanks Smashing magazine for including my pixel art (www.s-nd.com/pixeltown.htm) in this post, Its a true honour to be featured amongst all these talented individuals. I am available as a freelancer for any creative projects (www.s-nd.com)
Px
Dan (July 12th, 2008, 6:40 am)
Great list, amazing stuff.
I humble submit my pixel city in addition:
Hope you like it.
Jehzeel Laurente (July 14th, 2008, 7:21 am)
@Dan - i saw you pixel city home and it rocks! :)