The artwork on the Maelstrom was inspired by a story of intelligent slime mold. Slime molds are single-celled organisms that can appear as a slimy mass on plants, mulch, and other surfaces. They are shape-shifting and play an important role in food ecosystems as decomposers and recyclers of nutrients. Slime mold has no central nervous system, but can “make decisions” by comparing a range of possible courses of action and can find the shortest path between two points in a labyrinth. In 2010 a group of Japanese researchers at Hokkaido University put a slime mold on a map of Tokyo, to see how it would connect between urban hotspots. Incredibly, it created an almost identical path to one of the greatest urban plans on Earth, and highlighted the potential for biologically-inspired approaches to adaptive design, and better network design by utilizing the wisdom of nature.

Nature is often reflected in human design, and is a regular source of inspiration for our designs. The overarching theme for this season’s designs was the realm of the Fae, including all organisms big, small, magical and fascinating.

The process of the artwork was a simple collaboration between artist Zosia Olenska Anderson, and Niche’s Creative Director, Ana Van Pelt. Zosia created a stunning pen and ink illustration of a slime mold, pictured below.

Ana then took this illustration, and created a larger graphic composed of mirrored versions and new texture creation from this original piece. below is a look at the finalized production graphic.

The coordinates on the central gold foil stamp in the center of the board lead to the Fortingall Yew Tree in the UK, which is one of the oldest trees in Europe. It is thought to be between 3,000 – 9,000 years old!

The final graphic is a mesmerizing, beautiful use of texture, with a pretty damn cool inspiration behind it. We hope you enjoy this graphic as much as we do, and that some intelligent slime mold can beautify other spaces in your life, too, by utilizing some downloadable wallpapers we have shared for your use on your favorite digital devices today! Below are a few designs you are welcome to download and use as wallpapers on your computer or phones.

*Printing of these images, and replications or use for any commercial purposes strictly prohibited.

DESKTOP WALLPAPERS FOR DOWNLOAD

iphone WALLPAPERS FOR DOWNLOAD