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OnePlus Spotlight - Hampus Olsson, Wallpaper Artist for OnePlus Apr 13, 2018

Brian Yoon , Apr 13, 2018 :

Sometimes, a wallpaper is more than just a wallpaper. Each OnePlus device ships with a set of unique art that attempts to evoke something special, something innately true about the device it's supposed to represent—whether it's the acrylic brush strokes and emotive textures seen on the OnePlus 3, or the 5T's vibrant, abstract close-ups. Making iconic wallpapers is no easy task, but our wallpaper artist, Hampus Olsson, has lived up to the challenge, time and time again. It's my pleasure to introduce him to the OnePlus community.

Hampus Olsson is a Swedish artist who currently resides in Goa, India. In addition to making wallpapers, he designs websites, illustrations, branding, games, apps, and fashion. He also gives art direction to some of the most influential e-commerce stores in Sweden. His clients include Spotify, GANT, Nestle, Hard Rock Hotel, Holiday Inn, AT&T, and more.



His story with OnePlus began shortly after the release of the OnePlus One, during a chance meeting with Carl at a Saturday night market, where they quickly bonded over their shared experience growing up in Sweden. Just as Carl was about to leave Goa, Hampus shared some of his art. The rest is history. Carl asked Hampus to create a series of official wallpapers for the OnePlus 2, and this creative partnership has endured ever since. I had a brief chat with Hampus yesterday and he shared some insights about his work and sources of inspiration.

What’s inspiration behind your work?
For me, inspiration comes from many directions. I've always had a creative mind. As a child, I used to paint and craft, when I was six, I made my first couple of websites and games. Being able to create things out of nothing has always felt so nice to me. I get inspired by trying out new kind of art forms and new ways of being creative, it inspires me to come up with something challenging and different from what I used to do. I take inspiration from old progressive jazz-rock music, fashion/art magazines, shapes in nature, seeing things from another perspective, visiting new places on earth, antiques, Asian art culture and experimenting with new techniques and mediums.



Can you introduce your favorite ones?
I like so many artists, but my favorite one is probably James Jean. The way he comes up with such detailed, abstract and emotional artworks is so inspirational to me. Dan McPharlin, Katsushika Hokusai, Michael Cina, Vania Zouravliov and Michael Page are some other artists I really admire, to name a few.

Can you trace the evolution of OnePlus wallpapers?
The first set of wallpapers I made for OnePlus 2 featured a clean, fluid art style with layered colored elevations reaching far into the abyss. The wallpapers made a great impact and stood out from the crowd of other phone wallpapers.

For the OnePlus X, I started experimenting with paint. We had a unique concept for this model where we wanted the wallpapers to form an X shape. The liquid metallic-style wallpapers were chosen as default, while the other more experimental ones featuring paint were chosen for the gallery.



For the next model, OnePlus 3, I went a step further and made a bunch of acrylic brush strokes and placed it into a 3D space, to form the shape of a mountain. I also started playing around with some new color combinations that I hadn't used before. With these new wallpapers, I found a style I felt comfortable with and wanted to bring with me to other artworks.

The 3T model got a similar treatment as the OnePlus 3, but with a warmer and more intense touch. The other wallpapers included in the gallery were very abstract and colorful. This was because of my visit to Paris, where I found great inspiration and decided to go back to traditional methods of painting. In Paris, there is a lot of great art material shops, so I got myself a bag full of acrylics, inks, and mediums, went back to my rented apartment and painted so many paintings they covered the whole floor. I literally had to jump around to get around

Then, it was time for the Midnight Black Edition of OnePlus 3T. For a long time, I had made vibrant, bright, colorful artworks, but for this version, I got the opportunity to make something very dark. It was a great experience and I came up with "Stroke of Genius", featuring a single, red brushstroke traveling alone through a dark, monochrome mountain range. I made another wallpaper for this model called "Terraform", which is influenced by the default wallpapers of 3 and 3T, but darker.

The OnePlus 5 was another shift in style and featured a floating object with a plain background. I had created a bunch of macro photographs of ink together with my dad, which formed incredible shapes on its own. Some of these photographs were used in parts of the wallpapers for OnePlus 5 to add a fluid feel. Because of the empty spaces around the object in focus, these wallpapers turned out to be abstract, yet simplistic and clean, a new style for OnePlus.



The OnePlus 5T wallpapers were built around the same style as the 5, but instead of having a central object, we decided on showing the object closer, reaching all the way out to the edges. Instead of having a white or a black background, I decided to make the background color melt together more with the object. Two radically different artworks were put into the gallery too: one featuring an icy cave, and another one of hot lava.

When asked about his work on the upcoming OnePlus 6 wallpapers, he only had this to say: "With the OnePlus 6 wallpapers, I've brought with me what I've learned along the way. The new wallpapers feature a clean, fluid style with mountainous depths... if I were to compare the new wallpapers with the first ones I made for OnePlus, I would say the new ones are more vibrant, and hold a better, more suitable composition to reveal..." Well, I won't spoil the rest. Suffice to say there are exciting things to come. See more of Hampus Olsson's work here