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Smashing Texture Contest Results

May 27th, 2008 in Graphics | 137 Comments

Last week was really full of hard work for us. The response to Smashing Texture Contest was impressive and overwhelming. We have received over 740 e-mails from over 600 participants, resulting in far more than 2000 photos. The result, however, is not just literally zillion of textures, but truly brilliant textures you can use in your private and professional projects for free. Thanks to all participants — without Smashing readers this texture gallery wouldn’t be possible.

What came out of it?

A variety of interesting, exotic or creative textures from all around the globe. Wood, stone, metal, nature, ice, sand, fabric, paper, glass, fire, food and plastic textures. A large number of daily routine things observed from a completely new perspective.

This one is going to be big. Smashing Magazine’s readers have created a quite smashing texture gallery:

Some entries couldn’t be processed, for instance because no name was provided, no files have been attached or empty files have been sent. Entries without descriptions or files had pretty bad chances of getting published in the textures gallery.

What can you do with it?

You can use all textures we present in the gallery for both private and commercial projects for free, without any restrictions whatsoever. However, you are not allowed to offer these files for download; please respect the interestes of over 300 participants of our contest. Please also consider the license information attached to the .zip-archives you download from our server. When it comes to usage of textures, different photographers may have different opinions and intentions.

Since we have received numerous textures, it was just impossible to present all of them in one post. It would also be unfair to present only few of them. Therefore we have categorized all entries and sorted them in 12 categories. It took some time but the result is quite impressive.

Texture
Smashing texture photographer at work: photo by Lucia Vega Miranda

The file size of .zip-archives is between 1 and 15 Mb (depending on image resolution) which makes over 700 Mb space storage. This is also a reason why we have decided to not offer all textures in one single archive. It is very likely that due to huge amount of data and manual work some links contain errors — please inform us about them. And sorry for inconvenience.

Winner

Finally, probably the most important information. The winner of Canon Digital Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 Lens was determined randomly from all valid entries we’ve received. The winner is not related to Smashing Magazine in any way.

And the winner is… Linda Estes. Congratulatons, Linda! We should have already contacted you.

Editors’s Pick - 30 Brilliant Textures

Haris Ferizovic
Beach towels. This photo was taken last summer at Croatian coast in city of Orebic.
Download

Texture

Daniel Hosie
This photograph is of a interesting wood pole in Frankenmuth Michigan.
Download

Texture

Zilda Borges
Collage of torn paper.
Download

Texture

Paul Weingartz
Light trails
Download

Texture

Ljubica Rapaic
Macro of a dandelion. The shot was taken with Canon EOS 400D / Canon EF-S18-55mm.
Download

Texture

Andronicus Riyono
A beautiful piece of Indonesian Batik.
Download

Texture

Paulo Ordoveza
This is a closeup of a Barong Tagalog, the formal national costume of the Philippines. The barong is a thin, transparent overlayer made from a sheer mesh of pineapple-based fibers, embroidered with elegant designs, usually leafy plants and ethnic patterns. I wore this particular barong for my wedding, one year ago this June.
Download

Texture

Istvan Vasil
Download

Texture

Anees
When we went to a trip in coonoor, karnataka we visited a fancy store. The shot is an inside view of a lamp shade which was hanging there.
Download

Texture

Tom Karels & Ryan Beals
Download

Texture

Olivia Kjellander Hook
Download

Texture

Michael Smith
The inside of an old Adidas sandal.
Download

Texture

Ng Ay Hoon a.k.a Jas
This photo is took in my house’s garden. It is a table with chess board textures.
Download

Texture

Kyle Gillen
Well, sometimes inspiration is just at your fingertips
Download

Texture

Mariella Johns Smith
The palm of a hand.
Download

Texture

Priscilla Louzada de Sena
Metal gate written by lots of young people.
Download

Texture

Tiago Hillesheim
Roof of British Museum, in London.
Download

Texture

Angelie Baral
Lights above an escalator in Paris
Download

Texture

Toh
Photo of a young banana leaf taken in Martinique
Download

Texture

Krissy Bertram
Picture of spiked punch, blue berries and strawberries
Download

Texture

Bogdan Günther
Download

Texture

Jim Ferguson
This image is of a rusted out tank at an abandoned mill.
Download

Texture

Jenn Rodriguez
Rusty car on the beach at Fort Funson, San Francisco.
Download

Texture

Angelie Baral
Detail of a redwood sawed section
Download

Texture

Mihaela Stoica
Water in an aluminium pot.
Download

Texture

Ljubica Rapaic
I was working on a design projects with some ink and watercolors, and I took photos of a glass with water in which I washed my brushes. The shot was taken with Canon EOS 400D / Canon EF-S18-55mm.
Download

Texture

Jonas Ersland
A shocking-red container-ship.
Download

Texture

Craig Sefton
Cracking
Download

Texture

Maria Davydenko
Dangar Island sandstone
Download

Texture

Jamie Winder
Taken in Bangkok, Thailand with a 7.2MP Sony Cybershot. Depicts old oil cans, left in an alley.
Download

Texture

Published in Graphics, May 27th, 2008
Tags: Freebies, photography, photos, textures

1.

omg (May 27th, 2008, 5:35 am)

omg !!
2.

John (May 27th, 2008, 5:39 am)

What a remarkably inane first comment.

Very nice textures though, thanks again for sharing!
3.

jason (May 27th, 2008, 5:40 am)

To echo the first comment, omg indeed. Some of these could be sold as stock, so I thank you for giving them up for the free.
4.

randall (May 27th, 2008, 5:47 am)

There’s so many amazing pictures here. Nice work, everyone!
5.

Caleb (May 27th, 2008, 5:52 am)

Great jobs on the pictures! It’s great to have some free photo’s to be used in my web projects!

Thanks!
6.

Sebastienb (May 27th, 2008, 6:06 am)

Very cool textures! I’m sure all these guys have a flickr account or something similar they should have placed a link with each texture.
7.

lex (May 27th, 2008, 6:06 am)

you guys should make more contests like this ^-^
8.

Dennis (May 27th, 2008, 6:16 am)

Truely a nice collection! Congratulations to smashingmagazine for reaching so many people!
9.

jonas (May 27th, 2008, 6:34 am)

not won :(
but nice collection, nice to see mine in there (but only 1 picture got a thumbnail, others still in the zip!) :)
10.

Uri (May 27th, 2008, 6:53 am)

Is it just me or only the winner’s name is presented without the winning photo?

anyways, amazing stuff!
11.

PixlNinja (May 27th, 2008, 6:56 am)

:(

Congrats Winner. !

When will Smashing Magazine Publish the Winning Textures into one page ?
12.

Karinne (May 27th, 2008, 7:01 am)

Where’s the winners’ pic?

There’s some really nice pictures there! Congrats to the winner and the ones listed in the Editor’s Picks.
13.

Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (May 27th, 2008, 7:11 am)

The winner was chosen randomly.
14.

Ben (May 27th, 2008, 7:31 am)

Nice set of stock photos. I say stock photos because I can’t see most of these being used as “textures,” but nice none-the-less.
15.

TuneD! (May 27th, 2008, 7:37 am)

A M A Z I N G

Thanks to you all!
16.

PR (May 27th, 2008, 7:41 am)

Why is the winner’s pic not shown?
17.

liam (May 27th, 2008, 7:58 am)

Good to see that you are using the power of your thousands of loyal visitors for good. I think this has been a huge success and you should host similar contests more often as the attract a lot of top quality stuff.
18.

Olivia (May 27th, 2008, 8:13 am)

Lovely collection! Thanks for including mine in the Editor’s Picks :)
19.

mayur (May 27th, 2008, 8:41 am)

wow man u rocked with so many useful picks
20.

Ryan (May 27th, 2008, 9:11 am)

Brilliant, lots of great textures.
21.

Tracy Cristal: AKA SpacyT (May 27th, 2008, 9:19 am)

Honored to have been included under Link [www.smashingmagazine.com] !!!
22.

Tracy Cristal: AKA SpacyT (May 27th, 2008, 9:22 am)

Honored to have been included under Link [www.smashingmagazine.com]
23.

Ann (May 27th, 2008, 9:36 am)

Hey that first pic is of the disco cow from the 2008 Cow Parade in San José, Costa Rica……….. awesome article as usual, warm wishes from paradise! :o)
24.

ViniMan (May 27th, 2008, 9:41 am)

Can’t imagine why my textures are nowhere to be found. While the quality of them was really good enough to stand next to one of the category textures. :/
25.

Wolfy (May 27th, 2008, 10:01 am)

Omg indeed, plenty of excellent textures there :o!
Congrats to the winners!

PS: Would it be possible to include all the downloads into a torrent download? :o
26.

fedegrafo (May 27th, 2008, 11:53 am)

Really a brilliant contest.
Thanks for sharing!
27.

Benni (May 27th, 2008, 11:56 am)

Wow! These images are amazing. Great job, dudes ;-)
28.

Susan Lee Quee (May 27th, 2008, 11:57 am)

Congrats to Linda, this was a fun contest, bring on the rest…seriously though, please do more of the same.
29.

utamu (May 27th, 2008, 12:13 pm)

Wow, I’m speechless…

Amazing photos and thanks for hosting this contest!
30.

Quakeulf (May 27th, 2008, 12:52 pm)

This is truly awesome. :3
31.

Linda Estes (May 27th, 2008, 12:57 pm)

Thanks but I do not want the camera! DONATE is to write the last post :D
32.

yamaniac (May 27th, 2008, 12:58 pm)

Simply mind blowing… OMG indeed! :)
33.

Joaquin (May 27th, 2008, 1:44 pm)

Great work everyone!

better luck for me next time though :P
34.

Lucia V (May 27th, 2008, 1:53 pm)

What??? ooh come on!……………..who wouldn’t want a camera like that!!…………….my camera………..is at the edge of its life time!!!! i need one………..DONATE it to me!!!!!!!!!!!! hehehe ; - )
35.

Linda (May 27th, 2008, 2:04 pm)

I did not write that comment because I do want the camera! Why weren’t my entries posted?
36.

Lucia V (May 27th, 2008, 2:06 pm)

by the way…..excellent CONTEST!! great quality textures. Very inspiring, thanks for letting us designers and photographers be part of this great magazine!
37.

Linda (May 27th, 2008, 2:09 pm)

I was notified that I won the contest AND I am looking forward to the new camera. I did not say that I did not want it. When will it arrive? I can’t wait to have better equipment. Thank you for selecting me to win such a cool camera!
38.

Linda Estes (May 27th, 2008, 2:27 pm)

I did not reject the prize or write that comment. I’m happy to be selected to win the camera. Thank you!
39.

Tim (May 27th, 2008, 2:56 pm)

Nice! How can we view the winner’s image? Real curious :)
Any one here like the textured background on my site?
Link [www.timothysykes.com]
40.

Marie Wong (May 27th, 2008, 3:06 pm)

Thanks, Smashing! My 1st time participating in a contest like this. It’s truly encouraging!
41.

Ric (May 27th, 2008, 4:56 pm)

Linda’s is the algae shot on the bird preserve at Link [www.smashingmagazine.com]
42.

gdiaz (May 27th, 2008, 4:58 pm)

yea how come the winning photo was not shown?? talk about a big oversight….
43.

Lawrence Anderson (May 27th, 2008, 6:18 pm)

Really great stuff guys. I really liked Mihaela Stoica’s pictures.
44.

Martin (May 27th, 2008, 6:21 pm)

Very thanks, SmashingMagazine! Great Contest! I´m very happy! Everybody won, design won, inspiration grew up! There´s no beautiful camera compared to those images!!
45.

Michael (May 27th, 2008, 6:28 pm)

Awesome results! I would have loved to enter and win that camera, but ironically I didn’t have a camera to take the picture of the texture with! lol!! Good job everyone who did enter though!!
46.

Melissa (May 27th, 2008, 6:36 pm)

These are amazing! And free, too? Brilliant.
47.

kevin Bhookun (May 27th, 2008, 7:40 pm)

Although this is all excellent work, there is a big difference between textures and patterns. what we have here is a mix of both very good textures and very good patterns. please know the difference.
48.

Arun (May 27th, 2008, 9:09 pm)

Great to see a photograph from my hometown Coonoor! Although I must point out that Coonoor is not in karnataka, it’s in Tamilnadu.
49.

rahman (May 27th, 2008, 10:18 pm)

Congrats Linda…..
50.

Anish Karim (May 27th, 2008, 10:34 pm)

I wonder my friend aneeskA also got placed in the list..

my wishes to all

thank you
51.

Fouad Masoud (May 27th, 2008, 10:51 pm)

smashing. luv it to the max.
52.

dani (May 27th, 2008, 11:02 pm)

niiice … sleek…n…yeah…free….10x A LOT
53.

perke (May 27th, 2008, 11:44 pm)

beautiful selection… I like the first one , beach towels :)
good stuff Haris
54.

sandie sørensen (May 28th, 2008, 12:01 am)

Lovely collection. This page will end on my favorites-menu. :)
You should have presented the winner as the first example, I think..
55.

Cosmin (May 28th, 2008, 12:33 am)

superb photos, congratulations to all participants :)
56.

Swamy (May 28th, 2008, 12:53 am)

hey..my frnd aneesKA also has got his pic here…great……..on a whole marvellous work….
57.

James G (May 28th, 2008, 1:25 am)

Smashing competition. Smashing results. Smashing resource. Smashing magazine!
58.

Jesse (May 28th, 2008, 3:03 am)

congratulations Linda!
Hopefully we soon can see some contributions from you, made with your new camera.

Thanks again to smashing for this great contest and for presenting my work.

Jesse
Berlin, Germany
59.

darkprint (May 28th, 2008, 3:12 am)

which one of those is the winner texture? Linda Estes’ texture
60.

walter (May 28th, 2008, 3:57 am)

Muchas Gracias!
61.

Sara (May 28th, 2008, 5:44 am)

Smashing, wuaw!!…. thanks, perfect, excelent, cool, we expect the second part of this section.
62.

aneeskA (May 28th, 2008, 6:02 am)

thanx for the appreciation ! please showcase the winner’s picture !

– anees
63.

Claudia (May 28th, 2008, 6:32 am)

Thanks!
Amazing, great pictures!
64.

Toh (May 28th, 2008, 6:54 am)

I’m delighted to have one of my photos in the “Editors’s Pick”, among such a lot of amazing pictures :-)
Many thanks to the Smashing Magazine teem for making this beautiful collection possible !
And congratulations Linda !
– Toh
65.

Robin Parmar (May 28th, 2008, 7:17 am)

Ben: “I say stock photos because I can’t see most of these being used as ‘textures’ but nice none-the-less.”

kevin Bhookun: “Although this is all excellent work, there is a big difference between textures and patterns. what we have here is a mix of both very good textures and very good patterns. please know the difference.”

I agree. This is a good resource but rather scattershot. I have written more detailed Link [noisetheatre.blogspot.com] with three specific criticisms.
66.

Juanma (May 28th, 2008, 8:38 am)

Simply amazing! Congratulations to the winner, stunning image!
67.

astecrix (May 28th, 2008, 1:59 pm)

txs!! grEAT!!!!!
68.

iqranegara (May 28th, 2008, 6:32 pm)

Go Indonesian Batik!
69.

aree (May 29th, 2008, 12:37 am)

I love batik.
70.

Billifer (May 29th, 2008, 2:16 am)

Thanks so much to Vitaly and Sven for the time they put into this contest–it was no small feat! Thanks, of course, also to all the photographers who have entered and shared their work; there’s some truly great stuff up here! Lastly, congratulations to Linda for winning “my” camera. ;-) This has been smashing!
71.

Eric (May 29th, 2008, 6:31 am)

you can see hairs on the sandal shot
72.

yc (May 29th, 2008, 7:28 am)

I can’ t believe you let the full details in the files to download : email, details, name, etc.

Damn, i wouldn’ t have let my personal email for contact if i knew that you would have put it all online :/
73.

DL (May 30th, 2008, 3:49 am)

I’m starting to learn photoshop. I am wondering, what can be done with these textures? what are their uses and what creative things can be accomplished with them?

Sorry if that sounds like a bit of a simple question. Just wanting to learn

Thanks
74.

Mindy Tyrone (June 1st, 2008, 5:58 pm)

Directed towards DL:

As a media student working on a webproject I went by this article to see if I could find some inspiration and Jim Ferguson’s image of the rusted out tank got my inspirational juices flowing. What came of it was this site, which I will feature in my portfolio once I decide to start one up. Link [dont-read.com]

Thank you Smashing Magazine and Jim Ferguson!
75.

berehel (June 2nd, 2008, 4:17 am)

suprised with batik.
76.

praveen (June 3rd, 2008, 5:38 am)

Hey,where’s Linda’s work ?I’d luv to see that :-)
77.

tx (June 6th, 2008, 6:15 am)

Thanks, these are great!!! Amazing work and thanks for sharing!
78.

MAnoj (June 13th, 2008, 10:04 am)

Great Stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
79.

Alfonso de Tomás (June 17th, 2008, 12:07 am)

Really cool!!!
80.

MARY DARGIS (July 7th, 2008, 8:19 pm)

Can you explain “only got a thumbnail, the rest are in zip”?
81.

MARY DARGIS (July 7th, 2008, 8:23 pm)

How about letting the readers “critique” the remaining entries? This way we will learn for next time.
82.

MGL XYY (July 29th, 2008, 12:50 am)

not bad….
83.

MGL XYY (July 29th, 2008, 12:53 am)

hey 73. DL where r u come from?which country?
84.

mahesh patel (August 2nd, 2008, 2:29 am)

Really cool these are great!!! Amazing work and thanks for sharing!
85.

MARY DARGIS (August 10th, 2008, 7:47 pm)

does anyone answer these questions we ask?
86.

Odipo Brian Sospeter (August 15th, 2008, 2:04 am)

Kudos guys
87.

Tammy Hart (September 12th, 2008, 11:30 am)

Here’s a stupid question. What does one use a texture for?
88.

alanya haber (September 24th, 2008, 6:50 am)

Thanks for sharing!! Link [www.alanyahaber.com]
89.

Alanya Haber (September 26th, 2008, 12:49 am)

nice work Link [www.downloadturkey.com]
90.

Texture Doodles (October 10th, 2008, 2:17 pm)

An amazing post. Fantastic work everyone.

@ Tammy: Textures can be used for a variety of things relating to design to create mood and or a theme. It really depends on what the goal of the designer is. Many digital artists may use textures as a base for their layout designs and carry through an idea off of that main concept. IE - Rust for a grunge look, flowers or grass for a nature theme, etc. CG and 3D artist use textures for mapping onto 3D objects and such. Photographers may experiment on various lighting situations and shot compositions. The list goes on… From a design standpoint, textures come in handy for so many uses I could not begin list them all here.

Eric - blog.texturedoodles.com - Link [blog.texturedoodles.com]