Smashing Texture Contest Results
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:
- Wood, Bark
- Stone, Walls, Brick
- Metal, Rust, Industrial
- Nature, Flowers, Plants
- Water, Ice, Drops, Liquids
- Sand, Earth
- Fabric
- Paper
- Glass
- Fire, Ashes
- Food
- Plastic
- Misc
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.
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
Daniel Hosie
This photograph is of a interesting wood pole in Frankenmuth Michigan.
Download
Zilda Borges
Collage of torn paper.
Download
Paul Weingartz
Light trails
Download
Ljubica Rapaic
Macro of a dandelion. The shot was taken with Canon EOS 400D / Canon EF-S18-55mm.
Download
Andronicus Riyono
A beautiful piece of Indonesian Batik.
Download
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
Istvan Vasil
Download
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
Tom Karels & Ryan Beals
Download
Olivia Kjellander Hook
Download
Michael Smith
The inside of an old Adidas sandal.
Download
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
Kyle Gillen
Well, sometimes inspiration is just at your fingertips
Download
Mariella Johns Smith
The palm of a hand.
Download
Priscilla Louzada de Sena
Metal gate written by lots of young people.
Download
Tiago Hillesheim
Roof of British Museum, in London.
Download
Angelie Baral
Lights above an escalator in Paris
Download
Toh
Photo of a young banana leaf taken in Martinique
Download
Krissy Bertram
Picture of spiked punch, blue berries and strawberries
Download
Bogdan Günther
Download
Jim Ferguson
This image is of a rusted out tank at an abandoned mill.
Download
Jenn Rodriguez
Rusty car on the beach at Fort Funson, San Francisco.
Download
Angelie Baral
Detail of a redwood sawed section
Download
Mihaela Stoica
Water in an aluminium pot.
Download
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
Jonas Ersland
A shocking-red container-ship.
Download
Craig Sefton
Cracking
Download
Maria Davydenko
Dangar Island sandstone
Download
Jamie Winder
Taken in Bangkok, Thailand with a 7.2MP Sony Cybershot. Depicts old oil cans, left in an alley.
Download
omg
May 27th, 2008 5:35 amomg !!
John
May 27th, 2008 5:39 amWhat a remarkably inane first comment.
Very nice textures though, thanks again for sharing!
jason
May 27th, 2008 5:40 amTo 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.
randall
May 27th, 2008 5:47 amThere’s so many amazing pictures here. Nice work, everyone!
Caleb
May 27th, 2008 5:52 amGreat jobs on the pictures! It’s great to have some free photo’s to be used in my web projects!
Thanks!
Sebastienb
May 27th, 2008 6:06 amVery cool textures! I’m sure all these guys have a flickr account or something similar they should have placed a link with each texture.
lex
May 27th, 2008 6:06 amyou guys should make more contests like this ^-^
Dennis
May 27th, 2008 6:16 amTruely a nice collection! Congratulations to smashingmagazine for reaching so many people!
jonas
May 27th, 2008 6:34 amnot won :(
but nice collection, nice to see mine in there (but only 1 picture got a thumbnail, others still in the zip!) :)
Uri
May 27th, 2008 6:53 amIs it just me or only the winner’s name is presented without the winning photo?
anyways, amazing stuff!
PixlNinja
May 27th, 2008 6:56 am:(
Congrats Winner. !
When will Smashing Magazine Publish the Winning Textures into one page ?
Karinne
May 27th, 2008 7:01 amWhere’s the winners’ pic?
There’s some really nice pictures there! Congrats to the winner and the ones listed in the Editor’s Picks.
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz
May 27th, 2008 7:11 amThe winner was chosen randomly.
Ben
May 27th, 2008 7:31 amNice 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.
TuneD!
May 27th, 2008 7:37 amA M A Z I N G
Thanks to you all!
PR
May 27th, 2008 7:41 amWhy is the winner’s pic not shown?
liam
May 27th, 2008 7:58 amGood 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.
Olivia
May 27th, 2008 8:13 amLovely collection! Thanks for including mine in the Editor’s Picks :)
mayur
May 27th, 2008 8:41 amwow man u rocked with so many useful picks
Ryan
May 27th, 2008 9:11 amBrilliant, lots of great textures.
Tracy Cristal: AKA SpacyT
May 27th, 2008 9:19 amHonored to have been included under http://www.smashingmagazine.com/texture-gallery-stone-walls-brick/ !!!
Tracy Cristal: AKA SpacyT
May 27th, 2008 9:22 amHonored to have been included under Stones, Wall, Brick !!!
Ann
May 27th, 2008 9:36 amHey 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)
ViniMan
May 27th, 2008 9:41 amCan’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. :/
Wolfy
May 27th, 2008 10:01 amOmg 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
fedegrafo
May 27th, 2008 11:53 amReally a brilliant contest.
Thanks for sharing!
Benni
May 27th, 2008 11:56 amWow! These images are amazing. Great job, dudes ;-)
Susan Lee Quee
May 27th, 2008 11:57 amCongrats to Linda, this was a fun contest, bring on the rest…seriously though, please do more of the same.
utamu
May 27th, 2008 12:13 pmWow, I’m speechless…
Amazing photos and thanks for hosting this contest!
Quakeulf
May 27th, 2008 12:52 pmThis is truly awesome. :3
Linda Estes
May 27th, 2008 12:57 pmThanks but I do not want the camera! DONATE is to write the last post :D
yamaniac
May 27th, 2008 12:58 pmSimply mind blowing… OMG indeed! :)
Joaquin
May 27th, 2008 1:44 pmGreat work everyone!
better luck for me next time though :P
Lucia V
May 27th, 2008 1:53 pmWhat??? 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 ; – )
Linda
May 27th, 2008 2:04 pmI did not write that comment because I do want the camera! Why weren’t my entries posted?
Lucia V
May 27th, 2008 2:06 pmby the way…..excellent CONTEST!! great quality textures. Very inspiring, thanks for letting us designers and photographers be part of this great magazine!
Linda
May 27th, 2008 2:09 pmI 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!
Linda Estes
May 27th, 2008 2:27 pmI did not reject the prize or write that comment. I’m happy to be selected to win the camera. Thank you!
Tim
May 27th, 2008 2:56 pmNice! How can we view the winner’s image? Real curious :)
Any one here like the textured background on my site?
LINK
Marie Wong
May 27th, 2008 3:06 pmThanks, Smashing! My 1st time participating in a contest like this. It’s truly encouraging!
Ric
May 27th, 2008 4:56 pmLinda’s is the algae shot on the bird preserve at http://www.smashingmagazine.com/texture-gallery-nature-flowers-plants/
gdiaz
May 27th, 2008 4:58 pmyea how come the winning photo was not shown?? talk about a big oversight….
Lawrence Anderson
May 27th, 2008 6:18 pmReally great stuff guys. I really liked Mihaela Stoica’s pictures.
Martin
May 27th, 2008 6:21 pmVery thanks, SmashingMagazine! Great Contest! I´m very happy! Everybody won, design won, inspiration grew up! There´s no beautiful camera compared to those images!!
Michael
May 27th, 2008 6:28 pmAwesome 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!!
Melissa
May 27th, 2008 6:36 pmThese are amazing! And free, too? Brilliant.
kevin Bhookun
May 27th, 2008 7:40 pmAlthough 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.
Arun
May 27th, 2008 9:09 pmGreat to see a photograph from my hometown Coonoor! Although I must point out that Coonoor is not in karnataka, it’s in Tamilnadu.
rahman
May 27th, 2008 10:18 pmCongrats Linda…..
Anish Karim
May 27th, 2008 10:34 pmI wonder my friend aneeskA also got placed in the list..
my wishes to all
thank you
Fouad Masoud
May 27th, 2008 10:51 pmsmashing. luv it to the max.
dani
May 27th, 2008 11:02 pmniiice … sleek…n…yeah…free….10x A LOT
perke
May 27th, 2008 11:44 pmbeautiful selection… I like the first one , beach towels :)
good stuff Haris
sandie sørensen
May 28th, 2008 12:01 amLovely collection. This page will end on my favorites-menu. :)
You should have presented the winner as the first example, I think..
Cosmin
May 28th, 2008 12:33 amsuperb photos, congratulations to all participants :)
Swamy
May 28th, 2008 12:53 amhey..my frnd aneesKA also has got his pic here…great……..on a whole marvellous work….
James G
May 28th, 2008 1:25 amSmashing competition. Smashing results. Smashing resource. Smashing magazine!
Jesse
May 28th, 2008 3:03 amcongratulations 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
darkprint
May 28th, 2008 3:12 amwhich one of those is the winner texture? Linda Estes’ texture
walter
May 28th, 2008 3:57 amMuchas Gracias!
Sara
May 28th, 2008 5:44 amSmashing, wuaw!!…. thanks, perfect, excelent, cool, we expect the second part of this section.
aneeskA
May 28th, 2008 6:02 amthanx for the appreciation ! please showcase the winner’s picture !
– anees
Claudia
May 28th, 2008 6:32 amThanks!
Amazing, great pictures!
Toh
May 28th, 2008 6:54 amI’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
Robin Parmar
May 28th, 2008 7:17 amBen: “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 comments with three specific criticisms.
Juanma
May 28th, 2008 8:38 amSimply amazing! Congratulations to the winner, stunning image!
astecrix
May 28th, 2008 1:59 pmtxs!! grEAT!!!!!
iqranegara
May 28th, 2008 6:32 pmGo Indonesian Batik!
aree
May 29th, 2008 12:37 amI love batik.
Billifer
May 29th, 2008 2:16 amThanks 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!
Eric
May 29th, 2008 6:31 amyou can see hairs on the sandal shot
yc
May 29th, 2008 7:28 amI 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 :/
DL
May 30th, 2008 3:49 amI’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
Mindy Tyrone
June 1st, 2008 5:58 pmDirected 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. http://dont-read.com/tsc/c/
Thank you Smashing Magazine and Jim Ferguson!
berehel
June 2nd, 2008 4:17 amsuprised with batik.
praveen
June 3rd, 2008 5:38 amHey,where’s Linda’s work ?I’d luv to see that :-)
tx
June 6th, 2008 6:15 amThanks, these are great!!! Amazing work and thanks for sharing!
MAnoj
June 13th, 2008 10:04 amGreat Stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Alfonso de Tomás
June 17th, 2008 12:07 amReally cool!!!
MARY DARGIS
July 7th, 2008 8:19 pmCan you explain “only got a thumbnail, the rest are in zip”?
MARY DARGIS
July 7th, 2008 8:23 pmHow about letting the readers “critique” the remaining entries? This way we will learn for next time.
MGL XYY
July 29th, 2008 12:50 amnot bad….
MGL XYY
July 29th, 2008 12:53 amhey 73. DL where r u come from?which country?
mahesh patel
August 2nd, 2008 2:29 amReally cool these are great!!! Amazing work and thanks for sharing!
MARY DARGIS
August 10th, 2008 7:47 pmdoes anyone answer these questions we ask?
Odipo Brian Sospeter
August 15th, 2008 2:04 amKudos guys
Tammy Hart
September 12th, 2008 11:30 amHere’s a stupid question. What does one use a texture for?
alanya haber
September 24th, 2008 6:50 amThanks for sharing!! http://www.alanyahaber.com
Alanya Haber
September 26th, 2008 12:49 amnice work http://www.downloadturkey.com
Texture Doodles
October 10th, 2008 2:17 pmAn 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 – Texture Doodles
Gloria
December 14th, 2008 3:43 pmnice… i always like this such pic… that’s awesome ..
haber
December 25th, 2008 4:17 amthey are very good pictures. thanks
fiorella
January 28th, 2009 4:57 pmmmm…. me confundi creo
francisa
April 16th, 2009 10:13 pmcool
Textura
May 6th, 2009 3:15 amWell, many so called textures are in fact images with a clear subject matter – but why should designers who take it as a starting point mind? More free textures here:
Aric
May 28th, 2009 2:12 amCOOL ! Thanx
Nancy
October 29th, 2009 10:54 amWHEN WILL THERE BE ANOTHER CREATIVE TEXTURE CONTEST?
hamza
December 29th, 2009 2:55 pmtkx friend u the best in the world
duan
December 31st, 2009 8:13 ammy name is duan
daniellimb
January 3rd, 2010 12:01 pmwow!! i really can’t believe this is for free! awesome pics