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Smashing Magazine

Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

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Smashing Magazine has been on Twitter for about a year now (@smashingmag), and it turned out to be a great medium to communicate with our audience, build connections, discuss design-related topics and give away some nice prizes. However, even a year later, we still don’t have a Twitter background page and now is a good time to change that. So because we decided to create our own Twitter page, we wanted to first find out how other designers do it and what tips and techniques they use to create a truly outstanding, beautiful Twitter page.

Your profile page is the only place on Twitter where you get opportunity to showcase your visual brand and possibly communicate additional information that can last longer than a tweet. You can customize your profile page by changing background, text and link colors. It’s as simple as changing the skin, but ability to change background image has allowed designers to create really unique profile pages.

Primary focus of this article is to explore various techniques to create unique, memorable and effective Twitter profile pages. However, before proceeding to the list, it is important to briefly discuss the structure of the Twitter profile page.

[Offtopic: by the way, did you know that there is a Smashing eBook Series? Book #2 is Successful Freelancing for Web Designers, 260 pages for just $9,90.]

Twitter Profile Page

Most important thing to note is that the main content block in the layout of a Twitter profile page has the fixed width of 765 pixels, and it is always centered. This is good, because it makes it possible for you to show your background image using the extra space created on the both sides of the block when displayed at higher resolutions.

Twitter1280Illustration in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Twitter1024Illustration in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Other things that you should keep in mind:

  • timeline background is always white
  • menu bar background is always white
  • footer bar background is always white
  • logo is always the Twitter logo
  • picture can be changed
  • you can change text color, link color, sidebar background color and sidebar border color
  • you can change background image and background color
  • you can also tile background image
  • the background image start position is always top left corner

Note that if you are only interested in designing a nice profile page, you can easily do that by incorporating a stunning background image and customizing text, link and sidebar colors accordingly. But if your intentions are to be unique, incorporate brand identity and communicate additional information, then you will need to be little bit more creative with your background image.

Tips & Techniques

Following is a list of profile pages, illustrating various tips & techniques that you can incorporate in your own backgrounds. Please note that most of these profile pages incorporate more than one technique, and you should also consider mixing multiple techniques according to your own requirements.

Merge Background With Timeline / Sidebar

This is probably the least used technique among all tips and techniques discussed here. By merging your background graphics with timeline and/or sidebar, you can create a unique layout with a very distinctive look and form.

@adamplitt

Adamplitt-a in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Adamplitt-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@gaksdesigns

Gaksdesigns-a in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Gaksdesigns-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Mix Tiled Pattern With Other Graphics

Twitter allows you to integrate one background image that can be either tiled or not. But you can create unique look for your profile page by creating a background image that has both.

@spurrachel

Spurrachel-a in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Spurrachel-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Reveal More With Your Pictures

Your profile picture (it can be an avatar, logo or photo) is your main identity on Twitter; it will be displayed next to every tweet that you send out to your followers. For instance, you can use a background image that is somehow related to your profile picture and thus convey more information about yourself or your brand. In other words, you can use this classic approach of creating design around your logo or brand identity to communicate information in a more effective way.

@Doubleolee

Doubleolee-a in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Doubleolee-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@mailchimp

Mailchimp-a in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Mailchimp-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Reveal More With The Page Peel Effect

If you have an established visual identity, you can use page peel effect to show users who is actualy behind the Twitter profile. This technique provides you with a freedom to design the rest of the background as you wish, because you may no longer need to worry about integrating brand visuals and its colors.

@sitepointdotcom

Sitepointdotcom-a in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Sitepointdotcom-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@benek

Benek-a in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Benek-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Add Personalized Sidebar To Your Profile

The following profiles illustrate a specific use of the first technique by adding sidebars to the layout. You can add such panels to effectively highlight additional information that you want to communicate.

@aaronmillerillz

Aaronmillerillz-a in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Aaronmillerillz-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@robingood

Robingood-a in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Robingood-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@sickbrain

Sickbrain-a in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Sickbrain-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Show Yourself

In social media world, you are the brand. With Twitter, being one of the major players in social media, showing yourself on the profile page can be very effective way of strengthening your brand and community around your website.

@problogger

Problogger-a in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Problogger-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@unmarketing

Unmarketing-a in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Unmarketing-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Use Icons and Logos

Following profiles illustrate simple, yet very effective technique to communicate association with or involvement in certain community, service, skill, etc by showcasing relevant icons or logos.

@lanesa

Lanesa-a in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Lanesa-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@rjacquez

Rjacquez-a in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Rjacquez-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Add a Header Bar

Adding a header bar could be used for creating unique look for your profile page, but it can also be used to separate Twitter logo and top menu (which contain links to user’s profile) from the rest of your page.

@thegraphicmac

Thegraphicmac-a in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Thegraphicmac-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@elitistsnob

Elitistsnob-a in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Elitistsnob-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Less is More

Andre Gide once said that “Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better”. Here are few illustrations of how minimalism can be used to its full effect:

@line25blog

Line25blog-a in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Line25blog-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@idesignstudios

Idesignstudios-a in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Idesignstudios-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Accommodate the 1024px Width

If you care how your profile page will appear on 1024px wide screens, you will need to work near the top and left borders of your background image. Here is an example of how a nice visual design can be used properly for various screen resolutions:

@SohTanaka

SohTanaka-a in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

SohTanaka-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Here is another interesting technique to ensure that your profile page has a very similar look on both 1024 and 1280px wide resolutions:

@adamplitt

Adamplitt-a in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Adamplitt-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Use Typography

Use of typography in Twitter backgrounds is not very common; however if used creatively, you can create unique, very effective profile pages to communicate additional information.

@dickieadams

Dickieadams-a in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Dickieadams-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@iamFinch

Finch2 in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Gallery-iamFinch in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Put Information In a Memorable Way

Composition is the plan, placement or arrangement of the elements. You can arrange elements on your background in a unique and memorable, showcasing information that is important to you and your readers. This techniques allows you to create an environment, show your personality and provide additional information.

@sharebrain

Sharebrain-a in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Sharebrain-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@iamkhayyam

Iamkhayyam-a in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Iamkhayyam-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Do Whatever You Want To Do

The more original, creative and distinctive your background image is, the more likely it is to be memorable and strengthen your online presence. Experiment with beautiful, personalized illustrations, background images and typography. Make sure that your background image has a personal voice, doesn’t look generic and has an unusual twist. Your first time visitors will appreciate it.

@ramesstudios

Gallery-ramesstudios in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@NIK0_BELLIC

Gallery-NIK0 BELLIC in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Gallery

Now that we discussed a couple of techniques for the design of Twitter backgrounds, here is a collection of some well-designed profile pages to tame your appetite for Twitter profile page inspiration.

@MdFilmFestival

Gallery-MdFilmFestival in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@fragments77

Gallery-fragments77 in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@happytreefriend

Gallery-happytreefriend in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@LoungeKat

Gallery-LoungeKat in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@ellingson

Gallery-ellingson in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@hootsuite

Gallery-hootsuite in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@G_Obieta

Gallery-G Obieta in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@willbryantplz

Gallery-willbryantplz in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@grant_clark

Gallery-grant Clark in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@hugeinc

Gallery-hugeinc in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@JJunkins

Gallery-JJunkins in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@Baldy67

Gallery-Baldy67 in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@thelaughbutton

Gallery-thelaughbutton in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@bickov

Gallery-bickov in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@jayjdk

Gallery-jayjdk in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@nathanhoad

Gallery-nathanhoad in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@robertomas

Gallery-robertomas in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@mayhemstudios

Gallery-mayhemstudios in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@ThirstEase

Gallery-ThirstEase in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@cameronolivier

Cameronolivier-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@studio3k

Studio3k-b in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@sixreffie

Gallery-sixreffie in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@TheTwiddict

Gallery-TheTwiddict in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@mountainash

Gallery-mountainash in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@Hallisar

Gallery-Hallisar in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@mywayhome

Gallery-mywayhome in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@TheArtificer

Gallery-TheArtificer in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@webdude75

Gallery-webdude75 in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@colourofair

Gallery-colourofair in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@jodyphillips

Gallery-jodyphillips in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@emilychang

Gallery-emilychang in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@ijustine

Gallery-ijustine in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@boagworld

Gallery-boagworld in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@collis

Gallery-collis in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@chrisspooner

Gallery-chrisspooner in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@webb_art

Gallery-webb Art in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@Hicksdesign

Gallery-Hicksdesign in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@rww

Gallery-rww in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@ThemeForest

Gallery-ThemeForest in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@technikwuerze

Gallery-technikwuerze in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@Designfeedr

Gallery-Designfeedr in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@Malarkey

Gallery-Malarkey in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@Trenti

Gallery-Trenti in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@zomigi

Gallery-zomigi in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@carsonified

Gallery-carsonified in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@WiliamAu

Gallery-WiliamAu in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@wpbeginner

Gallery-wpbeginner in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@brandonacox

Gallery-brandonacox in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@inspiredmag

Gallery-inspiredmag in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@guardiantech

Gallery-guardiantech in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@DesignerDepot

Gallery-DesignerDepot in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@carywood

Gallery-carywood in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@designia

Gallery-designia in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

@_finderskeepers

Gallery-finders in Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices

Tools

  • Twitter Background Template: Free Twitter Background template in PSD format from “Fuel Your Creativity”, includes guides that match up with different resolutions from 800×600 to 1900×1200.
  • Peekr: A bookmarklet that you can drag to your browser’s toolbar and click on to see a twitter user’s entire background graphic and then click again to get things back to normal.
  • Twitter Background Checker: Lets you check how your Twitter profile looks in smaller or higher resolutions.
  • ClickableNow: Add Clickable Links to your Twitter background image.

Additional Resources

Related posts

Saud Khan is a software/web developer and consultant with over 12 years of professional experience. He is also founder of W3Avenue, an online publication providing advice & resources for rapid web development. You can also follow him on Twitter. http://twitter.com/w3avenue

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  1. 1
    Tisbah
    September 11th, 2009 6:03 am

    Great article. I have to create mine soon. :)

  2. 2
    Michael
    September 18th, 2009 5:56 am

    Thanks For all the tools, guides, and Inspiration! Maybe my background can make the next list @madesigns

  3. 3
    Matt Busse
    September 18th, 2009 6:21 am

    Designers should also remember that many people use screen resolutions with a height greater than the 900 or so that is standard on a 19″ widescreen. Many use 1024 height (for example, 1280 x 1024) or taller. @adamplitt’s background looks cool but on a 1024-tall window it is cut off at the bottom. The best thing to do is make your background image fade into your background color.

  4. 4
    David B
    September 18th, 2009 6:23 am

    I think this eclectic background is cool.
    @Jacob_DeGrade

  5. 5
    Tobias
    September 18th, 2009 6:27 am

    I still fail to find Twitter fun or usefull or whatever… :/

  6. 6
    Bim
    September 18th, 2009 6:38 am

    helpful. thank you. not many people actually view twitter from the homepage now do they? well its a lot less before.

  7. 7
    Art Webb
    September 18th, 2009 6:40 am

    Thanks for the mention. @webb_art

  8. 8
    Onelargeprawn
    September 18th, 2009 6:42 am

    Thanks for the tips. I need to revisit my messy background.

  9. 9
    Susan
    September 18th, 2009 6:44 am

    People need to remember to create their twitter backgrounds for various screen resolutions. Lots of these backgrounds look great in the screenshots, but they look awful on my monitor (1900×1280).

  10. 10
    Aubrey Johnson
    September 18th, 2009 6:45 am

    Great Article, it’d be great to make the round two of this list.

    @aubreyjohnson

  11. 11
    TarantinO
    September 18th, 2009 6:45 am

    Great works =]

  12. 12
    h1brd
    September 18th, 2009 6:45 am

    Cool post, I like to think mine is also pretty good and at the level of being exposed, check it here: http://twitter.com/h1brd

  13. 13
    G-Mo
    September 18th, 2009 6:48 am

    Some nice examples – The first one’s a good idea but it resizes pretty poorly. Us mac kinds don’t normally conform to standard screen sizes.

  14. 14
    Sharebrain
    September 18th, 2009 6:50 am

    Hey hey … thx for the mention! :)

  15. 15
    Jeroen
    September 18th, 2009 6:53 am

    They should support more background options (CSS)
    Centered positioning of the background would be nice to have?!

  16. 16
    Ivan
    September 18th, 2009 6:54 am

    Cool. I just keep my as simple as possible @IvanBernat

  17. 17
    Greg
    September 18th, 2009 6:56 am

    Great stuff. While I find Twitter too narcissistic to justify a personal page, our news station has one, and we incorporate ti into the show as a way for viewers to interact with stories. The anchors can read responses right from the laptops on their desks.

  18. 18
    Mike
    September 18th, 2009 6:58 am

    Unfortunately all this works with a certain screen resolution.

  19. 19
    Grant
    September 18th, 2009 7:00 am

    Thanks for the mention! I have to agree with an earlier comment though, I hardly ever use my actual Twitter homepage to update, although I still enjoy looking at other peoples’ backgrounds and content through the Twitter site.

    @grant_clark

  20. 20
    Justin
    September 18th, 2009 7:11 am

    I agree with a lot of the commenters here that you need to take screen resolution as a main factor. while @adamplitts looks good, it only looks good when your screen is at the exact res that it was built for. It would make it a lot better to do one like that if twitter were to give us the option of making our background image centered along with the rest of the site.

    While backgrounds won’t necessarily look the same from a netbook to a 24 inch screen with a 1920×1200 screen size, I think it is important that we take them all into consideration when making the designs for this. I am not saying I am perfect at this, but it is all something we need to consider…

    @justinruess

  21. 21
    Syed Balkhi
    September 18th, 2009 7:35 am

    This was an excellent roundup. Thanks for including our site @wpbeginner

    You did miss out a few other great backgrounds like @bkmacdaddy or my personal one @syedbalkhi , and @realmtnboy

    All to all an excellent roundup :)

  22. 22
    Amy
    September 18th, 2009 7:40 am

    I like my twitter layout. It’s the jizz. @omgitslittlet

  23. 23
    Todd (@CantonDog)
    September 18th, 2009 7:43 am

    Great list. I’ve always thought my background was good (@CantonDog), but now I’m thinking I should be a bit more creative. This is good inspiration. Thanks.

  24. 24
    Jessica
    September 18th, 2009 7:50 am

    Great list!
    I also run a site with a gallery of Twitter backgrounds if others are looking for inspiration. http://www.twitter-gallery.com

  25. 25
    Susan
    September 18th, 2009 7:50 am

    @Aaron Besson
    @h1brd
    Both nice designs but same issues with screen size, they don’t reach the bottom of the screen.

  26. 26
    Roisin Markham
    September 18th, 2009 7:58 am

    Excellent. Really useful information all in the one place. Just what I need. thanks

  27. 27
    jonharules
    September 18th, 2009 8:00 am

    They may not have the most followers but they sure have the most effective marketing or branding I can see. Mine is simple but I love the comfortable and cozy feeling I get when I see it @jonharules

  28. 28
    Ozh
    September 18th, 2009 8:06 am

    http://planetozh.com/blog/2009/03/pixel-perfect-background-photoshop-template-for-twitter/ is a great template for twitter background

  29. 29
    Helga Grotewold
    September 18th, 2009 8:06 am

    @helgita89 :)

  30. 30
    Hernán Aros
    September 18th, 2009 8:15 am

    Wow!!!..What an inspiring post!!…Thanks!

  31. 31
    Tricia Cross
    September 18th, 2009 8:31 am

    What about @sciencebase His is pretty neat, narrow sidebar, nothing hidden behind the main screens etc…

  32. 32
    Bruno Ribeiro
    September 18th, 2009 8:34 am

    Great article and some wonderfull designs. At Douro Azul, a Portuguese cruising company, we did the study you show at the beginning of the article to creat our twitter profile background. There’s a lot of trial and error untill you get the perfect balance. Also, when you represent a brand you have to guarantee that your twitter profile page is alligned with your overall corporate image. I think our design team did ok. You should check it at twitter.com/DouroAzul

    Btw, @adamplitt has, imho, the best and more creative background.

  33. 33
    gaksdesigns
    September 18th, 2009 8:50 am

    Thank you for the mention @gaksdesigns
    Much appreciated!

  34. 34
    printedproof
    September 18th, 2009 8:51 am

    great collection! those are some amazing backgrounds. I think i need an update… @printedproof

  35. 35
    Brad
    September 18th, 2009 8:52 am

    Great article. Cool to see how limitations and constraints can help creativity really take off. (Oftentimes much easier to get some initial boundaries than hearing from a client “Just do whatever you want”). I really like the fuller, more complicated designs on here, but went with clean and simple for mine – @aptdesign

  36. 36
    Mark
    September 18th, 2009 8:53 am

    I thought it was a confusing article. I expected a list of best practices, and then was given a list of a bunch of things to add….followed by “less is more”….followed by “do whatever you want to do”.

    Design is about communication. And when ‘best practices’ cause communication to be lost on potential clients and customers, I think there’s a disconnect from best practice. I’ve been struggling with the best way to do this, myself, was excited about seeing this article.

    Was a great showcase of art. Could revisit the best practices idea again in the future.

  37. 37
    bs.kishore
    September 18th, 2009 8:56 am

    nice and informative post…

  38. 38
    ben smithson
    September 18th, 2009 8:58 am

    Thank you for not including a whole ton of social media douchebag backgrounds. I cannot stand the people who put way, way, way too much contact info and “fake” (non-clickable) janky non-links in their background graphics.

  39. 39
    Yorick Peterse
    September 18th, 2009 9:20 am

    I always wondered when SmashingMagazine would give into the Twitter background crap…

  40. 40
    Ipstenu
    September 18th, 2009 9:49 am

    Sadly, like many others I see the problem as being the centering.

    The variable widths that people keep their browsers really can damn your view. Twitter would be doing a service if we could pick alignments. Like ‘X px from left’, aligned left, or centered.

    Then we would REALLY be able to theme.

  41. 41
    kilinkis
    September 18th, 2009 10:07 am

    cool! super cool post!

  42. 42
    Dawn Farias
    September 18th, 2009 10:15 am

    Excellent! Thank you.

  43. 43
    Anibal Blasutti
    September 18th, 2009 10:27 am

    BUUU :(
    They doesn’t work in widescreen resolution. Twitter content ALWAYS work based in center alignment.
    Most of this examples doesn’t look so good as S.M. is showing.

    Smashing Magazine, I’ll continue reading your post, ILOVE YOU. :)

  44. 44
    Louis
    September 18th, 2009 11:30 am

    Nice to see Tyler Stewart of Barenaked Ladies on the list.

  45. 45
    Jim Hanifen
    September 18th, 2009 1:28 pm

    Dreamweaver developers will like this one. The height is based on 72px per inch.

  46. 46
    Benek Lisefski
    September 18th, 2009 2:03 pm

    Thanks for including mine. This is a wonderful and inspiring list.

  47. 47
    Anup
    September 18th, 2009 2:24 pm

    I think you the twitter background should match the product / service / person it is trying to depict. Sitepoint was great! . Check our classifieds revolution at
    Localads Twitter

  48. 48
    Didier LAHELY
    September 18th, 2009 3:13 pm

    Why, why, why? I’m not in this list? Whyyyy!!! (crying out of load)
    I change my Twitter every hour just for Smashing Magazine! BoooOOuuUh!!! They still ignore me even if the CEO is my cousin! http://twitter.com/10dier – Whyyyyyyyyyyy.
    Life is so cruel with me!!!

    (I know, I should take a rest ; )

  49. 49
    Khayyam Wakil
    September 18th, 2009 3:20 pm

    Wow. Thanks for the mention! The best part of my background is only visible to a discriminating eye or someone who has a big up massive display.

    Here’s a link to see the full meal deal:
    http://j.mp/1HDNPc

    Once again, thanks for the mention and can’t tell you how important it is to leave Easter Eggs for people. It’s always fun and the only interactive part that you could possibly implement into your background.

    And remember, it’s ok to believe… you are beautiful :)

  50. 50
    Tamixes
    September 18th, 2009 4:19 pm

    Great roundup! I love twitter and peekr is sooo cool!

  51. 51
    Billy Goat
    September 18th, 2009 4:50 pm

    Man, if I see wood and a coffee cup in a background graphic, i’m going to barf. It’s lame and over.

  52. 52
    Johnny Rotten
    September 18th, 2009 4:52 pm

    “HUGE” went really lame and obvious with this background. I would expect more from a large agency like that. The rest are all drivel and totally not original.

  53. 53
    Jim
    September 18th, 2009 5:09 pm

    Thanks for mentioning me in the list, and for all the other great backgrounds. Some really talented people out there!

  54. 54
    Rodolfo Novak
    September 18th, 2009 5:11 pm

    you are so missing mine, Toronto from the top

  55. 55
    cyndy
    September 18th, 2009 5:26 pm

    nice one! gonna design for my twitter too :)

  56. 56
    adam plitt
    September 18th, 2009 7:09 pm

    Thanks for all the attention…. positive and negative. I wanted to make my idea work on all resolutions but it is simply impossible. Therefore, I chose to maximize the number of viewers with screen resolutions that would correctly display my background. The majority of twitters (and surfers in general) utilize the most common screen resolution, which is 1024 and 1280 in width. I know that there will still be loads of visitors who won’t see it correctly, but the idea, imho, was just too cool to pass.

    Change your resolution to 1024 x 768 and you will be viewing the web like the majority of other users… otherwise, you might just miss out on something pretty dedgum awesome. I know, I know… this resolution isn’t visually the best, but it is the most common. I use two monitors and extend my desktop for a more efficient working/relaxing environment. This way I can set each monitor to display different resolutions.

    Thanks again…

    be unique. be yourself. be a be a.

  57. 57
    Rames
    September 18th, 2009 7:25 pm

    Thanks alot of adding mine with the rest! Great collections!

  58. 58
    Marcel Santilli
    September 18th, 2009 7:47 pm

    Great post! Just inspired me to redesign my Twitter background.

    This is what I did with mine –

  59. 59
    Marcel Santilli
    September 18th, 2009 7:47 pm

    Great post! Just inspired me to redesign my Twitter background.

    This is what I did with mine –

  60. 60
    kimee
    September 18th, 2009 8:35 pm

    Thanks~ it’s really inspiring post~

  61. 61
    Frank Whyte
    September 18th, 2009 9:11 pm

    Good info. Yall check out my custom page. @Frank_Whyte

  62. 62
    Matt
    September 18th, 2009 10:50 pm

    Love it! Might have to use some of these techniques! Cheers and thanks for a great read.

    Matt

  63. 63
    Rob
    September 18th, 2009 11:35 pm

    I probably should read through the comments above to see if others are talking about this… but… HOLY CRAP!!! So many of those twitter pages look terrible if your browser isn’t set to maximum width!

    Twitter doesn’t center page backgrounds even though content on the page is centered. Here’s a perfect example of bad design:
    http://twitter.com/adamplitt

    On my screen, I see THREE sets of fingers. One on the left and two on the right. Talk about not paying attention to details.

  64. 64
    Romarto
    September 19th, 2009 1:08 am

    Hi ! Really inspiring and actual info for background-designers.
    How about 1280+ resolution like 1600×1200, 1920×200 and may be even 2560×1600 ?
    p.s. Just finished working on @zoknowsgaming background – is it deserve to be in your list ?
    @romarto

  65. 65
    davidg
    September 19th, 2009 1:19 am

    awesome examples, thanks for including mine!

  66. 66
    Mithun P Sreedharan
    September 19th, 2009 1:35 am

    I think you people missed my page ;-) http://twitter.com/mithunp

  67. 67
    jing
    September 19th, 2009 3:45 am

    wow, i love this post :P
    thanks for your great collections :)

  68. 68
    Michal
    September 19th, 2009 6:07 am

    these design teqnics should / could also be applied to youtube. Im going to do so in a new project.

  69. 69
    Shazzz
    September 19th, 2009 7:22 am

    Good article and a great collection of screenshots.

    I did my twitter background a while ago, any feedback?
    @shazboy

  70. 70
    Peterson
    September 19th, 2009 10:31 am

    Wow, lots of shameless plugs and spam in the comments ( tubebutler, really?)

    Either way, until Twitter supports CSS, centering is next to impossible to do, there will always be a black band around the background. Some of these look good, others look like utter shite on 1920×1200.

  71. 71
    mayhemstudios
    September 19th, 2009 10:36 am

    Thanks for the mention and including me with some of best awesome designs :)

  72. 72
    John Briggs
    September 19th, 2009 11:38 am

    Awesome! Now I don’t have to spend any time being creative!

  73. 73
    Gatis
    September 19th, 2009 11:55 am

    Great and inspirational post. I will remake my twitter page someday, right now it looks kinda simple, but still nice. Go check it out http://twitter.com/gatisstrods

  74. 74
    Allen
    September 19th, 2009 12:30 pm

    what I still it amazing the amount narcissism that is out there, and how Twitter just fuels so many! Why would I want to follow the every “important thought” you have? Why do you feel the need to tell everyone your every thought… and why do I have to look at your ugly mugs now too! How many of these self-involved idiots out there thought “ooh I gotta setup up a portrait session with someone so I can have some fresh pics for my twitter background”… They say in fashion, each decade comes around again… I’d say the 70′s “Me Decade” is coming back… and in greater numbers!

  75. 75
    Jay
    September 19th, 2009 3:23 pm

    @Allen

    AMEN to that.

  76. 76
    Mark
    September 19th, 2009 9:45 pm

    Stop wasting your time tweeting when the end of the world is at hand! Join the fight at !

  77. 77
    doubleolee
    September 20th, 2009 1:36 am

    thanks for including me in such a great list of background designs, I’m honored!

  78. 78
    Floris Fiedeldij Dop
    September 20th, 2009 2:44 am

    awesome

  79. 79
    Sam
    September 20th, 2009 3:09 am

    Another great article! Love you guys!!

  80. 80
    Lucinda
    September 20th, 2009 4:33 am

    and by thanks, I mean, this thingummy here :

  81. 81
    Marian Rick
    September 20th, 2009 4:44 am

    I love it! Updated my twitter today!

  82. 82
    Patricia
    September 20th, 2009 5:13 am

    this is amazing! i edited my bg before so it’s aligned axactly in my twitter feed wallbut it doesn’t show the same way in our widescreen pc. so how do i get to have my bg exact;y the way i want it to appear? i don’t know the right measurements.

    i had an idea before like the one with the hand gripping the page (but not that one) and i don’t know if i’m wasting my time making it look properly on my laptop when it doesn’t look properly in a desktop pc. help me!

  83. 83
    @boyatheart
    September 20th, 2009 7:41 am

    It’s fairly simple to configure your background to work with most screen resolutions.

    Mine is set up, so you can read all the details I want the visitor to see on good ‘ol 1024×768, 1280×1024 and higher.

    The trick is in the placement of your important information and graphics.

    You need to place your website URLs or whatever important details you want more than once, in different postitions, so that the relevant one will show up on the corresponding screen resolution.

    Some of those backgrounds by the way are really boring. Did they make the list more because they’ve got loads of followers?

  84. 84
    AL
    September 20th, 2009 10:32 am

    Too many of those are too busy and they only look good on a few or, worse…only one resolution.

  85. 85
    dillu
    September 20th, 2009 5:30 pm

    Hope u like mine tooo ….
    http://twitter.com/dileepiscalling

  86. 86
    Jeremy
    September 20th, 2009 5:46 pm

    I created a pattern, if you want to take a look :) http://twitter.com/jeremylv

  87. 87
    Aaron
    September 20th, 2009 6:01 pm

    Thanks! Check out the BG I made, maybe you’ll include mine next time: @acm55

  88. 88
    Greg Daniels
    September 20th, 2009 7:37 pm

    These are all great! I wish I had seen this before I redid my background. I’m quite pleased with mine though. It could have been a contender for this post. Maybe. I dont know, what do you think?

    http://www.twitter.com/g_daniels

  89. 89
    SLEO
    September 20th, 2009 11:29 pm

    Nice collection ; )

    Ok, so my twitter – http://www.twitter.com/brainwarestudio

    yo

  90. 90
    ingo
    September 21st, 2009 1:06 am

    twitterism.
    made this background some moths ago in an affect of stylism with all my designism i could raise with playism!
    http://twitter.com/theimo

  91. 91
    RaDe
    September 21st, 2009 1:39 am

    Cool article :)

  92. 92
    mattia
    September 21st, 2009 2:21 am

    I think mine is good too :) check it out

  93. 93
    Martyn Web
    September 21st, 2009 5:02 am

    Check our out, @morganwebdesign ! what do you think?

  94. 94
    JHaas
    September 21st, 2009 5:57 am

    The belief that one should design a page for maximized wide screen users is a bit, how do I say, exclusive? Absurd? Try looking at these pages in 1024×768 sometime. They look absurd.

  95. 95
    Peter
    September 21st, 2009 8:10 am

    Some pretty neat designs!

  96. 96
    manu
    September 21st, 2009 9:10 am

    Regarding http://twitter.com/elitistsnob ‘s background : What tool would you use to create that “border” between two parts of the image ?

  97. 97
    Tibor opauszki
    September 21st, 2009 10:31 am

    Very cool backgrounds!

  98. 98
    BaZookaPL
    September 21st, 2009 12:04 pm

    Awesome selection!!
    I wont be original but I’ll showcase some too :P
    @BaZookaPL
    @fredaudet
    @cstyves

  99. 99
    Amy
    September 21st, 2009 1:50 pm

    Am I the only person in existence who refuses to let their browser take up their whole screen? I always have other things going on and like to keep it relatively unobtrusive – about 1k pixels wide – even though I have a widescreen monitor.

    That’s the thing that bugs me about left-sidebar Twitter backgrounds. The words/images always get cut off to the point that the background ends up looking unprofessional.

    And your average client/casual user isn’t going to know that you had no control over that. They’re going to think that you didn’t know what you were doing. Hell, that’s what I think every time I open a Twitter page to see a witty sidebar all cut off and looking stupid.

    I personally see no point in creating elaborate left sidebars. In my opinion, current best practice for Twitter backgrounds would be:

    - no text
    - abstract imagery preferred
    - imagery that makes sense whether you see 10 pixels of it or the beautiful 200 pixel creation of your dreams (the one you imagine your viewers are seeing)

  100. 100
    Carolyn Wood
    September 21st, 2009 2:16 pm

    Thanks so much for the mention! (On Twitter, I’m @carywood.) I must tell you, though, that my background was actually designed by @natalie who sells very reasonably priced backgrounds at http://twitterpatterns.com. The one I use isn’t there; I purchased it ages ago.

    One I love that I don’t see here is Grace Smith’s. @gracesmith. Love the chalkboard, the info, what you see if you expand your browser width, etc. Great combination of form and function, in my opinion.

  101. 101
  102. 102
    miguel
    September 22nd, 2009 4:16 am

    Great article!!
    @timeforfit

  103. 103
    wander lima
    September 22nd, 2009 5:41 am

    cool colection

  104. 104
    Redstage Magento
    September 22nd, 2009 10:19 am

    I can recall seeing some of these examples. None the less great show of creativity. Thanks!

  105. 105
    Ldog187
    September 22nd, 2009 11:36 am

    I read this article and was inspired to create a background for my employer’s twitter page.
    http://twitter.com/lids4hats. Designed by @EllisGary

  106. 106
    RJ Jacquez
    September 22nd, 2009 3:22 pm

    Thank you very much for the mention, really appreciate it!

    Sincerely,

    RJ Jacquez @rjacquez

    • 107
      Lesley
      February 10th, 2010 4:34 pm

      @rjacquez – nice! =)

  107. 108
    BubbaHoTempe
    September 22nd, 2009 5:34 pm

    Amy, anyone who views the web in a browser that’s scaled or setup in any unorthodox way has no right to complain about how pages then appear to them. *sigh*

  108. 109
    Srinivas Tamada
    September 22nd, 2009 8:27 pm

    Wonderful Post

  109. 110
    gr4ph1c
    September 23rd, 2009 1:03 am

    karl mariner

    a bit left of center…

  110. 111
    Innerclick
    September 23rd, 2009 5:47 am

    Did i do mine right twitter.com@innerclick

  111. 112
    RobbyB
    September 23rd, 2009 6:06 am

    I like Right mobile phone as its simple and effective and I like their colours :)

  112. 113
    Ldog187
    September 23rd, 2009 6:30 am

    @innerclick Looks fine to me.

  113. 114
    David Sparks
    September 23rd, 2009 7:12 am

    Check mine out! @DigitalSkraps

  114. 115
    Cre8ive Commando
    September 23rd, 2009 2:18 pm

    Great post, there are some cool twitter background designs here. ;-)

    Some of them however don’t display properly on larger sized monitors. Check out this post to see how to create a twitter background the right way. Create a twitter background the right way

  115. 116
    Joel Fisher
    September 24th, 2009 11:47 am

    Great article! It helped me re-do my background. @joelmoney

    • 117
      Lesley
      February 10th, 2010 4:32 pm

      @ joelmoney – nice! =)

  116. 118
    Clayton Shumway
    September 24th, 2009 2:47 pm

    Great article…the rising popularity of twitter will make your twitter backdrop just as important as the home page of your website. Check out the Twitter design package that Logoworks is offering – http://bit.ly/OZD3j

  117. 119
    Marilyn
    September 24th, 2009 6:37 pm

    Wow, that is so helpful! Thanks for a great article.

  118. 120
    Michael
    September 25th, 2009 3:32 am

    nice collections of twitter background.

    this page is a great example to show a twitter profile over different screen resoultions.

  119. 121
    Catherine Hughes
    September 25th, 2009 12:53 pm

    You did not mention Twitter and Beyond at twitterandbeyond.com, the company that handled our Titter background for us. We tried to create our own in Photoshop, which turned out to be a hilarious waste of effort. I am surprised more businesses don’t take advantage of this and use it like one would use a billboard on the side of the freeway. It’s another way to get your message out there. Some of these backgrounds are so cool!

  120. 122
    ysfr
    September 30th, 2009 9:30 am

    Could it be that I was the only one who thought about designing the following-tail? See http://twitter.com/ysfr for a proof of concept.

  121. 123
    Nikhil
    October 1st, 2009 3:29 am

    great list…very creative backgrounds…

  122. 124
    Jovan
    October 1st, 2009 4:07 am

    @pausedesign
    my custom made background

  123. 125
    M4RCOSX
    October 1st, 2009 5:57 am

    Great list! I made my brand new background about a month ago:@m4rcosx

    What do you think about it?

  124. 126
    Josh
    October 1st, 2009 8:07 am

    Great article! The gallery is very inspiring. I’m working on mine now look for me on twitter joshhatcher

  125. 127
    stellarjae
    October 3rd, 2009 12:23 pm

    lol, how can you be an elitist snob with massive spelling/grammar errors :) loved the post though!

    @stellarjae

  126. 128
    Andre
    October 6th, 2009 10:48 am

    Well….I can say that it’s great to see people wanting to customize their Twitter pages and it allows for creativity. I would imagine that custom backgrounds are more preferred so that no one has a background that someone else might have but would probably be more for the business twitterite but for the individual personal pages, it’s not related to “branding”. Anyway, now I am thinking perhaps I should start the Twitter design process…albeit, to get creative.

  127. 129
    Saud Khan
    October 8th, 2009 12:26 pm

    Thank you all for your comments and sharing links to your profile pages. I have written a new article based on screen resolution issue that we face when designing a background for twitter profile page:

    Simple Feature That Will Really Make Twitter Designer Friendly – http://bit.ly/8pleW

  128. 130
    Dan
    October 9th, 2009 9:46 am

    I am pretty proud of mine @utahluxury

  129. 131
    kat
    October 10th, 2009 12:20 am

    The pixel dimensions seem to have changed since this article was written because many of the examples above no longer appear streamlined. Many are a bit off now.

  130. 132
    thedp
    October 13th, 2009 3:02 pm

    @adamplitt has worse background ever! I guess he never heard about TESTING

  131. 133
    Tim O'Connell
    October 14th, 2009 10:39 am

    Dear twitter… please allow us to center the f##king background.

    Love, Tim.

  132. 134
    Dan
    October 14th, 2009 3:46 pm

    The width is 763px not 765.

  133. 135
    Roberto
    October 22nd, 2009 5:01 am

    What about http://twitter.com/AnthonyNolan

    That is quite a nice background – and they are a charity rather than a personal/portfolio twitter so it is nice to see them doing something cool

  134. 136
    Wat
    October 26th, 2009 11:11 am

    Very interested by this post some weeks ago, I made a .png “template” to personalize my twitter background.
    If this can help you I share it with the world on my little blog here : http://bit.ly/1dAvpJ :)

    (it’s like other template but include the barre above and belove the time line for precise adjustment)

  135. 137
    Wat
    November 22nd, 2009 8:30 am

    Curiously since the “lists” where active it seems to me that the wide-size had slightly changed (as Dan said “763-765″), so I updated my little template here http://bit.ly/29hp4X in .png (just drag and drop) or .psd (download).
    And tried also to make a better background than the precedent ^^

  136. 138
    maxwellvintage
    December 12th, 2009 9:58 pm

    I change my twitter page background often, (sometimes several times a week) because it is also partially a showcase of new items just listed or about to be listed on ebay or tia.com
    What always stays the same is the name and the picture of maxwell.
    maxwellvintage – sophistomax
    Happy Holidays

  137. 139
    Kevin Oh!
    December 14th, 2009 8:49 am

    Guess it’s time to step up my Twitter BG game. Thanks for the post, great for ideas AND resources.

    ~Oh!

  138. 140
    designerfoo
    December 30th, 2009 2:10 am

    Any thoughts/comments/suggestions for mine? http://twitter.com/designerfoo

  139. 141
    Amy
    January 21st, 2010 4:51 pm

    Great article. Good to know I’m doing something right… I’m pretty proud of mine… :D
    @BeauteMineral
    @KineticImages

  140. 142
    Iwan
    January 21st, 2010 10:36 pm

    wow… very useful sharing. love it! :)

  141. 143
    Alex
    February 1st, 2010 3:24 am

    Great article and some fantastic designs. I came across @ClarionIreland and thought is was a fantastically simple and clean layout.

  142. 144
    Lesley
    February 10th, 2010 4:29 pm

    Great article! I recently stumpled upon @duonz, which I thought was nice too.

  143. 145
    Ben Gross
    February 25th, 2010 7:01 am

    Love them all could I submit our new one or has the ship sailed? http://twitter.com/searchdesigndev

  144. 146
    cleison
    February 25th, 2010 3:21 pm

    oi

  145. 147
    Roman
    March 10th, 2010 1:16 am

    my rus twitter http://twitter.com/SkazZzo4nik

  146. 148
    Michael Murdoch
    March 10th, 2010 1:33 am

    Great post.

    Would love to add ours http://twitter.com/thehouselondon to the list.

    Thanks!

  147. 149
    morpher
    March 10th, 2010 8:58 am

    Nice list!
    If you like you can see my twitter-background @ http://twitter.com/_morpher_
    Thanks,
    Daniel

  148. 150
    Anna
    April 22nd, 2010 5:39 am

    Thank you for the techniques, nice list!
    You can see some other great Twitter backgrounds here: http://www.viuu.co.uk

  149. 151
    veronica lailla
    April 29th, 2010 6:02 am

    oi eu quero fazer um twitter

  150. 152
    Curiosa
    May 6th, 2010 9:33 am

    I love mine. Since i found them they´re my favorite.

    You can see mine here http://twitter.com/Curiosa

  151. 153
    taty
    June 7th, 2010 11:10 am

    quero fazer um twiter me ajuda porfavor

  152. 154
    Alex
    July 2nd, 2010 1:17 am

    I really like this one: http://twitter.com/langoor_au

  153. 155
    helle pereira araujo
    July 27th, 2010 12:37 pm

    amo o twitter

  154. 156
    TomBalev
    August 3rd, 2010 2:23 pm

    And what about this : http://twitter.com/TomBalev ?

  155. 157
    carolyne
    September 6th, 2010 10:39 am

    no entendy nada sobre o twiteer de ser melo to lolcopois re re tefísel uno pouco.io acho que aquine em Londres ê mais fácil uno pouco.já esperrimentei o twiteer mais não sei meixer direito no máximo tem sô ene cerca te 100 pessolas.um bju….

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