No. 076, in nine platesSilicon Alley
The inside of a machine, flattened out and hung on the outside of one.
Silicon Alley treats the circuit board as a landscape. Each plate is a dense, top-down field of chips, traces, capacitors and connectors, drawn as crisp flat shapes with a slight bevel and packed edge to edge, with no centre and no horizon. The palette is almost entirely greyscale, from solder black through graphite and gunmetal to brushed aluminium, with a faint teal cast in a couple of plates. Nothing is legibly labelled, which keeps the whole thing abstract.
The nine plates run from near-invisible to bright. Blackout and Dense Pack are so dark that their components only appear when the screen catches the light, little white pinpricks of solder in the gloom. Glossy Chips has a polished, reflective finish, and Split Board divides itself diagonally into a charcoal half and a slate half. At the other end, Silver Sweep lets a band of metallic light flare down the right side, Patchwork assembles a quilt of black and silver modules, and Daylight Board is a high-contrast white-on-black tangle, cooling fan and all.
Because the pattern is even all over, there is no subject for the clock to collide with; the time simply sits on texture. The darkest plates are the easiest to live with: on an OLED iPhone the near-black areas stay deep, white app labels read cleanly, and widgets look like extra components bolted onto the board. The bright plates are busier behind icons, so Daylight Board and Patchwork earn their keep on the Lock Screen rather than the Home Screen.
It suits engineers, tinkerers, people who build their own keyboards and anyone who wants a dark wallpaper with more going on than plain black. Silver Sweep and Blackout are free in full resolution; the other seven are premium.
No centre, no horizon, just traces running off every edge.
Try each one on before you save it.
Tap any plate to hang it on the Lock Screen, then switch to the Home Screen to see it behind your apps. This is the same preview the app gives you, on your own phone, with your own clock.
Every plate here can be ordered as an unframed matte print, from A$59 with free shipping. Or hang three side by side: any three plates from Silicon Alley, 8 × 16 in each, for A$179.
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Plate IGlossy Chips -
Plate IISilver Sweep -
Plate IIISplit Board -
Plate IVDaylight Board -
Plate VPatchwork -
Plate VIBlackout -
Plate VIIDense Pack -
Plate VIIIFlat Pack -
Plate IXLoose Parts
How Silicon Alley wears.
Technical, dark, precise, industrial. Flat-shaded top-down circuit board rendering, sized for every iPhone up to 2160 × 4800.
On the Lock Screen
An all-over pattern with no focal point, so the clock lands on even texture wherever it sits.
On the Home Screen
Blackout and Dense Pack stay close to true black, keeping white labels sharp and widgets at home.
Full resolution, every model
Each plate is delivered at the exact size of your iPhone's screen, up to 2160 × 4800, so nothing is stretched or soft at the edges.
- Solder black#000000
- Graphite#202020
- Gunmetal#404040
- Oxidised teal#204040
- Brushed aluminium#808080
Free plates, and the rest.
Open Silicon Alley in pxCream and preview any plate on your Lock Screen first. Prices come from the App Store in your region and are shown in the app before you buy.
Silicon Alley
Two free platesFree
Full resolution, saved straight to Photos.
A single premium plate10 credits
Yours for good: re-download it any time, on this iPhone, at no extra cost.
pxCream UnlimitedMonthly
Every premium plate in Silicon Alley and the rest of the gallery, for as long as you subscribe.
On the App Store · iPhone only · No account needed
About Silicon Alley.
Which Silicon Alley plate is darkest on an OLED screen?
Blackout and Dense Pack sit closest to pure black, with only faint grey shapes and tiny highlights, so they look deepest on an OLED iPhone.
Is there a lighter option?
Yes. Daylight Board is a bright white-on-black pattern and Silver Sweep has a band of metallic light; both read well as a Lock Screen.
Can I take the whole board?
Yes. Silver Sweep and Blackout are free in full resolution, and the remaining seven are premium at 10 credits a board, re-downloadable forever, or all wired in with Unlimited.
Something else? Support answers within two business days.
Silicon Alley, in your pocket.
pxCream is on the App Store for iPhone, with Silicon Alley and the rest of the gallery inside.