On the 8th of April 2014, after 12 years, support for Windowx XP ended.  The one thing everybody will always remember is it’s desktop image ‘Bliss’, with it’s green rolling hills and bluer than blue sky. Doesn’t the most viewed picture of all time deserve for a worthy goodbye? We certainly think so! 

We started to discuss what we liked and didn’t like, about the 12 year operating system. That discussion led us, as the visual storytellers we are, to speculation about the standard background picture called Bliss. So many questions came up: What does it look like in real life? Who made that iconic image? Where was it taken?

It fired our imagination and within a couple of hours we discovered who made it and where it most likely was taken. But, there was no story about it.

Thats when we decided to take on that challenge: we were going to make the story about the Bliss wallpaper. So, we headed to Napa Valley just north of San Francisco to visit the photographer of the wallpaper, Charles O’Rear. 


We published a raw fragment of our story through our social media buddies at Dorst & Lesser, they forwarded it to their connection at Microsoft Netherlands. From that moment, on the last day of Windows XP support worldwide, the story took off and found its way into the hearts of many Windows XP lovers around the world. One of the personal comments on Youtube said, what many others were feeling: “Hey, a ninja is chopping onions around my eyes!”

We never thought this trip would send us on a wild adventure, that would result in our first viral. Over 1.000.000 views within a day! This view count emphasises the fact that an online video doesn’t have to be less than a minute, it just needs a good story!

Thank you Chuck for being so welcoming!

Watch the video on Youtube