This minimal but pretty amazing desktop belongs to reader Ian Michael Smith, who made good use of GeekTool and placed a functioning clock behind a mountain of sand.
A creative use of GeekTool is responsible for nice effects you see on this desktop. The clock is displayed behind the sand by using GeekTool's ability to display an image as well as data, layering the image of sand over the clock. The "Now Playing" bar was also created in GeekTool, and what appears to be an invisible dock skin helps the OS X dock blend in very nicely. This desktop really shows how quality over quantity can make for a very nice, very functional look.
UPDATE: Ian has been kind enough to put together a tutorial to show how he made this desktop and walk you through the process step-by-step.
Do you have a great beautifully productive desktop of your own that you'd like to share? Go ahead and post it to the Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell Flickr Group with a description of how you made it and it may be the next featured desktop.
Desert 01' | Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell Pool
You can contact Adam Dachis, the author of this post, at [email protected]. You can also follow him on Twitter and Facebook.