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Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: April 2008

By Smashing Editorial, March 29th, 2008 in Freebies, Graphics | 74 Comments | Forum

Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use some specific wallpaper for a long period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why we’ve decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers over the next 12 months.

And to make them a little bit more distinctive from the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you need to look up some date, isn’t it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application?

This post features 15 free desktop wallpapers, designed by 15 designers across the globe. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free.

Please notice:

all images can be clicked and lead to the preview of the wallpaper;
you can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our desktop wallpaper calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?

So what wallpapers have we received for April? Do you also think that there’s just not enough pink pandas on computer wallpapers out there?

Month Capsule

“The first thing I wanted to tackle was how to make the calendar different looking than your standard 7 column kind. So after much concepting I came up with a spiral design that still grids out the days but makes it more interesting to look at. As far as the overall theme it’s a collage of ideas. The frailty of time was something that interested me most seeing as how much we take the passage of time for granted. The wet flower symbolizes the rain and flowering season which are characteristic of the April month.” Designed by Marcel Mercado from USA.

preview (0.3 Mb, jpg)
with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Orchestra

Dedicated to classical music! Done in Photoshop with Wacom tablet. Available in 12 desktop resolutions — both widescreen and fullscreen. Designed by Vlad Gerasimov from Irkutsk, Russia.

preview (0.4 Mb, jpg)
with calendar:
800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×1024 , 1280×800, 1280×960 , 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
without calendar:
800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×1024 , 1280×800, 1280×960 , 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Them

“Animals are very important in my life. A few days ago, I saw a lot of people hurting them and killing them. Why? Dunno. Just, don’t hurt them.” Designed by Patricia Villanueva from Mexico.

preview (0.3 Mb, jpg)
with calendar: 1440×900, 1680×1060, 1920×1200

Above us

“The photomanipulation features a look from our planet (the trees) towards another planet that is falling apart. Everything around it is beautiful though, we’re not in any danger (and it’s not us, but the others that are going to die). ” Designed by Cecilie Hundahl Johnsen from Denmark.

preview (0.3 Mb, jpg)
with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Vintage Flower

“April is a woman’s name, and also it is the name of the spring month. I thought that a girl represntaría both concepts mixing it with the symbol of this station, the flowers. As a spring goddess. To make it more elegant I endowed it with a touch vintage. ” Designed by Alba Soler from Spain.

preview (0.2 Mb, jpg)
with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Time is in our hands

“Time is in our hands… I wish it would be true, but even since it isn’t, I design it. :)” Designed by Rogers Sampaio from Portugal.

preview (0.2 Mb, jpg)
with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Blooming Blue

“Blooming Blue represents my anticipation of winter (while the rest of the world – in the northern hemisphere – talks about spring blooming).” Designed by Kristarella from Australia.

preview (0.3 Mb, jpg)
with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Vintage, Grungy Bearwitness

“The main idea is that we shouldn’t take religion too seriously and too literally. That everyone of us would make his own interpretation of this -nowadays sensitive- subject. We should bear witness religion and ways to bring people together in a caring society. That’s why I came up with the idea of using bear witness in a literal way -Bear Witness- just to make the public aware of these twisted truths. I show the opposite of what I’m trying to say. ” Designed by Vincent ‘ViniMan’ Vander Cruyssen from Belgium.

preview (0.2 Mb, jpg)
with calendar: 1280×1024, 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1280×1024, 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Creative Blast

“The idea behind the wallpaper is on the one hand that the computer is an important tool we use to express our ideas and create the final work. So the wallpaper brands the computer as this area of creativty. On the other hand the wallpaper expresses that the “Smashing Magazine“ with its loads of inspiration offering for free, helps to not run dry and often releases the hard to control bursts of creativity in our minds.

The Design is minimal to get great contrast and the colors create a kind of “facility-warning-athmosphere”. The logos are transparent but by this according to the minimalism are really eyecathing.” Designed by Henning Lüdeke from Germany.

preview (0.3 Mb, jpg)
without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
with calendar: 1024×768, 1600×1200, 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

WeMissed

“Sometimes I feel something is missed, or some percent of something that related to me, it runs out of my life & my hand. maybe, if we just stand longer in the golden sunshine of evening, it will be saved. But it already missed by us, it is inexistent,so we can not say “if”. The inexistent part of us floats above our head, like a boat,or air bubble. In the dream you can see it, half is bright, half is dark, just like youself.” Designed by Dan Chetao from China.

preview (0.3 Mb, jpg)
with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Typography: April Showers

“I wanted something simple and type oriented. A friend mentioned/ reminded me of the phrase April showers, May flowers, since I did not remember the may bit at all, it stuck. I decided to literally rain April, over flowers made with the letters M, A, Y. Used Harrington font for “April” and Fertigo for the rest, including the flowers.” Designed by Yaco Roca from Bogota, Colombia.

preview (0.3 Mb, jpg)
with calendar: 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Autumn Flowers

“This wallpaper is rather dark, inspired by my new love for the Helvetica font. This wallpaper would most likely apply to those who enjoy uncluttered wallpapers. ” Designed by Shaun Hall from Scotland.

preview (0.3 Mb, jpg)
with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Aprilily

“This design is a simple typographic solution, minimal of design, but strong impact on the visual senses. April is my favorite month (since I was born on April 1st), and this design reflects both a personal and professional aspect of myself, optimistic and simple. ” Designed by Vane Kosturanov from Macedonia.

You can download the wallpaper in 4 widescreen resolutions. A .zip-archive with all resolutions is packed in a wallpaper-pack and is also available for free download:

preview (0.1 Mb)
with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Eternal Sunshine

“Worked in Photoshop and Illustrator, the work is called Eternal sunshine and express in this art a person for a mistake in his life decides to lose all the memories to start over with a new life with a sense something abstract and rustic I design ” Designed by Miguel Angel Lozada M. from Mexico.

You can download the wallpaper in 4 widescreen resolutions. A .zip-archive with all resolutions is packed in a wallpaper-pack and is also available for free download:

preview (0.3 Mb, jpg)
with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Pink Panda

“Dark green background is an alternative, artistic representation of a bamboo forest, there’s also a panda which has been coloured with pink in a punky, fun sort of way - obviously a ‘modern’ panda! Motivation behind the design: there’s just not enough pink pandas on computer wallpapers out there?! I hope it makes people smile/laugh.” Designed by Matt Robin from UK.

preview (0.4 Mb, jpg)
with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Join in next month!

Please notice that we respect the ideas and motivation behind artists’ work which is why we’ve given artists full freedom to explore their creativity and express emotions and experience through their works. And this is also why the themes of the wallpapers weren’t anyhow influenced by us, but designed from scratch by the artists themselves.

Thanks to all designers for participation. Hopefully, in April we’ll receive as many entries as in March. Join in next month and smashing April, folks!

Published in Freebies, Graphics, March 29th, 2008
Tags: calendars, downloads, free, Freebies, Graphics, wallpapers

1.

Maxime Guernion (March 29th, 2008, 9:11 am)

404 error for “Autumn Flowers” wallpaper
2.

Ron S (March 29th, 2008, 9:18 am)

Terrific selection of wallpapers. I’m already using the Autumn flower one.
3.

davee (March 29th, 2008, 9:18 am)

my background for april “Them”. Thanks!
4.

Ben Jacob (March 29th, 2008, 9:33 am)

I like the Second and Third verymuch
5.

anton (March 29th, 2008, 9:46 am)

very nice wall WeMissed
6.

Aditya (March 29th, 2008, 10:01 am)

Some of the wallpapers are really eye catching. Great stuff! Thanks SM!
7.

Shaun (March 29th, 2008, 10:10 am)

It says that Autumn Flowers was created by Vane Kosturanov, I submitted that wallpaper : P
8.

Kyle P. (March 29th, 2008, 10:27 am)

Very nicely done. I’m looking forward to the next 11 months to come.
9.

Matt Robin (March 29th, 2008, 10:35 am)

Excellent, there are some really good submissions here. I hope people like the Pink Panda too! :D

Oh, I’m English by the way - I’m NOT from Spain. Hehehe
10.

Kenny Saunders (March 29th, 2008, 11:00 am)

Great post, the WeMissed wallpapers links are reversed. no calendar / calendar
11.

J@n (March 29th, 2008, 11:03 am)

same with Creative Blast… links reversed.
12.

Edwin (March 29th, 2008, 11:18 am)

Wow! Great collection! Real artwork between them :)
13.

Andy (March 29th, 2008, 11:23 am)

where’s the 1440*900 love :(
14.

haRacz (March 29th, 2008, 12:17 pm)

Creative Blast
with calendar is without
and
without calendar is with
:)
15.

zombiebr (March 29th, 2008, 2:01 pm)

It looks like some people need to learn how to name their files to linux system :))
16.

Toyo (March 29th, 2008, 4:18 pm)

Thank you guys!
But I can’t download Autumn Flowers in big size :(
17.

kristarella (March 29th, 2008, 5:49 pm)

Oh, I guess I missed the short description step of the process, although I did include my “name” and website in the email…

Blooming Blue represents my anticipation of winter (while the rest of the world – in the northern hemisphere – talks about spring blooming). Not very deep, but it’s what came to mind ;) The design was done by Link [www.kristarella.com] using the GIMP.
18.

jaux (March 29th, 2008, 8:15 pm)

Well done!

Vlad Gerasimov’s works are my favorite, always!
19.

ViniMan (March 30th, 2008, 1:06 am)

Thanks a lot for featuring me guys! I’m already thinking about one for next month! ;-)
20.

Angel (March 30th, 2008, 3:29 am)

Orchestra 1280×1024 above (with calendar) = 404 error

Any chance of sharing those with SM watermark? :(
21.

Terri in Tokyo (March 30th, 2008, 4:38 am)

fantastic! thank you. love #1…
22.

Robert Bardou (March 30th, 2008, 5:47 am)

Greetings. An excellent post and very the helpful information as for me so I think and for others. But nevertheless there were some questions…
23.

Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (March 30th, 2008, 6:24 am)

All links should be OK now, thank you.
24.

Raya (March 30th, 2008, 6:31 am)

I love “Above us”, Thank you. It was agglutinated with my screen immediately.
25.

David (March 30th, 2008, 8:43 am)

Can I get all Desktop Wallpaper Calenders to make a right calender?
I want to print a calender.
26.

Tiffany (March 30th, 2008, 10:26 am)

I really love these! but I kinda wish the calendars started on sunday rather than monday! kind of throws me off :P
27.

rockafella (March 30th, 2008, 5:12 pm)

Kewl! I wish the calendar is dynamic.
28.

kristarella (March 30th, 2008, 6:58 pm)

Thanks for fixing the links guys!

David - good idea, but the other wallpapers aren’t even made yet (not all of them anyway). By the time you have enough for a year the days will correspond to different dates.

Tiffany - I know how you feel! I can never decide which day to start my calendar on. I think slowly I’ve come to expect my two weekend days to be next to each other. If you want a Sunday starting one of Blooming Blue I can do that… if you prefer the others then there’s not much I can do. :)
29.

sikantis (March 30th, 2008, 8:21 pm)

i like these wallpapers, some are really awsome!
30.

code red (March 30th, 2008, 9:38 pm)

Great selection. The link for Creative Blast, 1900×1200 WITH calendar points to the the 1680×1050 file. Replacing the dimension in the URL will get you the larger version…
31.

sandie sørensen (March 30th, 2008, 10:44 pm)

Yeah- great work you all!
I wanted to have posted my work too, but I was too stupid to do the math about the email-address. That’s imbarressing. But I think I’ve got the hang of it now, and therefore I have a fresh work for next month ready.
It looks very much like vintage-flowers though. So perhaps I should alter it a little… :)

Thank you Smashing M. for beeing som inspirational all the time.
32.

Leo F. Swiontek (March 31st, 2008, 2:45 am)

thanx for good looking desktop wallpapers.
33.

Yaco Roca (March 31st, 2008, 8:23 am)

Hey, some really nice ones out there.
As long as we’re talking typos and such, I’m from Bogota, Colombia, not Mexico!

Yr
34.

Iman (March 31st, 2008, 12:35 pm)

Great work! thanks
35.

Gunnar Bruun (April 1st, 2008, 4:33 am)

Agree with Tiffany (post 26), they should all start with Sunday.
36.

Phil (April 1st, 2008, 5:29 am)

The best one is the n°3: ” Them “. Excellente!!!
Thanks Patricia for this very nice work!!
37.

Braintrove.com (April 1st, 2008, 1:00 pm)

Marcel Mercado’s design is very nice.
38.

AlexanderJsph (April 1st, 2008, 3:36 pm)

Awsome!!!
39.

Aishwariya Bhatnagar (April 2nd, 2008, 12:33 am)

Lovely collection….These wallpaper includes ‘Just what I need’…Thanks a ton….
40.

Arjun (April 2nd, 2008, 1:04 am)

Awsome!!!
41.

Chaos (April 2nd, 2008, 10:01 am)

Hello! Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz I would like to know whether the order of
Calendars goes by preference or are only
And the best 15 and also I would like to
Give you their criticism to each job
42.

chestah (April 2nd, 2008, 10:47 am)

got teh autumn flowers :)
ty
43.

Sean (April 2nd, 2008, 5:07 pm)

Getting 403 forbiddens on just about every single link.
44.

Sean (April 2nd, 2008, 5:19 pm)

Getting 403 forbiddens on just about every single link.
45.

nill (April 5th, 2008, 9:13 am)

free HDR wallpaper
Link []Link [www.hdrcreme.com]
46.

Ralph (April 6th, 2008, 11:52 pm)

oh… great ideas…

Thank’s for your great work

Ralph
47.

vaLar (April 27th, 2008, 5:11 pm)

A really nice collection of wallpapers but my only favorite is: Them from Patricia Villanueva.

Thanks SM for share it!
48.

yassine (June 4th, 2008, 7:36 am)

commen faire ma music dans mon profil