Smashing Magazine we smash you with the information that will make your life easier. really.

Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: May 2008

By Smashing Editorial, April 29th, 2008 in Freebies, Graphics | 93 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 since April 2008 we supply you with fresh desktop wallpapers. 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 17 19 free desktop wallpapers with calendars, created by designers across the globe for Smashing Magazine and its readers. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded and used 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?
Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: April 2008 features desktop wallpapers from the last month.

So what wallpapers have we received for May?

The happy month

“When I think of May, images of happiness, sun, flowers come to my mind… the summer approaches and the faces of the people become smiling. This happiness is the one that I wanted to express in the calendar.” Designed by Alba Soler from Spain.

with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

The Model

“The model? She’s my cousin, she’s a model here in Mexico City. I was updating some of her pictures (for her site), and suddenly decided to do the may calendar with her.” Designed by Patricia Villanueva from Mexico.

preview (0.3 Mb, jpg)
with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Saxophone

“Saxophone. She is dancing…” Designed by Rogers Sampaio from Portugal.

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

Calendar Eater

“Today I discovered a tiny animal that eats notes from my books! So I took a picture immediately!” 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

Surprise

“I made this last winter, being moody and waiting for warmer days. Looks like they’re here soon. Designed by Stefan Sicher from Switzerland.

preview (0.3 Mb, jpg)
with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Blooming in the rain

“This design is inspired by the rainy and sunny May. Hope it will Bloom you away.” Designed by Vane Kosturanov from Macedonia.

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

Rise Above

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

Time Flies

“The theme is: rainbow, time, joy, spring weather, magic and fantasy”. Designed by Sandie Sørensen 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

There is always an open window

“The idea came to me when I was working on a project, and it wouldn´t work out like I wanted it to. So I just got up, and saw a flock of birds through my open window. I took my time watching them disappear and spent some time on my balcony outside, just to get my head clear and fresh. Whatever there is, there is always an open window to get out.” Designed by Dirk Worring from Sonsbeck, Germany.

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

Mayper

“I saw a design a few months ago that I haven’t been able to get out of my mind. I’ve been looking for somewhere to use the techniques used in what I saw to create something unique. This wallpaper is that attempt.” Designed by Pat Dryburgh.

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

Chocolate Landscape

“For this project, I just had fun and made something that I would want on my own desktop. I created a simplified landscape using basic shapes and an earthy color palette. I also wanted to make an elegant, yet simple calendar, so that it added to the design, instead of disrupting it. The chocolate sky gave the design a fresh look, and I happen to like darker wallpapers in general, so I went with it.” Designed by Richard Roche from USA.

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

I Am The Stag

“A couple of friends of mine are getting married over the next few months (not to each other I might add) and it got me thinking about weddings and traditions, in particular the Stag Night. The wallpaper is representative of lucid dreams that we all get when we’re anticipating things to come, especially things the worry us or make us anxious, in this case the big day and the shenanigans of the Stag Night.

It also gave me chance to play around with lighting effects and have a good play in photoshop which I hadn’t done in quite some time. The calendar was layed out simply in a less traditional manner across the bottom of the main image, which I felt pulled it into the design better than having it set to one side in a traditional style layout..” Designed by Peter Coles.

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

Reviving nature

“”Reviving nature” represents my feeling of spring with all it’s fresh, mostly green colors and blue skies. The lines are representing the activity of nature during spring after a winter sleep.” Designed by Jelmer Kuiper from Netherlands.

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

Blue and Gray Columns

“I drew inspiration from David Seah’s Compact Calendar for the calendar layout… I love the idea of the days, months and weeks being contained in one unit. I always enjoy the bright vibrant desktops when I’m not actually using my computer, as soon as I start working I’m back to the muted medium grays that don’t distract me. I wanted to create something with energy and color but subtle enough to use long-term, we’ll see how long I leave this one up!” Designed by Amanda Hawkins from Phoenix, USA.

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

Runing

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

Morning Love

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

Important Days

“I really like the Smashing Magazine logo. So I decided to use the SM logo as the colour scheme for my concept. Then I thought of the month “MAY”. “MAY” is the most happening of all the months. There are 16 important days celebrated in this month. That made me to symbolically show these important days in my design. The important days which are symbolically shown in this design are international labour day, world asthma day, world press freedom day etc.” Designed by Guru Thilak from Chennai, India.

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

The Concrete Jungle

“The wallpaper is an illustration telling the story of an elephant leaving where he came from because of people turning his home into a parking lot. He is taking the jungle with him only to find more parking lots. The places where he and the wild can live are becoming very limited.” Designed by Tim Newton from USA.

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

Treasure your life

“I have taken photos of the roses in my garden. They look so precious and beautify while they are young and alive, but sadly I have to cut them down when they are dying… In a way it really reminds me how precious the life is and we really should treasure our lives and everything along with our lives when we are young, healthy and alive!” Designed by Yan Z. Hughes from USA.

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

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 May we’ll receive as many entries as in April. Join in next month and smashing May, folks!

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

1.

Paul (April 29th, 2008, 1:32 am)

Awesome walls! Don’t know what to choose….
2.

Skeku (April 29th, 2008, 1:53 am)

Next month, I’ll try it :D
3.

Marc Dandoy (April 29th, 2008, 2:02 am)

“”Surprise”

404 not found =(
4.

Jeroen Verhulst (April 29th, 2008, 2:16 am)

Great work again!
5.

Jseen (April 29th, 2008, 2:19 am)

Excellent Wallpapers. But the list is small. Post more wallpapers next month.
6.

TRka (April 29th, 2008, 2:19 am)

nice collection -)
7.

K.K.Shankar (April 29th, 2008, 2:21 am)

Waiting for my calender 4 next month onwards!
8.

Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (April 29th, 2008, 2:54 am)

@Marc Dandoy: all links should be working now.
9.

James (April 29th, 2008, 3:20 am)

Thank you very much Smashing Magazine and all you talented artists for brightening up my desktop next month. Your work and skill is much appreciated.
10.

kristarella (April 29th, 2008, 3:23 am)

Nice variety and good quality. Sweet!
11.

Enrique (April 29th, 2008, 3:26 am)

Great Wallpapers!! Thank you!

And, I have a question… You said in this post “…Designed by Patricia Villanueva from Venezuela…”; but if I remember well, she is from Mexico. Am i wrong?
Thanks again!
12.

Andy Montoya (April 29th, 2008, 4:12 am)

Reviving nature!! Great green.

AndyMontoya.com
13.

Tadd (April 29th, 2008, 4:28 am)

hmm .. I may try and do one for next month (or the next, or the next …)

These are brilliant.
14.

Jelmer Kuiper (April 29th, 2008, 6:04 am)

Lol, my name is Jelmer Kuiper. Not Jelmer Kuipe.. :-)
15.

Lerentina (April 29th, 2008, 6:07 am)

Thanks!!! It is a great site with creative images and paintings! thank you all :)
16.

Feel (April 29th, 2008, 6:23 am)

The dates in the calendar “Rise Above” are incorrect :o
(in the preview version, I haven’t downloaded any of the others)
17.

Zen (April 29th, 2008, 6:39 am)

“Treasure your life” - it really looks bad.
18.

John O’Robert (April 29th, 2008, 6:43 am)

Wow dudes! Awsome collection - fantastic work, keep going.
19.

Rafal (April 29th, 2008, 6:59 am)

Feel: Sorry, I’ll correct it!
20.

rogers sampaio (April 29th, 2008, 7:45 am)

the comments 21 and 19 (at least the 21) could be classified as span, isn’t it?
21.

That Blogger Guy (April 29th, 2008, 8:38 am)

What an awesome approach to what is normally a mundane item. Great way to combine form with function! Check out my write-up on Link [www.ocdesignguy.com].
22.

Cherish (April 29th, 2008, 10:01 am)

really appreciate “calendar eater ” , just put funny together with classicality perfectly!
love SM, expecting more great post.!! :)
23.

Greg K (April 29th, 2008, 10:18 am)

Rise Above is designed beautifully but written with errors. The dates are reflecting April 2008!
24.

RedesignYourBiz.com (April 29th, 2008, 10:21 am)

Not really exciting :(
25.

Edwin (April 29th, 2008, 11:15 am)

beautiful!
26.

Untitled (April 29th, 2008, 11:30 am)

Lack of overall quality seems to be apparent this month. Though I do like Alba’s The Happy Month, Vlad’s The Calendar Eater and Peter Coles’ Stag.
27.

Greg (April 29th, 2008, 11:41 am)

Love the newest Calendar (19) just replace my current one.
28.

modaser (April 29th, 2008, 12:50 pm)

that is very good

Link [www.modaser.com]
29.

Heri (April 29th, 2008, 2:10 pm)

I refuse to use wallpapers with watermarks on them - they’re distracting and unnecessary. Watermarks often ruin a perfectly good wallpaper. Put “Smashing Magazine” in the JPEG-info or something, but not a visible watermark. I often get the next size up and set it to “center” - I lose some of the image, but at least I get rid of the stupid watermarks that artists insist on putting in their wallpapers.
30.

Steven (April 29th, 2008, 8:42 pm)

Couldn’t agree more about the watermarks. Very distracting and they keep me from using the wallpapers on my desktop.
31.

Dirk (April 29th, 2008, 11:10 pm)

Hi,

great wallpapers.

I’ve found a mistake in the Rise Above wallpaper by Rafal Tomal. The calendar is wrong - the 1st of may is a Thursday, isn’t it?
32.

jbcarey (April 29th, 2008, 11:47 pm)

Well, I suppose the simplest way to get an “unwatermarked” wallpaper is to just, open it in photoshop and remove the logo’s…
33.

dani (April 30th, 2008, 12:14 am)

niiiice :)
34.

Peter Coles (April 30th, 2008, 1:24 am)

Cheers for the comment ‘untitled’
35.

Angela (April 30th, 2008, 1:44 am)

I love Calendar Eater — so funny, and so appropriate for my preferences and hobbies. :D

(No, not eating words, but reading them… or maybe that’s the same thing.)
36.

kinjal (April 30th, 2008, 2:54 am)

i always use to have this calender wall papers on my pc. i have surfed so many sites for the same. but this is best.
37.

Erik Reagan (April 30th, 2008, 4:50 am)

I just noticed one that I’m using on my desktop at work, Maypaper, is missing day 31 of the month. I had to add it myself in photoshop. I was really confused for a few minutes trying to plan something for the 2nd of June! :p

-Link [erikreagan.com]
38.

jbaone (April 30th, 2008, 7:40 am)

dude alert! great walls, great mag. keep it up.

major digg on the elephant/smokey/teleport looking wallpaper.
39.

Pat (April 30th, 2008, 11:06 am)

A big reason the artists will put logos on work like this is because they’ve taken their time to create something for free. Rarely is work like this going to generate cash (aside from possibly landing a job lead or two).

I like a lot of these (I wish I had taken more time on mine and possibly used photographs of scrap paper rather than using a mixture of brushes and shadows). I plan on using them because they are very helpful when trying to quickly come up with a date.

Pat
40.

Yan (April 30th, 2008, 1:55 pm)

I am honored to be selected!
I will try to make better ones and get selected again :-)
41.

Maciej (May 1st, 2008, 11:04 am)

Hi !!!

Rise Above is designed beautifully.
It’ s my favorite calender and he is The best.

Congratulations Rafal Tomal.
42.

rajaraman (May 1st, 2008, 8:57 pm)

really its good stuff
43.

Website Design (May 1st, 2008, 9:41 pm)

I like the first one. Its great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
44.

switchback (May 2nd, 2008, 12:03 pm)

I love that first wallpaper, but to the creator….if you’re going to spend that much time making the wallpaper, at least cut out your images cleanly!
45.

Roly (May 2nd, 2008, 1:51 pm)

boring…this time (i think the first) i dont like something from S. Mag…
46.

sandie sørensen (May 4th, 2008, 10:38 pm)

I’ve used this myself: The happy month. Thanks for sharing.

And to all you people who dislikes the wallpapers: did I see anything from you in this post? If you can’t show us something better- then don’t critizise!
Perhaps you didn’t have the time for it? Well perhaps that is also the reason why the wallpapers don’t meet your standards. Maybe they have also been made in a hurry, but at least they contribute to the post!

Am I right?

Thanks to all contributers for sharing your creativity for free!
47.

Diluna (May 6th, 2008, 4:23 pm)

That images?
I do not understand you
48.

Diluna (May 6th, 2008, 4:26 pm)

Thank you very much!
49.

Alba Soler (May 6th, 2008, 4:33 pm)

I am the authoress of the first calendar.

For Sandie sørensen:

You have reason great. Thank you for your commentary. There are persons with bad intention in your opinions.

I am very happy to be the first one of the list though that my calendar is not perfect.
50.

ramadon (May 12th, 2008, 5:12 am)

I love these!! but a word of advice to the artists…try to keep the dates to the left, because I think most people have all their desktop icons on the right and they cover up the numbers!
51.

Steve (May 12th, 2008, 8:53 am)

Mayper 1920×1200 w/calendar is 404 :(
52.

The Automatist (May 15th, 2008, 12:38 pm)

After reading this post I created a little automation for the Mac to change the desktop calendar picture automatically to the correct image on the first day of every month. You can read about it at: Link [www.theautomatist.com]
53.

Alcia (May 23rd, 2008, 1:15 am)

mayper does not have 31 days on it!
54.

Alis (May 28th, 2008, 2:17 am)

The hippest & most creative calendar wallpapers out there! I’m waiting on June - where is it? I accidentally stumbled on this site here in Seattle and can’t wait for the June edition Calendars!!! Thanks for providing them!
55.

speedcu (June 4th, 2008, 12:40 am)

really cool wallpapers …. I really like the idea with the calendar on it ’cause I am often aksing myself which day is today ;)
Waiting for June!
56.

biswajit (July 1st, 2008, 8:09 am)

really cool wallpapers! keep it up!
57.

jabalik (July 26th, 2008, 7:55 am)

cool!!! waiting for more…. !! me too is an artist. stiil speachless….
58.

jennifer (October 20th, 2008, 8:21 am)

i hate may i hate this website it gives no info
59.

krupa (April 27th, 2009, 2:53 am)

I love the calendar eater and blooming in the rain…great job guys..
60.

Stan Scott (April 30th, 2009, 7:29 am)

Love these calendars!! For my desktop setup, I like to have a calendar on the right, not the left. Most of the artists have them on the left side. Maybe more next month?

Stan