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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 have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers over 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 40 free desktop wallpapers, created by 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 October?

[Offtopic: by the way, do you know the Smashing Network has its own Smashing Network RSS Feed? Only excerpts are displayed in the feed.]

Sad Autumn

“I wish a dark autumn to contrast with the leaves colors; I want to feel the cold and the chilled wind. I want to feel the warm of my loved one’s arms, in a cold raining day.” Designed by Rogers Sampaio from Portugal.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Theme Art

“Inspiration behind this came from reading one of your articles about Rainbows, Glows and Light Effects and draws inspiration from a fairy tale forest scene.” Designed by Peter Simmons from UK.

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

Spy Secret: “October Files”

“Found an old 35mm film canister and few negatives in my drawer and that’s how i got idea. spy secret: “october files”. This is the result.” Designed by Nikola Lazarevic from Serbia.

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• with calendar: 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Still Life: Flamandian

“This is an autumn still life. I wanted to create something in baroque stile, at warm honey background.” Designed by Valeria Kuzminskaya from Ukraine.

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

Dolphins

Available in 12 desktop resolutions — both widescreen and fullscreen. Designed by Vlad Gerasimov from Irkutsk, Russia.

• preview (0.15 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

Autumn Tree

“Inspired by how trees look like this season I designed a tree with all of Autumns colours in a creative way, which also matches my websites’ ’smoky’ theme.” Designed by Irene Demetri from Greece.

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

Tribute to Madam Butterfly

Designed by Maryam Kazerooni.

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

Fly By – Halloween

“This wallpaper celebrates Halloween. My motivation was of course Halloween, flying witches and the awesome wallpapers that have come before on Smashing Magazine.” Designed by Mya Leigh from the USA.

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

Things

“October for me is the Autumn month and I wanted to express this season in terms of colour. The design can also be seen as a battle between Summer (red) and Winter (blue/green). It’s the first time I tried the whole retro/space thing and I added a bit of grunge to it.” Designed by Franz Jeitz from Luxembourg.

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• with calendar: 1280×1024, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×1024, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Mess of fire

“Lately I’ve been trough a lot of different emotions, so I thought this mess of fire would explain how i feel. The photo was taken at a concert by me.” Designed by Esther Trillo from Spain.

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

Good Morning Sunshine

“This is the fruit of my original creative brainstorming sessions trying to come up with fun and interesting elements to dress up my blog, which is a variation of the popular Fresh News theme. I'm a huge fan of wood and other tactile textures in my work, so I began with a rich, dark backdrop (Darker Wood by Paul Ensane), then I went to town layering elements over it while trying to keep plenty of open space for icon placement.

Several formats available for download and even more available at my little blog if you're interested.” Designed by Brandon R Jones from Southern California, United States.

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

Noodle Soup and a grilled cheese sandwich

“October is the month when we start to notice the change of season. The weather is changing and we often get sick and appreciate staying home. Noodle soup and a grilled cheese sandwich is the food for those days of strongest Fall feeling in my memory. It is not just food, it is a translation of a special kind of mood.” Designed by Fellowsisters from Spain.

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

Autumn can be beautiful, too

“”Im a designer from York, UK and its that time of year “Autumn” when everything looks so life less and empty so with this illustration i wanted to capture Autumn but show that it can still be beautiful.” Designed by Max Stanworth.

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

Happy Designer

“This wallpaper represents what I feel every day since I discovered the site. Smashing Magazine often brought me inspiration, tools, techniques. Consequently, I am a happy designer. ;-) With Smashing Magazine, they feel so well. It is what I wanted to express here.” Designed by Gaëtan Pichon from Strasbourg, France.

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

London Sky through the London Eye

“This photo was taken while I was back home in England last month. It was a great day and the colour of the sky was fantastic. I loved how the viewpoint turned out. You won’t tell from the photo but it was very crowded that day and it was difficult to get good photos – I loved this one though. I used my Canon Powershot G9 for this photo.” Created by Haitham Ali from London, England.

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

Halloween Chocolate

“I wanted to center it around Halloween so I made the accent color orange and kept the base color a rich brown because it is signifying all the chocolate and candy you get during Halloween.” Designed by Blake Phillips.

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

Women October

“I designed this wallpaper with Halloween in mind, which occurs at the end of the month. Rather than a straight up scary monster design I created a more subtle and slightly gothic design based on Eve and the apple.” Designed by Stefan Bialoszewski from UK.

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

The Countryside

“Last sunshine in the countryside. Motivation: I live in the countryside and I love it. I see this wonderful landscape and I want to share it with others!” Designed by Ecmedia di Cucco Elisa from Italy.

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

Smoky Explosion

“This wallpaper is inspired by my new website, and i have named it ’smoky explosion’. Many bright colours on a rather dark background, which is my favorite style at the moment.” Designed by Irene Demetri from Greece.

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

Sunset

“Sunset in St. Augustine, Florida to remind me to not waste time while I’m working on my computer.” Designed by Jak Krumholtz from the USA.

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

Little Place Of Happiness

Designed by Orid Dichter.

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

Old October

“The sunny days are over and the predominant colors you see at this time of the year are those of the “rusty” dry leaves and that of the cloudy gray sky.Using a photograph of an old ship (that I’ve taken not so long ago), I tried to transmute the way that i see this month into an imperfect image.” Designed by Tudorica Andrei from Romania.

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

Stitch

Designed by Agata Ogrocka from Poland.

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• with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Spooktacular

“We love october! Halloween rocks! We normally create a promotional item to send to our clients each month… We figured why not create a calendar and submit to our favorite online publication, smashing.” Designed by Joven Orozco Design from Newport Beach, CA, USA.

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

Halloscene

“Halloscene is a vector illustration. A full moon, a webby fence, orange and black could only mean one thing… The motivation behind the design: Halloween has been my favorite holiday since I was a kid. I wanted to do something that really said Halloween, without going the (too) obvious route. I tend to go for these kinds of clean, limited palette illustrations.” Designed by Leslie Tane Design from the USA.

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

That 60’s Halloween

“We came out with the idea barely out of nowhere. We are two design studios from Buenos Aires, Argentina that are merging together into an interactive agency and wanted to create a creative piece to celebrate Halloween and the end of our old companies. The figure of Marilyn Monroe came out of a joke (a very bad one) and we integrated it somehow to the Halloween theme. The illustration was done by Alan Akerman and the artwork by Fernando Maclen.”

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

October Monster(s)

“What is the month of the monsters? When is their birthday?… Definitely in October!” Designed by Bleed from Mexico.

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• with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, iPhone

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• with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, iPhone

Dreado

Designed by Jeff Anderson.

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

Halloween Wood

Designed by Luminita Sirghi.

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• with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Columbus Dream

“I love the shape of the American continent, and this is a great opportunity to design something about it.” Designed by Jon Garza from Mexico.

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

Urban and Rural

Designed by Aurel Kurtula from United Kingdom.

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

Simple

“Here is October wallpaper, I just wanted to play with Illustrator tools and make a simple look wallpaper for this month.” Designed by Pushparaj.

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• with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Siva

“Siva is the Hindu god of destruction. Siva is also considered the god of the yogis and ascetics. He is the embodiment of serenity, renunciation and indifference to the world. Motivation: Besides doing web designs I’m also a yoga teacher and avid practitioner – I designed the Siva because of those interests.” Designed by Anne Douglas from the USA.

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

Ichabod Crane

“Being October, my wallpaper is a theme based on the character Ichabod Crane, form the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. This is the time of year for spooks and things that go bump in the night. So when I was painting a local covered bridge -it wasn’t too hard to imagine my character, “clopping” along after dusk.” Created by Brian D. Payne from the USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Street Art

“Fly on wall street art October Calendar.” Designed by Liz Andrade.

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

Refreshing Acorn Taste

“The inspiration for this design was simple – I wanted to create a funny, colorful wallpaper that I would personally be excited to download. Who doesn’t like burgers and fries? Add some acorns in…and voila! The perfect desktop background!” Designed by Karina Pixel Pixie from Acorn Creative.

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

Lady Autumn

“‘Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.’ – Albert Camus.” Designed by Lety Gidea from Romania.

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

Electronic Eros

“Done in Photoshop Cs, the concept is one warm and cold image in turn, people believe that digital art can not have feelings, and I believe that art is not on the stand if not on what the artist wants to convey to others.” Created by Miguel Angel Lozada from Mexico.

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

Hands at Square Victoria

“There was a problem at the orange line that day after work and, as the subway stopped for a while, I had time enough to draw this guy’s hands. I think he didn’t realized he was my model ;)” Designed by Patricia Montero de Cabana.

• preview
• with calendar: 800×600, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 800×600, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Miscellaneous Days

“Third version of the miscellaneous days calendar – for October it’s brighter and greener (though October won’t be) and the boxes are gone: I think it’s more likely to loosely group your desktop items around the days you plan to be working on them. It’s like when you say, e.g.: “I’ll be working on that around Monday!” Designed by Michael Schmidt from Vienna, Austria.

• preview
• sample image
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Orange Bus

“The old Volkswagen Split Screens looks superb, and placed in a slick looking environment — it really stands out the way it deserves. I love using old (vintage) items combined with new (modern) designs. It uses my all time favourite colour combo, orange and blue. However, the blue background is quite “de-saturated”, so it won’t interfere with the colour of people’s Photoshop documents. I hope everyone who loves VW camper vans and surfing will download this calendar.” Designed by Torunn Seim Skrogstad from Newcastle, United Kingdom.

• preview
• 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 October we’ll receive as many entries as in September. Join in next month and smashing October, folks!