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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 50 free desktop wallpapers, created by designers across the globe and sent to us by the designers themselves. 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?

So what wallpapers have we received for November?

The Pianist

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

Cheshire Cat

“I adore watch Disney cartoons and I have inspiration in bright funny colors. I was born in October. Autumn colors of nature and my birthday inspired me for drawing some nice pictures. I hope to draw many illustrations in future, let attend to my site and enjoy my drawing.” Designed by Xena from Ukraine.

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

November Ice Queen

Designed by Stefan Bialoszewski from UK.

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

Indigena

“Well about the wallpaper, I must said that this year, i went to patagonia, eventhough my country has a lot of indians, i never observed to their native art. Because of my trip i started looking to new things and ancient art seem to motivate my work for the last year. that’s why i wanted to do somethign related to it. This work is inspired by the Diaguitas Art, who use to live in the north.” Designed by Alberto Marcías from Santiago, Chile.

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

Vibrant Blue

“I took this picture to complete a set of primary colour pictures. I already had the red and yellow just needed the blue and this is what I found while walking my dog.” Designed by Curtis McHale from Canada.

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

Photography

“This wallpaper shows my plans for November…” Designed by Eric Petersen from New York, USA.

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

Circular

“I got inspired by the package design of the Adobe CS4. I love the vibrant colours in mosaic on a dark background and believe that it makes for a good wallpaper. I just played around with shapes until I was happy. It reminds me of the signal screen on old televisons. It’s been done entirely in Photoshop using nothing but filters and gradients.” Designed by Franz Jeitz from Luxembourg.

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

Art Tree

Designed by Girish Chaudhary from India.

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

Red Scales

“In this wallpaper I wanted to experience a creative combination between a modern element and some oldstyle elements, playing with black and red color.” Designed by Michele Virgilio from Italy.

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

French Autumn

“This wallpaper is rather simple, with colors which remind me autumn… No complication with the name, I had no idea for it, and I’m French so… French Autumn!” Designed by Celine Satheen from France.

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

L’Astrolabe Research

“The theme of this wallpaper is a photograph of the research vessel L’Astrolabe which docks at the Salamanca Wharf area in Hobart, Tasmania between visits to the Antarctic and Great Southern Ocean. I particularly like the strong colour and the masculine industrial feel of the photograph. There are also feminine elements in the reflections off the harbour water which add interest. L’Astrolabe spends its time gathering information about global warming and ocean species.” Created by Steven Clark from Hobart, Tasmania.

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

Black Dodge

“The Black Dodge in this photograph is parked every day outside the Tasmanian School of Art in Hunter Street, Hobart. As you can see it’s style, elegance and romance is in stark contrast to the surrounding cars. It’s always polished, always tempting to take for a harmless drive and triggers a combination of nostalgia for those sexy cars of Cuba with a large tot of industrial design.” Created by Steven Clark from Hobart, Tasmania.

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

Mice and his shoes

“The work was inspired by the upcoming winter at the dirty streets of Belgrade, Serbia, “grunge” town which I come from. Our snow always appears gray. :)” Designed by Jana Jelovac from Belgrade, Serbia (e-mail: cortexj at gmail dot com).

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

November Calendar

Designed by Patricia Villanueva.

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• without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Yesterday’s Equinox

“November, autumn is in full swing and the vivid colours of the forests are kept shining by the uninterrupted flow of pigments pouring from the sky when everyone is asleep, reviving in every soul the nostalgia that yesterday’s equinox has left behind.” Designed by Valentin Triponez aka Tanoshism from Japan.

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

Cold Approaching

“November is the month when it really starts to get cold and snow is right around the corner. Motivation: I love this weather!” Designed by Tim Newton from 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

Fascination

“The calendar’s motivation was Alphabeat’s hit song: FASCINATION. I just adore that song and it deserved a wallpaper. Then my friends adored it and suggested me submitting it to your calendars’ contest; I hope you enjoy it as much as I did designing it.” Created by Daniel Vazquez from Madrid, Spain.

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

Baby Chick

“When i decided to design a wallpaper for smashing magazine, i thought, it must be colorful, different and it should tells something about my sytle. So i started to draw then i made this.” Created by Sinem Senol from Turkey.

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

Candies

“Little girl loves candies. The weather in November is dull, and it’s a great pleasure to see something pretty at the desktop.” Created by Valeria Kuzminskaya from Ukraine.

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

Crazy Autumn Day

“Done in Photoshop Cs3, 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.” Designed by Vladimir Bauer from Serbia.

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

Road To November

“I got the idea from a tutorial i did a few month ago. and thought it might work nice as a desktop so i decided to go ahead and play around wiith it.” Designed by Simon | Project5 from South Africa.

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

Flowers For November

“I was playing around with some ideas for a desktop for my personal laptop to use as branding for myself.” Designed by Simon | Project5 from South Africa.

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

Creative Design

Designed by Rafal Tomal from Poland.

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

Smoke in Purple

Designed by Xena from Ukraine.

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

Cube

“I’m a technical illustrator and I basically came up with this from looking at isometric illustrations all day.” Designed by Kristopher Kouba.

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

The Vigil

“While we witness the beautiful transition of seasons in the month of September, all November seems to display is a silent wait for the upcoming snow. As December approaches, nature’s vigil begins.” Designed by Alex Beltechi 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

Wisdom comes with Winter

“November – the start of winter in the Northern hemisphere. Maybe not the most welcoming month. Here I used the quote I remember: “Wisdom comes with winter.” by Irish playwright, Oscar Wilde, arranged with a simple typography. Hoping to make the month pleasanter! Please enjoy.” Designed by Athena Emily from UK.

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

Art Autumn

“This is 100% fun, freestyle, love, happy times and the future! We were all young, and this is how I saw / see the world as child/now student.” Designed by Bram Vanhaeren from Belgium.

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

Loco Slickers – Dark & Smokie

Designed by Daniel Nägeli from Switzerland.

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

Get Ready

“I live in the coldest city with a population over 100,000 (Winnipeg, Canada) and I think that people are grumpy that it’s getting colder. This wallpaper is a reminder that winter is (sometimes) clean, beautiful, refreshing, and maybe not so bad!” Designed by Eli Penner from Canada.

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

Seasonal Desktop

“Foggy countryside, leaves, wood. My autumnal desktop! My motivation was to create something simple but representative.” Designed by Ecmedia di Cucco Elisa from Italy.

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Fly Away

“I created this wallpaper with the feeling of freedom and liberation in mind.” Designed by Irene Demetri from Greece.

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

West Lives On

“I captured the photo that forms the basis of this work at a ranch in Nebraska where my wife works. I feel this work embodies the romance surrounding the power and beauty of the horse and titled it “The West Lives On” in the spirit of adventure and hard work.” Designed by Jonathan Sharp from Nebraska, 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

Beauty With Cigarette

“Sometimes beauty can be fleeting like smoke or butterflies.” Designed by Anna Skibinska from Poland (e-mail: onyxen at o2 dot pl).

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

Turkey

Designed by Karina (Pixel Pixie).

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

Thanks Gratitude Wonder

“Thanks Gratitude Wonder is inspired by Thanksgiving. I thought this quote was really in keeping with the season, and the fall palette and ghostly trees said November in New England to me.” 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

To Dream Of Autumn

“Inspired by autumn, the colors of nature changing, the sound of leaves crunching as you walk down the street, the whistling wind and an evening cuddled up in a warm quilt.” Designed by Liz Andrade, CMD+Shift Design.

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• with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1900×1200
• without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1900×1200

Unforgettable Autumn

“November is gray and dull, we feel down and forget lots of things. This calendar is vivid and colorful to break the dullness of the autumn and has a sticky note to make you remember.” Designed by Mariusz Ciesla from Poland.

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

My Imagination

“My November design is inspired by the rainy, cloudy November we have here in the Pacific northwest. As November washes away the warmth of summer, the vibrancy of the season’s colours live on in my imagination. I find the words of the Walter de la Mare poem “November” really evoke the feelings November brings…”

There is wind where the rose was,
Cold rain where sweet grass was,
And clouds like sheep
Stream o’er the steep
Grey skies where the lark was.

I had a lot of fun putting this wallpaper together. It’s all vector illustration in Illustrator. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.” Designed by Michelle Cormack from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

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

C’est une femme!

“It may sound silly, but, it was quite nice that a little girl recognized the woman I was drawing on the bus. Normally people don’t talk to me (and I appreciate that!), but this little lady made me feel really good.” Designed by Patricia Montero de Cabana.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×1024, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Fallpaper

“Fall is my favorite time of year and I was having trouble finding a wallpaper that expressed this beautiful season to my satisfaction. To solve this I created a wallpaper of my own in Photoshop. I harvested resources from a number of sites including sxc.hu and bittbox.com to create my piece of art. I think that fall is different from autumn in that the leaves are actually “falling” from the tree. In my design I wanted to capture all the colors of this warm season.” Designed by Philip McDaniel from 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

Through The Window

“It’s going to be rainy cold and gray. I hope i’m going to be at home watching “through the window”. This is the result.” Created by Nikola Lazarevic from Serbia.

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Sweet November

“Inspired by the movie Sweet November.” Created by Vlad Georgescu from Romania.

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

Oops

“My contribution to your monthly calendar series is based upon a picture I shot from a friends couple’s boy. In that photo he looks so mysterious, that it inspired me to a spooky November calendar collage. I’m a photographer, painter and web designer living with my wife and our four kids in Austria.” Created by Sascha David Rieger from Austria.

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

Miscellaneous Days

“The calendar is the design of the calendar. Fourth version of the miscellaneous days calendar – Loosely group your desktop items around the days you plan to be working on them.” Designed by Michael Schmidt from Vienna, Austria.

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XI

Designed by Adam Cavatis.

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

iSphere

Designed by Chris De Schryver from Belgium.

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Marine Tech

Designed by Xena from Ukraine.

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Geometric tribute to Guy

“The design is loosely based around Guy Fawkes night (November 5th) and the many firework displays that are part and parcel of the evenings’ celebrations. I was interested by the inherent beauty of fireworks and the way in which they explode, hence the abstract, geometric style of the imagery. I opted for a warm colour palette to give the wallpaper a sense of cosiness, a feeling I recall from many ‘Bonfire nights’ of my youth.” Designed by Mark Kirwan from the art agency Persona, England.

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