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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 which wallpapers have we received for January 2009?

[Offtopic: by the way, did you already get your copy of the brand new Smashing Book?]

In With The New

"I know that you require entrants to send in their work at least 2 days early and I admit that this is pushing it. I know that you’ll do your best as this took a fair bit of time hence the late entry.

This entry basically reflects releasing the old and embracing the new. The whole concept is revolving around something big and embracing it as well as accepting it with style." Designed by Umer Tahir from Calgary, Canada.

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

Think New

"January brings a new year, a new U.S. president and a new beginning. Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009" Designed by Mediumjones 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

Ethnic

"Ethnic Colors of India. I thought of making a wallpaper with traditional touch and here it is. Wish u all a Better ‘09, Happy New Year!" Designed by Laxman Koushik from India.

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

December is dead

"Everyone who watched the first 1989 Batman movie, probably remembers the quote of the birth of Joker – “Jack? Jack is dead my friend. You can call me… Joker.”, so here it is, with just a bit of a 2008 Dark Knight’s flavor sprinkled over the no-calendar version." Designed by Mariusz Ciesla from Poland.

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

Readers

"There are cartoon girl and a spider, which are reading wonderful letter." 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

Odd World

"The objects in this wallpaper are separately rendered in 3d Max and Zbrush then finalized in photoshop software. The motivation behind this wallpaper was to portray an odd ,colorful and seductive world that you would like to watch it but never wish to be there.I hope you will like it." Designed by Kasra Safavinia.

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

Digital art

"Everyday Coffee, some how i use abstract, i not used days on top just for indication i used coffee mug for sunday. we have off on sunday." Designed by Girish Chaudhary from Pune, India.

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

When Dreams Find Inspiration

"Our aim with this design? To capture the wonder and amazement that children experience every day of their young lives." Designed by David Pritchett “The Random Group” from Toronto, 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

Trees

"This picture was taken at the cost of the East See in North Germany, late December 2008. These old trees catched my attention. Looking upward, their branches merged in front of the grey blue sky. They seemed to wait for the New Year to come and for the next spring to continue where they stopped last autumn." Designed by Hans-Georg Krejci .

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

Happy New Year

"The image that appears was done by us in a session of photos of Christmas in order to congratulate the year. We think that the new year is going to be very good and for this reason we want that it is a good year for everybody." Designed by Eva Casado Elegido from Spain.

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

Photography Alaska

"At a time of year when most people are jovial I chose to embrace the potential darker side of the season. The theme of this wallpaper and photo is loneliness. Having spent time in Alaska during the winter the concept of loneliness and the realities of Alaska go hand in hand thus the name.

Ultimately I wanted to toy with light. In the end the photo was too full of emptiness not to do something with it." Designed by Bryce from USA.

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

Illustration Year of the Cow

"How fast a new year comes in. The Chinese Zodiac animal of 2009 is busy celebrating the new year in winter wonderland style." Designed by Jolene Judziewicz from USA.

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

Typography Lustrous New Year

"My idea behind this wallpaper is that the new year brings in a clean slate for everyone! As midnight hits, we all enter January with new goals, dreams, and high hopes for a blessed year! Everything from the previous year can slowly be forgotten as we forge a new year in our life! This wallpaper was also designed with the focal point of the desktop in mind. Both PC and Mac users align their icons on the left or right side. Having the text and calendar in the middle would have it stay away from all the clutter of a desktop!" Designed by Anthony Nguyen from USA.

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

Two Zero Zero Nine

"January 2009, the start of another new year. Time is travelling faster than ever, demonstrated by a simple figure of 2009 written in clouds." Designed by Milan 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-The effort

"This is the calendar design I created fot January 2009. " Designed by Murat SIR from Turkey.

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

Winter – Ice?

"The result of an hour long staring at a frozen window." Designed by Makhsut Kutlukov.

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• with calendar: 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1600×1200, 1680×1050

My Fragile world

Designed by Maryam Kazerooni 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

Blaze of Light

Designed by Oliver Twardowski from Germany.

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

Typography, Bauhaus Experiment

"I’m a big fan of ITC Bauhaus and I wanted to try and take thistypeface away from its usual connotations. I also wanted to create something simple without too many distracting elements as the typeface was the driving element of the whole composition. " Designed by Mitternacht from Belgium.

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

Woodland Foxes

"I wanted to contrast the earthiness of wood with artifical colors and unexpected images. The non-calendar version contains a quote from The Little Prince instead of the calendar." Designed by Seth Nickeson 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

Happy New Year

"The New Year always brings time into perspective." Designed by Joshua Friend.

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

144 Celebrating Creativity

"This wallpaper is inspired by the diversity and vibrant culture of the university where 25,000 students from 144 countries pursuing their dreams in different creative industries." Designed by Limkokwing University of Creative Technology from Malaysia.

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

Electric

Designed by Kaat Rutten 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

Grunge

"For this wallpaper I wanted to create something that was a combination of a real grungey background with some vectors and photographs seamlessly worked into the design whilst keeping with a chilling blue theme for winter and a bit of flare running across the middle of the image." Designed by John O’Nolan from UK.

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

Symphony

"When I heard via the SM Twitter that only nine wallpapers had been submitted, I felt compelled to make something! Here is a very simple wallpaper with 3 cubes of pretty color, with some delicious floral vectors added in for good measure. It’s very minimalistic, I’ll admit! ;)" Designed by Eli Burford .

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

When year is about to begin

"As I live in the northern hemisphere, January will be for me always connected with winter and snow. Snow covered cars, trees and houses, lot of opportunities to ski or snowboard… Therefore I used snow as one of the main themes for my wallpaper. January also means a start of new year. Celebrations of the New Year is always full of fireworks, so I used fireworks in my wallpaper. Maybe you’d ask if we don’t celebrate on 31st of December, on New Years Eve, but it is not absolutely correct. Almost everybody fires their fireworks just after midnight, on 1st of January." Designed by Matus Luptak from Bratislava, Slovakia.

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

Retro angels

"I love your site and i’d like to send you my desktop wallpapers. I love everything about retro." Designed by Irina Shakina from Russia.

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

Magic christmas tree

"In this wallpaper i wanted to play around with Christmas tree and 3D letters. January is the month when a new year starts. Motivation: this should be a good start!" Designed by Mike Shakin from Siberia, Russia.

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

Blue Wintersky

"A nice winterlandcape in the North of the Netherlands. Photo taken on first christmasday, 25 december 2008." Designed by Edwin Duinkerken from The Netherlands.

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

Greenhouse

"Winter Greenhouse/French Café – January is always the chilliest and bleakest month of the year. I find myself daydreaming of the Saturdays I spent in Paris finding refuge from the cold in small hip cafés snooping over the shoulders of sketching artists and eavesdropping on chatty aupairs engulfed in espresso machine steam and ever growing jungle like vines." Designed by Tom Pepe from Philadelphia, USA .

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1250, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1920×1200

2008 gone

"2008 JUST GONE. That’s it.:)" Designed by Jana Jelovac from Belgrade, Serbia.

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

New Year

"New year new resolution, I would like to start with a desktop wallpaper design:-)" Designed by Eloise Ha from Malaysia.

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

Global Village

"The January sheet of the wallpaper is based on the theme ‘Global Village.’ The main illustration is done by Shlomit Wolf. It shows a peaceful coexistance of flora, fauna and technology on this planet Earth. Technology has made all of us closer. The tagline ’start something good’ reminds us about new year resolutions and the importance of being a good, wiser person.

All of us use computers for personal and professional work. My desktop is always messy and I never tamper with the position of taskbar. All the icons or files tend to be on the left side of the screen. So, the calendar wallpaper should not have any numerals on that ?forbidden? area. Also, there should be ample space at the bottom to accommodate the taskbar. A graphic can cover the rest of the space with a nice tagline.

The sheet has both the current month?s calendar and the coming month’s calendar. The font used is Century Gothic. For easy ?deciphering,? Saturdays and Sundays are given in a contrasting colour than the weekdays. The coming month?s calendar is justified by the fact that people always plan things in advance. These plans can spill over to a date in the next month. So, no need for turning pages in and out while planning a project or a holiday break." Designed by Anas K A from Bangalore, India.

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

Winter Night

"It’s winter time and I have designed my first submission for the month January. I thought this wallpaper works perfectly because it’s the darkest time of the year but it’s still one of the most contemplative.

Well that was my inspiration for this silence, illustrative artwork. I hope it will be on the next Desktop Wallpaper submission." Designed by Christian Rumpf from Austria.

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

Freddygirl

"I thought it would be fun to play with the grays of January. The month is pretty blah, at least in my part of the world. Luckily, a day of sunshine always seems to come along just when your spirits need lifting. Best wishes to all for a joyful 2009." Designed by Michelle Cormack.

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

Frosted January

Designed by Nikola Lazarevic from Nis, Serbia.

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

Classic Car

"This design came about through some experimental photography with a holga camera. I used black and white 120 film and photoshopped in some additional vintage effects. I thought it was an appropriate theme because with holga cameras, you never know what your pictures may turn out like – double exposures, light leaks etc. Likewise, here in St. Louis, Missouri you never know what the weather might have in store from one day to the next during winter months." Designed by Michelle Milla from USA.

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

Doodled

"Something fun to start the year for my first submission." Designed by Laura Moloney from Ireland.

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

Birth of Stars

"Since it’s the beginning of a new year, and the launch of our new website, we hope that one day we could be counted among the stars born this month, hence the theme “Birth of Stars”." Designed by webmastrish.com team from USA.

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

Woodland Deer

“After doing the foxes version, I just wanted to do more, so I did a slightly different version with a deer. The non-calendar version contains a quote from e.e. cummings instead of the calendar”. Designed by Seth Nickeson from USA.

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

Reading on the bus

"I like the way people spend time while commuting, specially when somebody is too concentrated to realize that he/she is my model. Although sometimes it’s not easy, because the bus/subway is packed, I love drawing on wheels." Designed by Patricia Montero de Cabana.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×1024, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×1024, 1280×800, 1440×900, 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. Join in next month! And smashing January and a smashing new year, folks!