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 55 free December 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 have we received for December?
Happy Holidays
"The wallpaper design includes a snowman in a red scarf, along with different illustrated objects to form the letters spelling “Happy Holidays”. The design concept is a modification from my holiday postcard I am sending out to family and friends this holiday season." Designed by Janice Go from USA.
- preview
- with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Ice Skating
Designed by Vlad Gerasimov.
- preview
- 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
Last month standing
"I wanted to create calendar as a movie poster. I hope I did a good job." Designed by Nikola Lazarevic from Nis, 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
Art
"Last weekend I was roaming around a college campus near my house. I have seen a nice shade and light. A beautiful building architecture crafted in stone and decorated by wood. It inspired me to paint in watercolor. I took my brush and put my expression on paper. This college campus has been inspiring me to paint over 2 years." Designed by Girish Chaudhary from Pune, India.
Cruel Snowkids
"This illustration just shows the fun of December in USA." 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
Snow Time
"This is going to be my second white Christmas and even though we are going to have snow until April, I guess, I just can’t wait to see Montreal wearing white!" Designed by Patricia Montero de Cabana.
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- with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
- without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
Thirty feet tall
"This month I’ve based my design on a quote from The Merry Book of Christmas by Larry Wilde. It reminded me of how exciting Christmas is especially when you’re a child and see things through innocent eyes." Designed by Mark Kirwan from England.
- preview
- with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Best night of the year
"This wallpaper design reproduces the most representative and best night in December - Christmas. That night when you are glad to receive presents and share the happiness of snow with your family is represented in this wallpaper. Merry Christmas! I did this design because I wanted something simple and representative. I’ve picked these symbols because there are the standard things that someone should have for a good Christmas: family, snow and gifts." Designed by Andy Gongea from Romania.
- preview
- with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Your Love
"Your love is like a lot of Christmas balls falling from the sky… marvellous!" Designed by Bleed from Mexico.
Typography
"As a lot of you out there, I just want the year to reach its end, press ctrl + shift + del and end process tree. Images used: sxc.hu." Designed by Lucas Zubeldía from Argentina.
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- with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Santa Flying
Designed by Vlad Gerasimov.
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- 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
Snowboys
"December is related to the winter snow. Since I live in a tropical country and I’ve never been to four-season countries, seeing the snow falling and making a snowman would be my biggest dream ever. So I created an illustration to live up my dream a little bit." Designed by Oridus Artic from Indonesia.
- preview
- with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Paper Snowman
"Our wallpaper is titled “Paper Snowman”. We wanted to evoke the DIY ethos that many families will be embracing this year with simple, inexpensive decorations. Everyone’s got some paper, markers and tape lying around, and we hope this wallpaper will remind people that the holidays needn’t be expensive to be wonderful." Designed by Desktop Designing from USA.
- preview
- with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Smashing Skating
"This wallpaper was created on the very first snowy day of this year, and was inspired by some flashbacks from my childhood, when we spent time on the frozen lake, and it represents the demythologization of the past, trying to distance the present from the big ideas that drove the “modern” age. It took so little to make us care free those days." Designed by Bojan Ilic from Belgrade, 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
Xmas handicrafts
"We love the style of the new PS3 game „Little Big Planet“ and decided to design this Xmas wallpaper for Smashing Magazine in handicraft-style. Merry Xmas." Designed by signalfeuer from Butzbach, 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
Christmas Time
"“Hang up your pretty stockings And turn off the light It’s Christmas time The snow is falling on the ground Santa claus is back in town” (Elvis Presley - Santa Claus is Back in Town)" Designed by Natalia Valle from Brazil.
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- with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Igniting colours
"Igniting colours. Some colours are very vibrant.Red is one of them. A festive wallpaper for a festive month :) ." Designed by kashyap k from India.
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- with calendar: 1280×800, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×800, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Cold Night
"It’s a really cold night out there with a sky full of stars." Designed by Benedikte Vanderweeën 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
The Little Sister
"My inspiration came while browsing the image banks for some images. This little girl was staring at me so I decided that I should make a wallpaper with her. The cute Little Sister…" Designed by Peter Gavrilov from Sofia, Bulgaria.
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- with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Dark December
“Dark December was inspired by my first visit to Brasov, Romania in 1999. I was 13 at the time and I thought it was the most inspiring scenery on earth; it felt like a dream. Its dark and gloomy streets and old architecture made it an experience I’d never forget. When the fog fell down over the old part of the city, I got a glimpse of what it would have been like living in Dracula’s Transylvania. Since then, I’ve always wanted to visit it during the winter months; “Dark December” is what I think it would look like”. Designed by Steve Gherebean 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
Aurora Borealis
“Inspiration by aurora borealis effect that is visible in northern part of the world during winter”. 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
Christmas Flows
"I was playing around with some brushes and textures that i have and decided to make a desktop wallpaper. The inspiration behind the wallpaper was to make it flow. in my eyes i;ve acheived this." Designed by Simon Hagen 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
Sticker
"It is a different approach to the topic of adorning the christmas tree. My tree is flat on paper and the bowls and the top star are added to it like stickers. It was created completely in Illustrator and Photoshop." Designed by Pica-ae or Anne Elster from Hamburg, 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
Snail
"This is a Snail with a castle on his back. Castles and snails are wonderfull." Designed by Valeria Kuzminskaya from Ukraine.
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- with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Present
"I was thinking about doing an illustration with different christmas like objects and eventually the idea of a gift loop popped up in my mind. And suddenly i wanted to create a wallpaper consisting of gift wrapping and loop. Like a close up photography of a present. So, this is my december wallpaper “Present”. I hope you will enjoy it. It was created completely in Illustrator and Photoshop." Designed by Pica-ae or Anne Elster from Hamburg, Germany.
- preview
- with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Twelve
Designed by Andrei Barburas from Amsterdam, 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
Spamless Winter
"I’m a blogger who got a lot of spam these days on my site. The amount of spam sent to me is awfully a lot. Because spam is disturbing so I just wish I will be sent less spam in December. Since this wallpaper is for December, I made a character of spam that looks like a snowman with a wishing text that everyone will get less spam in December. " Designed by Oridus Artic from Indonesia .
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- with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Brrr
"The motivation for the design lies in the fact that here in Toronto, Canada, December marks the start of the “really freakin cold” season. I had just discovered some of the tutorials behind 3D text in Illustrator and wanted to give it a go." Designed by Stuart Thursby 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
Violet Night
"December can have a warm and sumptuous elegance as the Holidays approach, and folks gather together to spend time to celebrate and reminisce at the end of the year. I wanted to make dancing shapes create the letters of the month and year and create a festive feeling. I chose violet because it has a majestic feel, and it’s warm and inviting very much like a Violet Night." Designed by Paul Tamaro 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
Blur typography greetings
"Choosing “Merry Christmas” was mandatory… I just wanted to exercise some techniques and to wish everyone Merry Christmas (in 26 different languages!)." Designed by Bruno Belotti 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
Holiday Sweater
“This design was created in 3D using extruded pixel fonts. The motivation behind it was holiday sweaters and snow.” Designed by Eric Petersen 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
Modern Winter
“I was inspired by crisp winter days and cool colors. I wanted to keep it light and airy, yet modern”. 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
Vanitas
"December is a rough month for a lot of people: holidays, Seasonal Affective Disorder, cold in the northern hemisphere. I deal with all of these every year, and every year, I find it oddly comforting to turn to the great vanitas paintings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These paintings are amazing still lifes, often with a theme of death, or decay, time passing, the futility of pleasure…At the end of the year, whether it’s winter or summer, it’s time to take stock, evaluate what we’ve been doing, what we want to spend our time and energy on next year, and the vanitas aesthetic is one I think a lot of us would like to tap into, even if we don’t know the name. This wallpaper was made in Photoshop CS3, by Elizabeth Yalkut, a New Yorker, with Creative Commons-licensed photography by Kessiye and freely-available fonts." Designed by Elizabeth Yalkut from New York, USA
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- with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1900×1200
- without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1900×1200
Lettersoup
"Being a graphic designer with a love of letterforms, especially handlettering, I enjoy exploring the ways that new software/technology can offer a new vantage point from which to explore old traditions and disciplines. This piece of abstract lettering was drawn ink on paper and brought into a 3D program I have called Modo. In 3D space I apply lighting, cast shadows, bend the surface and set the camera to look through a refractive lense which distorts the artwork in unpredictable but interesting ways." Designed by Rod Sawatsky from BC, 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
Beatific
"I believe winter in the nordic countries is where the distinct, minimalistic, nordic style stem from. In winter nature here is scrubbed down to its most basic shapes and forms. I have a real hate/love relationship with winter, but I have to admit, it does serve a nice setting for the beautiful people here." Designed by Niklas Ångman from Sweden.
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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 Grunge
" I thought I would participate in this upcoming months desktop wallpapers. I made this one morning, with photoshop. I love grungy stuff, so i made that the main the theme. I added the sound waves to demonstrate a loud contrast with the floral desingns. My site is still under contructuion, since I am a novice in web design and have been teaching myself, but my url is www.stephssite.exofire.net " Designed by Zaudith Wilson 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
Boys World
"I saw this scene in my dream last night. At the moment I woke up I felt that winter is coming. The boys are ready." 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, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
World Harvest
"This wallpaper is based on a graphic novella I have been working on which should have it’s first section completed by Christmas / New Years. It is set in about 20 years time and involves a grungey story about the society we’re in danger of developing… World Harvest is about the plight of people under the foot of historic injustice… and it’s an opportunity to mix my passions for writing, photography and design." Designed by Steven Clark from Hobart, Tasmania.
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- with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Inevitable Imagination
"The theme for the December calendar was pretty straight forward. I wanted to portray as sense of emptiness as the month of December tends to minimize the sense of joy which is apparent in the months of Summer. Sure there is the Christmas season but the winter brings out the heavy outerwear which engulfs everyone and people tend to channel out everyone around them mentally. You start seeing less and less people out and about. Everyone is blending in. It all seems a blur now. We are an imagination again." Designed by Umer Tahir from Calgary, 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
The Simple Lines
"Only simple lines, reflecting the chaotic spread confusion of time and mind." Designed by Rodrigo Grola from São Paulo, Brasil.
Natural Grid
"The theme of this wallpaper is the natural grid structure. This photograph is taken of the Tesselated Pavement at Eagle Hawk Neck, Tasmania. While it looks like a man made path it’s the result of ocean tides across bare rock." Designed by Steven Clark from Hobart, Tasmania.
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- with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Fire
Designed by Marco Colognola from Roma, 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
Candy Cane
Designed by Liz Andrade.
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- with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1920×1200
Let it snow
"A fun December/winter wallpaper for those who are ready for snow. Inspiration? Well I pretty much hate the winter and the cold, but if it has to be cold it might as well snow! So this is my winter theme, letting me know there is some hope for that special white stuff falling from the sky. Be sure and download the no calendar version so you can use it all winter long. There is even a little something extra on the no calendar version :) " Designed by Steve Mullen 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
Matrioshka
"I really like Eastern-European and Russian traditional art and December is my favorite month in the year. So when my eyes fell on the Matrioska I brought back from Prague, I decided to make a December calendar on this theme." Designed by Mitternacht.
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- with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Revolutionary Love
"My December calendar actually started as a graphic for a program to collect money to build wells in African civilizations and help to really make a difference this holiday season. I liked the graphic so much that I decided to make it a wallpaper to share with everyone. The concept of Revolutionary Love is to put others in front of yourself and make sacrifices to impact the world in such a way that those who see can only see love." Designed by Mike Monts De Oca 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
My White Christmas
" A tree and the snow, a very Christmas atmosphere." Designed by Ecmedia di Cucco Elisa 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
Feliz
"This is my theme for the x-mas-month December, with the best wishes to everyone. Merry X-mas and a happy, busy and successful new year! " Designed by Steffen Schmitt 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
Peace
"I’m Canadian – hence the moose! And I thought the Santa hat was a playful touch. Most importantly, no matter what or how we celebrate in December, I think we can all agree that peace on earth is a worthy goal, and that, in fact, it does begin with us." Designed by Michelle Cormack from Vancouver, Canada.
- preview
- with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Coke Lasts in December
"This wallpaper symbolizes that Coke doesn’t die in December, and that you should drink it. I made it because I really liked the design on coke cans, so I decided to emulate it." Designed by Hayes Potter from Raleigh, USA.
- preview
- with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Freak
Designed by Michal Trzebuchowski from Poland.
Yellow Heart
"I am dedicating my December wallpaper to my favorite Japanese Rock star, Matsumoto Hideto, who was born in December 1964. My inspiration was mainly from the style of his signature guitar model, which is also called “Yellow Heart”." 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
Illustration Wintershades
"I wanted to create a feeling of winter, cold, icy, but warm and peacefull. The idea for this design came through my mind when watching the lates video of Kylie Minogue (The One), the shapes repeating themselves. I only wanted to work with white and shadows, and for the background a bit of a winterfeeling. That ’s why I called it Wintershades." Designed by Nadine Perreman 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
Stop Terrorism
"The design is a blend of good typography and two-tone contrast that communicates a strong message ‘Stop Terrorism’ after the recent ‘Mumbai Terrorist Attacks’. The line ‘Live & Let live’ is a very famous quote by Swami Vivekanada. The wallpaper aims to re-ignite the humanness and passion lost in us today. The design also tends to awaken the each indiviual of the nation" Designed by Aashish Solanki from India.
- 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 December we’ll receive as many entries as in November. Join in next month and smashing December, folks!