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Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: April 2009

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...

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 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 April 2009?

Cafundo

Designed by Cafundó Estúdio Criativo from Brazil.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Unconditional

"Made this wallpaper to promote humanity, “Let us be a butterfly to everyone..”" Designed by Roy Galve from Philippines.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Smashing Jeans

"I got inspired by my colleague’s jeans :)" Designed by Alexander Kaiser from Germany.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Eggstragalactic

"The egg is a symbol of spring as well as Easter…so that’s my coloured one, directly from space! :) " Designed by Giada Degli Agostini from Italy.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Flower Bird

"This wallpaper has a layered Spring time look. I’ve used several paper and cardboard textures to create a rugged and raw texture. The photos of the flowers and bird that blend in to the texture, soften the ruggedness of the texture. I chose the month of April because my birthday is in that month. I love to watch the flowers bloom and hear the birds chirp. The photos of the flowers were taken in Amsterdam in April 2005, so they are genuine April flowers." Designed by Sarah Pead from USA.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Alectryon

"Alectryon is the Ancient Greek word for “rooster”. In Greek mythology, Alectryon was a boy, charged by Ares to stand guard outside his door while the god indulged in illicit love with Aphrodite. He fell asleep, and Helios, the sun, walked in on the couple. Ares turned Alectryon into a rooster, which never forgets to announce the arrival of the sun in the morning.
This design is my modern day interpretation of Alectryon, a conventional man who, with the rising of the sun each day, transforms into a half rooster mongrel and runs through the suburbs screaming, “The sky is falling!”" Designed by Michelle Milla from St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Revolutionary

"In Portugal we celebrate the 25 of April, because it was a revolution, and zeca afonso is the one who right a song for this revolution. Thist revolutions was nominated : the revolution of the “Cravos”." Designed by Ana Fernandes from Castelo Branco, Portugal.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Shifting Seasons

"I live in a small town near the Alps, so that’s why i designed a wallpaper for April that represent the end of winter and the coming of spingtime, cause, just now, snow begin to melt and plants begins to blossom." Designed by Andrea Motta from Italy.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Pink on Head

"The winter’s over now, I give my muffs back to the mannequin." Designed by Eva Sajdak.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Gears Design

"Working for an architectural facade I had to model the open mechanism for a metal panel in 3D this is what can happen in a boring moment." Designed by Davide Tosi from Italy.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Cultural Growth of Computers

"The project was produced by Rufus (Creative Design company based in Sunderland) and its Creative Manager Gareth Davies. In partnership with Stuart Smith’s Woodholmes (A strategy, research, and futures company based in Newcastle with offices also in London and Manchester.) The concept was to produce to show the growth of computers, to present to school children across the region. Portraying how fast the technology has developed and discuss future directions which will undoubtedly effect both their lives and careers. This has been done using Adobe Illustrator in a exciting visual style. With VAG Rounded to communicate in a modern, youthful and dynamic way. The project has been a huge success (using various other graphics) and has already been shipped out to over 500 pupils each receiving their own A1 poster." Designed by RUFUS from UK.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Swans

"This collection of calendars was inspired in some graffiti’s projects made by my husband on streets of Sao Paulo. The swans are originally pictures of Brazilian walls." Designed by Thays Leonel from Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Waiting for Spring

"This is my latest piece i did to reflect my spring mood.
To me spring is the time when i just can’t wait for summer to come, it’s like when nature is teasing you with warm weather, but it’s not quite warm enough yet. So you end up waiting impatiently for the summer to come." Designed by Elena Savitskaya from London, UK.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Underwater Beauty

"I LOVE underwater photography. It’s the only tipe of photography that gives me a feeling of surreal and fantasy. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the name of the artist that took this photo. Just beautiful! " Photo by Alix Malka, designed by Anca Varsandan from Timisoara, Romania.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Easter Bunny Strikes Again

"We all have heard of the furry and adorable Easter Bunny. But few people know the horrible truth about the creature and the sufferings he imposes on a certain hen." Designed by Xenia Latii from Boston, USA.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Pink Lips

"Is in fact a Photographic design based on a great shot of my friend Gumo, editted in Lighroom, this picture looks like a porcelain doll, the photographer name it “Pink Lips” and I’ll respect that title for the calendar.
I wanted to design an unique calendar, wich inspires each designer, photographer or digital artist to achieve the beautifulness of simple things, like a subtle pink coloured lipstick. I added a surreal pastel pink, skyblue and gray background for the wallpaper to provide a peaceful work enviroment. Plus the image aligned left, gives the user a huge field to put desktop shortcuts without hide the main image.
I have written permisions from both photographer and model to publish the picture anywhere." Designed by Alvaro Guzman from Bolivia.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Random

"This wallpaper is a thankyou for all the tutorials and articles on smashingmagazine." Designed by Ayhan Kamil from Kashmir,India.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Where Are The Babies?!?

"This is the 5th wallpaper of my birds series. The stories of the two birds represent everyday arguments and misunderstandings between men and women. “Where are the babies?!?” is just a little Easter edition, I’ll let the interpretation up to your fantasy. :)" Designed by Nicole Bauer from Germany.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

The Recession is Over

"Well the recession is over. Around the office I over heard some colleagues talking about instilling confidence in other people by offering re-assurance. Positive vibes are all we need in getting people to spend more, be confident, and turn the tide on this global recession. It seems that we just can’t escape the bleak reality however." Designed by Umer Tahir from Calgary, Canada.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Lettering

"Being a huge fan of Marian Bantjes, I’m constantly drawing swirly things all the time — I know, not very masculine. Seeing how April is the month where Spring really kicks into action, I figured some vine- like lettering was quite suitable. Unfortunately this wallpaper doesn’t work year-round, unless your name is April." Designed by Colin Parks from Canada.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Time

"Time is free, but it’s priceless. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back, but so many people in the world never bother about this and wasting their time. Mainly that’s I use the concept time and Samuel Smile’s Quote in this design …
Lost wealth may be replaced by industry,
Lost knowledge by study,
Lost health by temperance or medicine,
But lost time is gone forever.
by Samuel Smiles"
Designed by Maya Sivalingam from Sri Lanka.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Save an Egg

"Inspiration for this work came from an old tradition in Croatia. On Easter people decorate their eggs and then hammer their eggs (egg to egg pounding :) ) to determine who has “the toughest egg”." Designed by Vladimir Remenar from Zagreb, Croatia.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

April is Here

"April is here! Don’t be a fool, or you might find yourself behind bars. :)" Designed by Ilan Bresler from Israel.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Bearwish

"This wallpaper was inspired by my boyfriend (aka Aaron McBearcakes). Panda loves Bear, and Bear loves ice cream. Pure science. I designed these characters as a creative escape from my office job in southern California. I think they’re pretty cute." Designed by Maritess Santiago from USA.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Read More Books

"The idea behind my creation is to list authors and writers born in the month of April. I therefore first took the more known authors to get a “grid” and then filled it up with not so well known ones, which I took mainly from Wikipedia. I tried to get a general idea of each of the writers works if they were not known to me (I love books, did I mention that before? :-) and so it comes there are some of which were inspirations e. g. to the great Charles Bukowski (John Fante) or the most important writer from Ecuador (Juan Montalvo).
I also wanted to include a demand to read more books, so I decided to recolor some letters in the calend which add up to the statement “read more books” (which is also the name of my theme)." Designed by Philipp Kowalski from Bavaria, Germany.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Easter

"I love these thick wooden doors at my church. I thought they would make a beautiful wallpaper." Designed by Kevin Shorter from Winston Salem, NC USA.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Shake up April

"The wallpaper was once straight, but got shaken up. The wallpaper got tilted and everything fell to the corner. That’s why it is called Shake Up April. I wanted to do something with typography and this design just came to me." Designed by Paul van den Dool from The Netherlands.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Our Lady of Lourdes

"Our Lady of Lourdes, although her feast is celebrated in February, brings to my mind life and healing power that can be associated with the feelings of spring. Her image is graceful and delicate like that of a child and I adore her message of healing and a magnificent life to come. I pray that she be an inspiration to someone else as she has inspired me." Designed by Rachel Cobb from USA.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Bring to Life

"I love this time of year where you look out and see nature bursting into new life. Here I have created an illustrative design to portray this theme highlighting the lovely wonders that April brings." Designed by Hannah Kunar from Leeds, UK.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Shoes

"It is the abstract and simbolic explantion of spring in the citi . These are a pair of womens hiheels and the simbolic axplosion of events that are happening around them. This is a sing not only of the nature wimen (with it’s constatly changing emotions and thoughts) but the life “path” of a person. I did this wallpaper the way it is because thats the way I’m feeling myself." Designed by Nevena Nikolcheva from Bulgaria.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Always Marry an April Girl

"This wallpaper is inspired by Ogden Nash’s poem, “Always Marry an April Girl” and is dedicated to my little sister, whose birthday is on the 5th." Designed by Amanda Moore from Toledo, OH, USA.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Creativity

"This wallpaper can be classified as typographical, because it involves text as the main element. The colors used in the design are blues, reds, yellows, oranges and white, in order to make a colorful piece, being able to catch the attention and decorate nicely our computer’s desktops. In this design, I looked for one element that may be determinant at design industry, and after some thinking, I decide to use the creativity concept. I tried to associate it to technology and web design with the cursor arrow used at every computer, because I am working for a web design agency named Gelattina (logo appears above the SEa of creativity) and my intention is that the user associate the wallpaper with creativity at design. The calendar is only complementary, so if it’s omitted from design it doesn’t affect the composition." Designed by Alejandro Rodríguez Elizondo, Gelattina from Monterrey, Mexico.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Simplicity

"I just want to create some simple calendar, which will fit on standard windows desktop." Designed by Petr Vaclavek from Czech Republic.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

New Beginnings

"I created this calendar thinking of the spring time and the transition of the season. I love the single tree i made giving the whole image a dramatic look paired with modern style with the execution of the words april." Designed by Yoyo Sese from Philippines.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

April Showers

"My inspiration is the great weather we have here in the UK during April." Designed by James Atkinson from United Kingdom.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

The Death of Bling

"At the start of what looks to be a fairly dismal new financial year, I wanted to produce something positive that illustrated the effect recessions have in pulling our focus away from material wealth… onto more fulfilling things." Designed by Duncan Abbott from UK.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Easter: Happy Rabbit

"The easter is known by the rabbits that brings the chocolate eggs to the kids… But this one eat the chocolate himself, and is very happy with this!" Designed by Roberta Mellone from São Paulo, Brazil.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

April in Transylvania

"I took this photo in my hometown, Cluj-Napoca and i thought i could use it for a wallpaper and share with you a small piece of Transylvania." Designed by David Gheorghita from Romania.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Breathe Deeply

"Never forget to take a short break to be able to breathe freely for a second." Designed by Romy Borsch from Germany.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Spring Time

Designed by Jana Jelovac from Belgrade, Serbia.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Fullmoon

" April’s Full Moon - The Seed Moon." Designed by Alexandru Jurubita from Bucharest, Romania.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Night Sight

"I always feel a little bit like L. B. Jefferies when I stand on my flat roof and look at all those lives flowing in front of me." Designed by Felowsisters from Spain.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Butterfly Haza

"Creation for “the Birth of Spring”" Designed by Nadège Herigny (Haza).

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Grunge BoneZ Design

"I tried to work with typo, grunge, texture, to bring something really cool. I also think that the blue and yellow colors, are good for the month of April. " Designed by Patrice Poliquin from Canada.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

April Flower

"I bought this flower last week to celebrate the beginning of spring. When I came home and dropped it on the mail on my desk I saw that it could be a nice picture." Designed by Edwin Duinkerken from The Netherlands.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Imagination

"Desktop wallpaper featuring a quote from Albert Einstein - “Imagination is more important than knowledge.
I really like Albert Einstein and I was reading about him one day I thought, “hey, I should make a wallpaper for this. " Designed by Joseph Longstreet from Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Happy Flowers

"This is a floral composition in a warm spring colours." Designed by Valeria Kuzminskaya from Ukraine.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Green Showers

"I love April Showers, no matter where I have lived they were always beautiful." Designed by Amardeep Vedi from USA / UK / India.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

To Do

"I wanted to create something like the bulletin boards in elementary schools, with big reminders for holidays and events and bright colored cut-outs that taught about the month—“April showers bring May flowers”—and I thought about the way “To Do” calendars have the pockets for receipts and notes." Designed by Loann West from USA.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Pin-up Art

"Comic book art meets pin-up art during April and the Easter Holiday.
Last month’s feature for calendars created for March caught my eye and the offer to submit one for April was too enticing to pass up. I’ve always loved illustrations of models as well as the techniques used to draw/ink/illustrate females in comic books. I decided combine them and incorporate them into April, including its holiday. This was my first attempt at such an illustration, so it took longer than normal, but I learned a lot. Many Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop tutorials found within Smashing Magazine helped make it possible. I learned a ton them and from taking on this challenge." Designed by Tony Virili from USA.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Butterfly

"The title of the wallpaper is Butterfly. I’ve always been a fan of grunge, textures and vectors. One day,I was playing with vector shapes randomly until I accidentally came up with the butterfly. Legend says that if you want your wish to come true, whisper it to a butterfly." Designed by Dino Latoga from Philippines.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Spring is in the Air!

"My motivation for this wallpaper is that I’m nuts about tulips, so I like springtime for more than just the warmer weather…
ps. I used the Aldo typefont" Designed by Marjolein van den Bos from Holland.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

FunnyApril

"Basically it is an April Fools theme. Funny side of April 1st with the combination of colors. Playful and Colorful. BEWARE - Don’t let anyone fool you." Designed by Shashank Goswami from India.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Over the Trees

"Bright and full of optimism, spring is in the air for good now." Designed by PeHaa from Poland.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Lovebirds

"In one of our photo sessions at home, these lovebirds we announced that spring had arrived. We want to share with you these pictures to you that spring is here." Designed by Eva Casado from Spain.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Cats

Designed by Banu from Ankara, Turkey.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Norwegian Easter

"To me, and I guess many others, the Easter holiday is about skiing. This beatiful Beetle broke down outside my dad’s house while I was visiting last week, and of course I had to take a picture. The rose pattern is from a traditional Norwegian knitting pattern, from the 1800s." Designed by Linda Sandvik.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

Blossom

"These design was basically inspired by the first blossom of peach around my house. I simply just took a photo and just gave a look of calender. I live in Katmandu and spring have started." Designed by Dinesh Thapa magar from Nepal.

Smashing Wallpaper - april 09

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 April, folks!


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