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Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: May 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 60 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 May 2009?

Hot Dog

"Hot dog! It’s Spring already?! Time to break out the barbeque." Designed by Mediumjones from USA / Canada.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Dreams & Aspirations

"Colorful and vivid wallpaper that fits your screen perfectly in the month May." Designed by Vincent Vander Cruyssen (ViniMan) from Belgium.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Astronaut

Designed by Vlad Gerasimov from Russia.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Lifegrid

"A lifegrid for may: births, birds, flowers, blossoms, last month of Spring." Designed by Benedikte Vanderweeën (Bene) from Belgium.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Mother’s Day

"I designed this wallpaper to celebrate Mother’s Day. This is a picture of day lilies in our front yard. They remind me of fallopian tubes – the beginning of life. With issues of women’s rights to choose, it is refreshing to watch my children live and grow." Designed by Millicent Bowman from United States.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Today isn’t just another yesterday

"I wanted to explore the idea that each day is unique and filled with new possibilities. That there are little opportunities in each day to break out of the routine, if we look for them!" Designed by Ben White from UK.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Spring

Designed by Tatiana Valkovskaya from Ukraine.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

No Limits

"In this design I mainly focus, there are no limitation for imagination and for ideas. And I used Jamie Paolinetti’s quote “Limitation live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations our possibilities become limitless”" Designed by Maya Sivalingam from Sri Lanka.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Pink Flower

"Well, here in Chile it’s Autumn, but this is a gift to my friends on the northern hemisphere, enjoy the Spring!" Designed by Dusan Vlahovic from Chile.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Monster at the Park

"Stranged Monster got scared on a cute purple little bird. Made from stock vector and photo. Created using both raster and vector application to make the scene realistic and fun in a way." Designed by Edward Calugtong from Philippines.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Melancholy

"Just remembering my time spent two years ago in Sibiu, when it was our European Capital of Culture." Designed by Anca Varsandan from Romania.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Orchids

"In life everything must have an aim, except orchids. Nero Wolfe" Designed by Valentina Rachiele from Italy.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

May I kiss you?

Designed by Alexandru Precup from Romania.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Creative Spark

"The entire concept of this art came out when i was playing around with various photoshop brushes. The effect came in so beautifully that i instantly named it Creative Spark." Designed by Vinod Batus from India.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Bob Dylan: “You’re a Liar”

"From Wikipedia: Dylan undertook a world tour of Australia and Europe in the spring of 1966. Each show was split into two parts. Dylan performed solo during the first half, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica. In the second half, backed by the Hawks, he played high voltage electric music. This contrast provoked many fans, who jeered and slow handclapped. The tour culminated in a famously raucous confrontation between Dylan and his audience in England. At the climax of the concert, one fan, angry with Dylan’s electric sound, shouted: “Judas!” to which Dylan responded, “I don’t believe you … You’re a liar!” He then turned to the band and, just within earshot of the microphone, said “Play it f****** loud.” They then launched into the last song of the night: “Like a Rolling Stone”.

On May 24 the world celebrates the birthday of Rock’s greatest poet. Also in this month, Bob Dylan is releasing his 33rd studio album. This wallpaper is a tribute to him. " Designed by Rodrigo Esch from Brazil.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Armchair

"It’s time to relax!" Designed by Christian Pucci (miniMAC) from Italy.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Don’t forget May 12th 2008

"Don’t fotget 12 May 2008. This is designed to commemorate Sichuan earthquake, which happened one year before.
The 2008 Sichuan earthquake or Great Sichuan Earthquake. Official figures state that 69,227 are confirmed dead, including 68,636 in Sichuan province, and 374,176 injured, with 18,222 listed as missing." Designed by Evan from China.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Hmmmm… May

"Cartoon green worm poking out of the ground wearing a bib." Designed by Josh Cleland from United States.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

San Fran

"San Francisco is shaping up to be one of my favorite travel destinations so this is for you San Fran!" Designed by Ole Martin Buene from Norway.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Moonaway

Designed by Raffaele Tannoia from Sweden.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

The Workday

"The work day, when we tack a breack and go to a quiet place…" Designed by Ana Fernandes from Castelo Branco, Portugal.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

May Dreams

"Pursue your dreams…They’ll take you places! My brother took this picture just before sunrise.The place is 20 miles from our home. We often go there on weekends to get away from the noise and commotion of the city… standing on top of that cliff somehow makes you feel special, yet in a simple way. I hope you’ll like it." Designed by Ayhan Kamil from Sheffield, United Kingdom.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Budding

"The trees outside were budding beautiful purple flowers. Everything is blooming and turning into a beautiful spring." Designed by Kevin Shorter from Winston Salem, NC USA.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Cherry Blossoms

"A couple of weeks ago I was walking in our garden and saw this bee on our cherry tree. It felt like spring is here and I was inspired to design this wallpaper." Designed by Rawan Soudah from Jordan.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Mystic Spell

"I have myself designed this picture right from the portrait of this lady to the main background effect by using the brushes in photoshop. The inspiration behind this is nothing but Smashing magazine itself and with so many creative graphics & articles that are every now and then displayed in your magazine i think we designers can never fall short of any inspiration. This is my first wallpaper with SM & i just pray that there will be many more to come." Designed by Milind Bhosale from India.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Flower Emergence

"Summer is approaching, the flowers are emerging, each of my senses awaken." Designed by Sonia Gagnon from Canada.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Cute Evilness

Designed by Martha Garzon from Colombia / USA.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Stamp Collection

"I have been recently looking at some interesting russian stamps and thought it would be a great desktop calendar idea." Designed by Chris Wylie from Canada.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

London Underground

"We designed this wallpaper to remember our May 2008 trip to London. The photo was taken with a simple digital camera and then elaborated to exalt the color of the typical london underground entrace." Designed by Alt Design Web Agency from Venice, Italy.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Zen of Golf

Designed by John Morris from USA.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Showers Bring Flowers

"A colorful depiction of “April Showers, bring May flowers”. A sprinkler is watering the lush green grass that the word May is sitting in." Designed by Adrienne Levin - Moonshine Design.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Polzeath Beach

"Crowds swarm into toe water as summertime hits Polzeath Beach, Cornwall, United Kingdom." Designed by Irving Bartlett from United Kingdom.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Cast a Clout

"My design is based on the old saying ‘Ne’er cast a clout till May be out’ meaning ‘Don’t take off you Winter coat/or clothes until the end of May’. This old lady has taken this advice to the extreme. She refuses to let her Grandson remove his winter vest. Instead she washes the vest and hangs it out to dry with the boy still inside it." Designed by Nicki Algar from UK.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Cinco de Mayo Wrestler

"Wanted to celebrate the best party day of the month and what better image than a mexican wrestler." Designed by Joven Orozco from USA.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Partey

"The wallpaper pack is something between photography and abstract. Basically it is a photomanipulated photography from my last party.
There is no real idea behind this wall, it just looked awesome as this Vodka/Energy drink stood there under this blue LED lamp. So I took a photo of it and manipulated it for wallpaper purposes." Designed by Michal Slupczynski from Poland.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Illustration Woody

"“Woody:” One of a series of cinema-inspired portraits by Jordan Kerfeld, a Kansas City filmmaker and illustrator." Designed by Jordan Kerfeld from Kansas City, MO USA.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Create your own God

"Create your own God, be your own sunshine!" Designed by Charvi Sarfare from India.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Petals

Designed by Nenad Remenar from Croatia.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Fresh Cloud

"These days, we’re seeing a lot of tags clouds on the web. I illustrated that for the month of May, with a choice of 2 smashing color backgrounds: refreshing green for the freshness of the nature waking up or vivid orange for the warmth of the sun coming back…" Designed by Julie Lê from Quebec, Canada.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Listen to Groovy May

"What are you listening on this Groovy May?" Designed by JP Fuam from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

A Precious Notion

"Focusing on typography, I’ve tried to bring this concept to life in which a message is brought forth dealing with the sacrifice of life." Designed by Umer Tahir from Canada.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Spring

"This wallpaper was made just for fun and to share it with other people :)" Designed by Alexandra Schinck (Yvaine2010) from Germany.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Fete Muguet

"Every 1st May is celebrated in France with bouquets of delicate Lilies of the Valley (muguet). I wanted to join this tradition and wish you all happiness!" Designed by PeHaa from Poland.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Smashing Disguise

"Little strange and funny like May - some funny people or “things” Smashingly disguiseing like each other :) … Fashion in the funny way at a bus stop somewhere … Or maybe these are some alients going somewhere and just witing for the bus like everibody else (and not with alientcrafts like we all think ) :) - it’s just a nice and misterionus picture to thing about while looking at your destop ." Designed by Nevena Nikolcheva (NEN) from Bulgaria.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Red Pencil

"Inspired by the mess on my table." Designed by Petr Vaclavek from Czech Republic.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Fishy

"A little fish character I came up with while trying out typographic plays on the letter ‘a’. I tried to keep it simple and uncluttered, just the way I like my desktop." Designed by Vlad Tamas from Romania.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Cityimage

"Outline of a city and its shadow in a moon. Story between trees and city buildings." Designed by Ana F. from Slovenia.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

iPod-Capsule

"May is the start of summer season. we feel sick to see burning hot sun and our eyes wish to see something cool and light. So I avoid the dark color and heavy design. “Here’s a nice and minimalistic wallpaper to decorate your desktop.Enjoy it with iPod goodness!”" Designed by NarjisNaqvi from Pakistan.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Motherly Love

"The inspiration behind this piece came from the photo I took of my son and I. It showed me how much I meant to him just the way he leaned on to me and looked so peaceful I’ve decided to play a mother’s team of course because of the mother’s day and because this is the first year that I am going to celebrate mother’s day as a mother and I wanted to dedicate this wall paper to all the mothers out there." Designed by Emina D Sehovic from Albany, NY, USA.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Mothers Day

"Second sunday of May is celebrated as Mother’s Day. This year the day comes on May 10. For this theme, i have made a pencil sketch and made some alterations on the scanned image." Designed by Abhishek Ravindran from India.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

MetLife

"I enjoy playing around with my photographys, making my own wallpapers, and thought that this one would fit the month that my birthday is in :)" Designed by Gisli Már Viglundsson.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

May Yay

"I looked at the word May and thought I could mirror it nicely to form the word Yay, so May Yay!" Designed by Loann West from Boston, MA, USA.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

M

"The wallpaper is inspired from the floor patterns observed in Sikh Gurudwaras. Coupled with the Hindi rendition of ‘May 2009’, the wallpaper has been lent an modern-exotic feel." Designed by Aditya Bhandari from India.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Mayday

"A typography design. May as 5th month. 5 link together can be sEEN like a link of people (victim). Calling for mayday." Designed by Vina from Indonesia.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Design & Technology

"Design & Technology is a wallpaper created to enjoy colours, lines, forms, words and ideas. It’s a composition made out by a memeber of gelattina, where our main porpouse is to combine design with technology for the web." Designed by Débora Márquez from México.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

We fight our skate spots!

"A skate spot inspired May Wallpaper. Assembled with freebie textures and brushes and multiple overlay, desaturation and motion blur filters in CS4." Designed by Antonio Hadrovic from Croatia.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Spring

"May is the last chance to enjoy Spring. The flowers, the green grass, and the beautiful weather. It’s also the month of my birthday :)" Designed by Mona Parvin from USA.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Bounce

"Here are some cute, bright and happy creatures, bouncing around ready for the summer!" Designed by Chris Alexander (Yipori) from England.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

May Footprint

"Just a cute design made by me. Hope you like it…" Designed by Jonah Enrile from Philippines.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Let’s go have a camp fire!

Designed by Tahir from USA.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Mailbox

"And old mailbox from Cafund?…

(Cafundo is an portuguese word/expression for somewhere that is far away from everything and everyone…)" Designed by Cafundó Estúdio from Brazil.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 09

Dandelion

Designed by David Beljan from Slovenia.

Smashing Wallpaper - may 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!

What’s your favorite?

What’s your favourite theme or wallpaper for May? Please let us know in the comments! And smashing May, folks!


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