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 15 free desktop wallpapers, designed by 15 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?

Whale

Available in 12 desktop resolutions — both widescreen and fullscreen. Designed by Vlad Gerasimov from Irkutsk, Russia.

• preview (0.1 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
• without 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

Stay Creative

“The wallpaper is an illustration based on this Picasso quote: “All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up”. In the illustration, the adult is looking through the wall at his creativity from childhood trying to get it back.” Designed by Tim Newton from USA.

• preview (0.1 Mb, jpg)
• with calendar: 1280×960, 1680×1050, 1600×1200, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×960, 1680×1050, 1600×1200, 1920×1200

Tribute

“This design is a personal interpretation of June in Macedonia: beautiful sunny days, red poppy fields and Nikola Madzirov’s poetry. A personal tribute to all the beauty in this world. Girl image inspired by Banksy.” Designed by Meri Donevska-Kosturanova from Macedonia.

• preview (0.5 Mb, jpg)
• with calendar: 1280×960, 1680×1050, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Beginning of madness

“When I thought what was inspiring me in May, the mind filled me with flowers, and when I wanted to do the calendar of June I saw it quite full of boil, quite green. Then I found a tutorial in “psd tuts” that helped me to fulfil the wallpaper. The motive of the phrase that it accompanies is the feeling euphoria that transmits me this month.” Designed by Alba Soler from Spain.

• preview (0.1 Mb, jpg)
• with calendar: 1680×1050, 1600×1200, 1920×1200

Eternal Sunshine

“Designed completely in Photoshop. My idea to this timetable was based on the prophecy and Maya, all that power and magic secret that there are only in the pyramids in Mexico.” Designed by Miguel Angel Lozada from Mexico.

• preview (0.2 Mb, jpg)
• with calendar: 1200×900, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

You Slag

“Looking forward to another hectic summer in Brighton…” Designed by Mark Hurrell.

• preview (0.1 Mb, jpg)
• with calendar: 1200×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Rhino

“I suppose that I got influenced by the works of Scott Hansen. I just love the retro feel in his designs. Furthermore I used brushes which were meant to emulate the effects of James White. I wanted to have these different sections which form an entity, sort of like when you look through a window and the frame is hiding parts of what is behind. The origami rhinoceros was the last element I inserted and finally gave rise to the title.

The final design is not what I had sketched out but it never is for me. I need a basic idea and then just play around until I’m happy with it.” Designed by Franz Jeitz from Luxembourg.

• preview (0.2 Mb, jpg)
• with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Nec scire fas est omnia

“It is impossible to know everything” horaz - well true, but not to worry as I learned in life and business, it is better to know a lot of educated people from different disciplines, then you’ll know a lot yourself. And in the end, there is always Google and Wikipedia.” Designed by Dirk Worring from Krefeld, Germany.

• preview (0.2 Mb, jpg)
• with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Daydream

“I love daydream, when I fall in the daydream,everything is strange, it’s a surrealistic world. Everything has their own soul and live in the unique way, no pain, no goal, just enjoy the imagination.” Designed by Dan Chetao.

• preview (0.1 Mb, jpg)
• with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Umbrella

“Umbrella, sky, lights…..and the girl is so pretty!” Designed by Cléo Morgause from Brazil.

• preview (0.15 Mb, jpg)
• with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Retro Summer

“Well, June it is the month where the summer starts, and when i think in Summer, i think about California and the Beach Boys, and when i think in that, i start to think about retro stuff, and then retro design!” Designed by Bleed from Mexico.

• preview (0.4 Mb, jpg)
• with calendar: 1280×960, 1680×1050, 1600×1200, 1920×1200

The DJ

“The wallpaper isn’t created only for DJ-fans or people who’ve seen DJ’s at work. The wallpaper can really give a warm feeling to everyones desktop. And after all, aren’t we all DJ’s of our lives?” Designed by Vincent Vander Cruyssen from Belgium.

• with calendar: 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

June Bug

“This inspiration came when we heard that the Cicadas are coming again this summer. And although not of the cicada family, Junebugs can be nearly as annoyingly creepy. The design incorporate a visual pun on the back of the ‘creature’, as well as a near subliminal ghoul face up above within the darkness.” Designed by Michael Langham.

• preview (0.26 Mb, jpg)
• with calendar: 1200×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1900×1200
• without calendar: 1200×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1900×1200

Date and Time

Designed by Grikshmi Manandhar from Nepal.

• preview (0.1 Mb, jpg)
• with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

TAKEN FROM www.smashingmagazine.com

When you mention patterned/tiled backgrounds, people immediately think of horrid MySpace pages and web designs circa-1990’s. It is therefore a worthy achievement when an artist is able to use this technique to make a website look stunning and attractive. An effective background design pattern can leave a memorable and positive feeling on the people who view these works of art.

by Ben Ostrowsky

Here I’ve compiled 20 beautiful and artistic websites that use tiled patterns to set their webpage apart from the ordinary.

1) Enlighten Designs

2) DNA

3) Sideshow

4) We Do The Web

5) Impressive Work

6) Hotel Belwether

7) David Loop

Olly Hite

9) OnTrack

10) Elitist Snob

11) Imagined Creative

12) THE SIDES

13) Tanya Merone

14) kesone.de

15) Jen Gordon

16) Viget Labs

17) variable.nz

18) Robert Beerworth Blog Australia

19) MAKAO

20) Saint Augustine Bed and Breakfast

These are all designs I feel have truly achieved a unique look by using a background pattern instead of going the safe route with a solid color.

Do you have any other websites to add to the list? Did I miss a website that belongs here? Be sure to leave the links on your comments.

Special Thanks & taken from sixrevisions.com

If you have to stare at something for 8 or more hours a day, why not make it something interesting? Sure there are tons of places to find wallpaper on the web … but a lot of them are hard to navigate and highly disorganized. Divided into five helpful categories, with introductory descriptions and sample screenshots, here are over twenty of the best collections, communities and other resources on the web for finding excellent desktop wallpaper.

User-Submitted Wallpaper Communities:

InterFaceLift has a really useful system for cross-tagging wallpapers by size, category and type. You can browse their selection by most viewed, highest rated, date posted as well as by monitor size and aspect ratio as well as double and even triple-monitor. All in all this is one of the best and most user-friendly wallpaper databases out there.

SocWall is another community dedicated specifically to “social wallpapering” - users sharing wallpaper by category and voting on one another’s submissions. Because it is a free-for-all submission-wise there is a wide (and somewhat weird) variety of content. However, it is highly searchable and organized relatively well by fairly detailed categories.

Flickr has almost 25,000 wallpaper uploads by Flickr users. Of course any collection like this is bound to be hard to sort through and filled with good and bad but it’s still worth bookmarking. You can also search Flick using this handy wallpaper search engine.

Wikipedia is a place we all know to look for various kinds of information … but wallpaper? Indeed, there is an ever-changing collection of featured desktop wallpapers contributed to the Wikipedia Commons.

DeviantArt isn’t dedicated to wallpaper per say but many of the works of art featured on the site would make (and have made) amazing wallpaper depending upon the restrictions set upon a particular piece within the community.

WebShots is yet another user-submitted image site stocked mainly with photographs but also the occasional Photoshopped or otherwise digitally created image.

Photographic and Conventionally Pleasing Wallpapers:

SocksOff’s collection of wallpapers is primarily photographic or at least pseudo-photorealistic, full of rich colors that are in many cases absolutely stunning. Looking at these one could imagine finding a wallpaper for virtually any kind or color of computer that would blend perfectly with other elements on your screen as well.

Mike Swanson has collected a lot of his close-up-photograph wallpapers into one convenient location on his blog. The typical subject matter is floral or otherwise natural with a smattering of found objects thrown into the mix, usual shot from a few feet away.

Gran-Angular has some nice but somewhat generic photographic wallpapers. These are certainly nicer than standard stock images and higher resolution though overall they aren’t too far off the beaten path. Worth taking a look at for less-adventurous wallpaper-seekers out for something simple and nice.

Wallpaper Stock has some fairly atypical categories including “sexy” and “Christian” though is overall fairly tame and largely limited to photographic wallpaper of a relatively normal variety. Still, it is an interestingly eclectic mix with unusual organization.

Fantastic and Creatively Abstract Wallpapers:

Fantasy Art Design has a collection of wallpaper that would make Salvador Dali proud. The subjects range considerably but are typically surrealistic landscapes that place with light, color and physics with crisp and compelling details all around.

Vlad Studios deals mainly in simple but abstract wallpapers with a clear and focused theme or set of cartoonish and playful elements. These range from hearts and rainbows to somewhat more serious subjects but are largely light-hearted in nature.

Veer puts a decidedly retro twist on the art of desktop wallpaper. A lot of them are abstract and/or text-based and more hip and crisp than other wallpapers. The designs are conveniently available in various sizes, including ones suitable to the iPhone.

Pixel Girl Presents has wallpaper of virtually all kinds, submitted by users then approved by administrators, but the overall tone of the content is whimsical, fantastic and alternative rather than photorealistic, hence its inclusion in this category.

Mixed Wallpaper Collections and Designs:

Riccardo Iaconelli’s blog features last year’s fifteen winners of the Oxygen wallpaper design contest. Because the designers are all different the results are, of course, quite varied. Some are abstract while others are nature-themed and all are quite nice.

E-Wallpapers hasn’t been updated for some time but was once an active blog dedicated to interesting wallpaper. Still, even their older archives contain some wallpapers you may discover is still a beautiful and artistic today as when they were created.

Crestock has not one but two collections of nifty wallpapers, the first with 13 and the second with 17. These are a mixed back of photography and abstractia.

Specialty and Specific Niche Wallpapers:

Dual Screen Wallpapers features, as the name suggests, wallpaper specifically designed to be suited to wider and split screens. In some cases this means there is a natural break in the pattern somewhere toward the middle. These wallpapers are divided up into various categories including space, vehicles and abstract - something for everyone.

Zuneo has a great series of FireFox wallpapers. The theme is pretty limiting but if you love FireFox they are well worth checking out and range from simple to quite elegant and intricate. Want even more? DesktopNexus has another set.

Other Awesome Wallpaper Collections:

Smashing Magazine also composed a collection of wallpaper resources a while back and divided into five categories: typography, art, technology, photography and abstract themes. “Among other things we review calendar wallpapers, minimalistic wallpapers, wallpapers-illustrations and themes for Apple, Microsoft, Twitter and Google-fans.” But wait there’s more: here is another list from SmashingMagazine. Also, here’s an alphabetized list from Wallpaper Review to even more sites and many other artists whose works, with permission, make great desktop wallpaper!