Matt Lyon
Hey-o, hope you’re having a nice morning so far. This week’s wallpaper comes from Uk illustrator and one of my favorites right now, Matt Lyon aka C86 aka Matt Lyon. Matt popped up on my radar a few months back and I’ve been digging his style since then. He does a lot of really random, abstract shapes and somehow molds them into these large, beautiful pieces filled with color and textures.
This week’s wallpaper is no different as you can see, filled with what look like (at least to me) little castles in the sky. I feel like the mixture of bright and dull colors really make these neat, and it’s fun to try and follow all the little paths going everywhere.
Chad Kouri
Good morning, I hope you’re having a nice Wednesday so far. This week’s wallpaper is pretty rad, we’re talking like cutting edge desktop wallpaper technology (insert bad 80′s theme song). This week’s wallpaper comes from the extremely talented Chad Kouri. Chad is a Chicago based artist who works with a lot of collage but also does a bunch of great hand-drawn fonts as well. He also has a solo exhibit opening up this Friday at the Rotofugi Gallery in Chicago from 7 to 10PM, so if you’re in the area be sure to stop by.
Now as I was saying, revolutionary desktop wallpaper technology. What Chad’s done is created sets of wallpapers that come in three colors. With these three colors you can have your computer change your wallpaper to a different color every minute or hour or so. So slowly throughout the day your wallpaper changes color, do you get it?
The links will have you download ZIP files instead of JPGs and I promise they’re virus free, I created them myself. I know you can do this if you’re on a Mac, simply go to System Preferences > Desktop and then choose the folder you downloaded. Below the images there’s a box that says “Change Picture.” Click that and then set the time to whatever you like best. I think you can do this on Windows 7 as well, but I can’t promise anything. If you’re totally lost feel free to leave a comment and I’ll try to help, but honestly this isn’t very hard.
I hope you enjoy the wallpaper and if you’re in Chicago stop by Chad’s show and say hi!
Humanhand
I decided to create a third place winner as well because I loved their wallpaper so much. It’s from a group of Hawaiin desginers who call themselves Humanhand. They created a very pretty wallpaper that sums up a Hawaiian holiday beautifully. In good conscience I couldn’t let this amazing wallpaper be wasted. You can download it by clicking here.
You can download the other Holiday Wallpaper Competition wallpapers by clicking here:
Hendra Permana
Coming in second place was Hendra Permana, an Indonesian designer/illustrator who came up with a clever way of detaching from your computer. I also love the little icon of the Santa riding the bike, which is the focus of the iPhone wallpaper as well. Good job Hendra, you totally nailed it.
You can download the other Holiday Wallpaper Competition wallpapers by clicking here:
Luke Pearson
Well it’s two days before Christmas which makes me realize that I should have had this contest a little sooner. Nonetheless I’ve got three amazing wallpapers for you by three very talented folks… well two of them are folks.
The winning wallpaper comes from a fellow named Luke Pearson who’s an illustrator currently studying at Loughborough University in the UK. I had never seen Luke’s work before but he tweeted something about entering the contest, so I checked out his work and I was really impressed. Thankfully he ended up participating and entered the amazing wallpaper you see at top.
I think this sums up the holidays extremely well. Everyone’s in a hurry, you’ve always got a million things in your suitcase and you try to jam everything into your already over-crowded schedule. Plus I feel like it’s a wallpaper that’s still appropriate even for the next few weeks. Congrats Luke!
You can download the other Holiday Wallpaper Competition wallpapers by clicking here:
I hope you enjoy these wallpapers, have a wonderful Holiday no matter what you do or don’t celebrate. I have a present waiting for you on Friday, a present that’s long overdue.
Always With Honor
Whenever I open up a new issue of Monocle, one of the first things that catches my eye are the illustrations. 95% of the time those illustrations are done by Always With Honor, or as some know them Tyler Lang and Elsa Chaves. They have this highly stylized, minimal colors and shapes kind of thing going that I absolutely love. The fact that they can tell such a rich story with so little always impresses me.
So when Tyler offered their services for the Desktop Wallpaper Project, how could I say no? When Tyler sent this to me it was just a random YouSendIt file with no name attached and I was freaking out trying to figure out who it was from. The wallpaper features two cute pups lounging on a rug in what seems to be some kind of study, surrounded by a skull and a globe. I love this wallpaper, it feels seasonal to me, and I hope you love it too.
Skinny Ships
I was really feeling the kind of psychedelic, hippy-ish vibe of the previous post so I thought this was a nice way to continue the feeling. This week’s DWP designer is San Francisco based designer Richard Perez whom you might also know as Skinny Ships. I’ve been a big fan of Richard’s work and one of my favorite things he ever did was this fake rebranding of Jell-o. I’ve never wanted to eat anthropomorphic fruit so hard in my life.
His desktop is titled High Eyes (which right now is reminding me of Oscar from Arrested Development) and features a bunch of bugged out looking eyeballs. Funn enough it also kind of looks like it could be a nice, X-Mas inspired background. If your grandma asks I would go with that story. Enjoy the wallpaper and check back next week for another great one!
John Fan
This week’s Desktop Wallpaper Project comes from John Fan, a man who’s been a part of some fancy groups over the last few years. He’s worked with folks like Logan, Motion Theory and Eyeballnyc just to name a few and his an absolutely awesome body of work.
For his wallpaper he’s given us a collection of wallpapers from a series he created called Best of Me, which is “about hearing your own voice from within.” You could probably call these motivational posters but that sounds kind of mean. John puts it best when he says:
In a way I’m really trying to ask myself the question, what do you have to say? Listening to your own voice. Reach, don’t settle. Build your dreams with your own two hands. These are all concepts in this illustration series I’m working on and in turn I hope to ask and engage whoever sees these the same questions I had in my own head when I created them.
It’s how I live my life and what I believe in, hopefully you feel the same.
Click below to download his other wallpapers.
Jez Burrows
Manischewitz, it’s already Wednesday. This week is flying by and it’s only going to get better with the addition of this new desktop wallpaper. This week’s Desktop Wallpaper Project contributor is a guy named Jez Burrows. You might remember Jez as one of the co-creators of the book We Are The Friction that I posted about a couple months back. He’s also a fantastic designer and just recently updated his online portfolio, so be sure to check it out.
For this week’s wallpaper he’s put together a simple and beautiful piece consisting of a small town with a red string making it’s way all around it. It’s a really elegant design that should only boost your creativity throughout the day. Also, If you’re an iPhone owner I’d suggest downloading the corresponding version, it’s pretty rad.
Mel Kadel
This week features one of my favorite lady artists out there, who goes by the name of Mel Kadel (or as some know her as Travis Millard’s better half.) I met Mel at a Poketo party a while back and since then had been meaning to ask her to contribute to the DWP, which she kindly did, as you can see above.
When she first sent me this image, I stared and stared at it. Slowly I started to realize that the image isn’t mechanically flipped, that she actually drew both sides. That’s friggin’ dedication. The image comes from a little zine she produced called Spacing Awake. It’s a full-color, 40 page zine and it looks amazing, she was rad enough to send me one so I could check it out.
If you want to pick one up for yourself or a friend head over to Fudge Factory and click under the BUY section.
Frank Chimero
When I say that the next couple months of wallpaper are amazing I promise I’m not being a horse’s ass, I really, truly mean it. Last week we had the wonderful Alex Cornell and this week we have the amazing Frank Chimero. Frank is one of those artists that dabbles in beautiful simplicity. He makes amazing art with only the necessary pieces. You’ve probably seen Frank’s work like his incredible project The States in which he created the outlines of states out of other objects like birds and cigarettes. Sadly, he’s pulled a Sufjan so far and hasn’t finished…
For his wallpaper Frank wrote me, “I bought a six pack last night and this came out. I’ve had bits and pieces of it spinning around in my head the past few weeks, so it was nice to get it out onto something.” So clearly, even when inebriated Frank Chimero can create amazing pieces that make you happy you own a computer with a big monitor.
Be sure to check back next week for another rad wallpaper!
Alex Cornell
I’m so excited for this week’s Desktop Wallpaper Project artist that I’m currently writing this at 4:15 AM my time, that says something, right? The man’s name is Alex Cornell. He’s a design student living in San Francisco and he’s also a blogger over on ISO50 as well. Alex is such a talented guy that it’s kind of gross. You may have seen his work before, he did that awesome Wes Andersen Film Festival project a little while ago… oh yeah, and he’s a singer/songwriter. Like I said, annoying.
For his wallpaper he’s created this really simple and beautiful design with a simple message. I’ve had this as my wallpaper for a while now, it’s really easy to work with, especially if you handle graphics all day long. Simple, elegant, beautiful.
Joe Van Wetering
This week’s Desktop Wallpaper Project is a rather famous guy.You might not know his name, but I guarantee that most of you have seen his face before. His name is Joe Van Wetering, an illustrator and designer who lives in Chicago who also happens to work at Threadless. He’s this handsome gent who you’ve probably seen modeling one of your favorite t-shirts. He also happens to be one heck of an artist, creating all sorts of surreal creations filled with bright colors and random shapes.
His wallpaper is that of a spooky looking forest which I thought would be perfect for the lead up to Halloween. It’s got some creepiness to it but it’s still filled with bright colors and awesome textures so you don’t feel like you’re looking at a graveyard or something really creepy all day long.
Geoff McFetridge
You can download Geoff McFetridge’s other wallpaper by clicking here.
Days like today are the reason I love my job. Ever since the start of The Desktop Wallpaper Project, I’ve been trying to get Geoff McFetridge to make a wallpaper. Geoff has always been more then gracious about it, but you know, he’s a very busy man. Then I saw that he did all of the lettering for Where The Wild Things Are and thought, “I REALLY need to email him.”
What we have here is original Where The Wild Things Are drawings straight from Geoff himself. If you’ve seen the film you should know that the monsters in the top wallpapers are the ones you see in the credits of the movie, sans the names. The second wallpaper is a collection of tiny sketches all thrown together into one. I suggest you check out the iPhone version of this one, I put together a Wild Things version that’s pretty fun.
I hope you enjoy the wallpapers and I want to give a big thanks to Geoff for hooking me up. Keep checking back for the next couple months, I have so much more to give you!
Steven Harrington
You can download Steven Harrington’s other wallpaper by clicking here.
It’s pretty late in the day, but it’s still Wednesday here on the west coast, and this week’s wallpaper is a good one. He’s one of my favorite artists out there, and he’s also one of the nicest guys I know… Mr. Steven Harrington. For those who don’t know, Steven Harrington is a Los Angeles based illustrator and designer, he’s half of the design duo National Forest and has an intense love for reggae.
Most recently he was featured an issue of Arkitip magazine, creating a body of work that was inspired by Time Life Encyclopedias, thrift stores and Bill Withers. I talked to Steven and the folks at Arkitip and was able to snag a couple of images from the issue as wallpapers, and they look pretty amazing. The first is a sketch that I loved for it’s simplicity, and the second is a photo by Brigitte Sire taken in the middle of the desert, which should provide your desktop some chill’ing out.
Big thanks to Steven and the folks over at Arkitip.