We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one—desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd.

This creativity mission has been going on for over five years now, and we are very thankful to all the designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month. This post features free desktop wallpapers created by artists across the globe for August 2013. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free. It’s time to freshen up your wallpaper!

Please note that:

• All images can be clicked on 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?

Agosto Ketchup

“A calendar inspired by Heinz Ketchup. A big honor to Mr. Heinz, who made one of the famous ketchup brands in the world. This is for the ketchup lovers (including me!).” Designed by Pat Buenaobra from the Philippines.

• preview
• with calendar:
  1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar:
  1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

I Love Summer

“I love summer :)” Designed by Vector4free from Poland.

• preview
• with calendar:
  800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar:
  800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Leo

“I’m always interested in learning more about the zodiac signs. July 23- August 23 is the time of the Lion, Leo. I based my wallpaper design around this and included the constellation of Leo as well. Enjoy!” Designed by Franny Van Eyck from Wisconsin, USA.

• preview
• with calendar:
  1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×1050, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 2560×1440
• without calendar:
  1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×1050, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 2560×1440

Poppy Herbarium

“Summer is taking off with some magical ice cream hot air balloons.” Designed by Sasha Endoh from Canada.

• preview
• with calendar:
  640×480, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar:
  640×480, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Hanabi Festival

“From late July to early August, Japanese will celebrate summer with hanabi (fireworks) throughout Japan!” Designed by Evangeline Neo from Japan.

• preview
• with calendar:
  1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1080, 2560×1440
• without calendar:
  1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1080, 2560×1440

World Alpinism Day

“International Day of Alpinism and Climbing.” Designed by cheloveche.ru from Russia.

• preview
• with calendar:
  1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar:
  1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Johnny Depp

“Instead of using normal lines and shades to sketch the portrait, I’d first break it up into small triangles. Then I’ll (slowly and painstakingly) fill the triangles up with different shades of black using different shades of pencils, and viola, the portrait is done! Hope you guys like it!” Designed by Teo Yu Sheng from Singapore.

• preview
• with calendar:
  1280×720, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar:
  1280×720, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Handwritten August

“I love typograhy handwritten style.” Designed by Chalermkiat Oncharoen from Thailand.

• preview
• with calendar:
  320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
• without calendar:
  320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

World Photography Day!

“In August we have the world photography day. So it is fair to make this homage to those that translates and makes us immortalize the most special moments of our lives.” Designed by ADD from Brazil.

• preview
• with calendar:
  320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
• without calendar:
  320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

The Balinese Flower

Designed by Nitesh Bhatia from India.

• preview
• with calendar:
  640×480, 1024×768, 1280×720, 1920×1080, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
• without calendar:
  640×480, 1024×768, 1280×720, 1920×1080, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

Autumn Is Just Around the Corner

“August is the month that brings to mind the passage of summer season and the arrival of autumn. The entire landscape around us gets a new look, and each of us remains nostalgic due to the passage of summer.” Designed by Tattoo Temptation from United Kingdom.

• preview
• with calendar:
  320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440, 1366×768
• without calendar:
  320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440, 1366×768

Estonian Summer Sun

“This is a moment from Southern Estonia that shows amazing summer nights.” Designed by Erkki Pung / Sviiter from Estonia.

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• with calendar:
  320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1920×1200
• without calendar:
  320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1920×1200

Woof!

Designed by Laurent Constant from Belgium.

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• with calendar:
  1280×720, 1920×1080, 2560×1440
• without calendar:
  1280×720, 1920×1080, 2560×1440

Solidarity

“Black and white landscape/waterscape photo.” Designed by Jeremy Mullens from United States.

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• with calendar:
  1024×768, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar:
  1024×768, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Summer Holidays

“A colorful wallpaper for the month of holidays! Have a great summer holiday!” Designed by Laboratorio Creativo from Romania.

• preview
• with calendar:
  1280×720, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440, 2880×1800, 2560×1600, 1600×1000, 1600×900, 800×450
• without calendar:
  1280×720, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440, 2880×1800, 2560×1600, 1600×1000, 1600×900, 800×450

That Is Rain To Me!

Designed by Dhwani Gandhi from India.

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• with calendar:
  320×480, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1920×1200, 1366×768
• without calendar:
  320×480, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1920×1200, 1366×768

The Great British Summer

“With Britain currently basking in a sub-tropical heatwave, sporting success and the birth of the Royal baby, we felt it appropriate to celebrate all the things we love about the Great British summer in the form of a wallpaper. Perfect for proud Britons and Britophiles alike!” Designed by Fluid Creativity from Manchester, United Kingdom.

• preview
• with calendar:
  1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 2560×1440
• without calendar:
  1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 2560×1440

Monsoon Sale!

“Hey monsoon is here! So grab your umbrella in this monsoon sale, and don’t miss the fun in the rain.” Designed by Debobrata Debnath from India.

• preview
• with calendar:
  1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar:
  1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Flowing Creativity

Designed by Creacill, Carole Meyer from Luxembourg.

• preview
• with calendar:
  320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440, 2880×1800, 1366×768
• without calendar:
  320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440, 2880×1800, 1366×768

Off To The Beach We Go

“’Off to the beach we go’ is based on screenshots from my latest browser game (I’m an indie games designer).” Designed by Bart Bonte from Belgium.

• preview
• with calendar:
  640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
• without calendar:
  640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

Join In Next Month!

Please note that we respect and carefully consider the ideas and motivation behind each and every artist’s work. This is why we give all artists the full freedom to explore their creativity and express emotions and experience throughout their works. This is also why the themes of the wallpapers weren’t anyhow influenced by us, but rather designed from scratch by the artists themselves.

A big thank you to all the designers for their participation. Join in next month!

What’s Your Favorite?

What’s your favorite theme or wallpaper for this month? Please let us know in the comment section below.

© The Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2013.

A few weeks ago Alex Cornell, posted what he describes as “The Worst Portfolio Ever” a page of clichés, overused trends and boring copy.

His motivation was presumably to educate the masses as to how a portfolio should look. Cornell’s amusing spoof features such gems as the obligatory “road to nowhere” photograph, pretentious biography and a skills chart listing expertise as percentages.

The sub-heading on Cornell’s mock site is “This is how not to get hired as a designer”. However, the fact of the matter is that many designers with promo pages — let’s not call this a portfolio, good or bad, because it isn’t one — do get hired.

What’s good about “The Worst Portfolio Ever”?

Well, the key to this page’s value is the first line of the biography; the designer says she is 23 and living in San Francisco. That means that if I’m looking for a junior designer for an agency based in San Francisco, our fictional designer passed my first criteria.

What’s more, our fictional designer has a life and interests outside of the office. That makes her the kind of person I’d like to spend 60+ hours per week with.

Cornell’s own critique of the page is most scathing on the lack of work, but in my experience, junior designers very often have limited input in large projects. If you’ve spent a couple of years after college working as a glorified tea boy/girl, then there’s not much I’ll learn from reviewing your portfolio.

The reality of this industry is that some very competent juniors put in very long hours on large-scale projects from which it is impossible to present an honest reflection of work. How exactly should our fictional designer caption her work, “Here is a site I worked on, the typography, branding, layout, photography and code were all handed to me, but you see that rounded rectangle? I changed that from 8px to 9px”?

If I want to grasp the level of her ability, I’ll check out this designer’s LinkedIn page, which is linked conveniently enough.

Who is the “The Worst Portfolio Ever” for?

I’ve been involved in several recruitment processes over the last few years and in each case one thing was true: every design vacancy is massively over-subscribed. As a result job vacancies are rarely handled by designers; they’re handled by HR managers, or even recruitment consultants. A page of world-class work is of no use to these people, they rarely have design qualifications; there’s a list of requirements and if you can tick off 75% of the boxes — that’s right, you don’t need 100% — then you’re probably in line for an interview.

Naturally Cornell views the page from his own position, it’s a spoof based on his experience of recruitment. One of his central bugbears is the focus on presenting skills as percentages. And yes, of course it’s true that no one knows 55% of logo design. But what these skill charts tell me is firstly what skills our designer possesses and secondly where she views her strengths and weaknesses, for example it’s clear from the chart that whilst our designer has spent around half her time on logo designs, she’s spent a little less on coding; that bias tells me if she’ll be a good fit for the vacancy I’m recruiting for.

Imagine for a moment that a leading San Francisco agency is in need of a junior designer. Here’s a list of requirements they’ll typically ask for:

• recent graduate or 1–2 years of agency experience;
• resident in, or willing to relocate to the Bay area;
• experience of Adobe CS/CC, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc;
• knowledge of Mac OSX beneficial;
• experience of brand development;
• knowledge of HTML & CSS (not WYSIWYG) a bonus.

Guess who’s getting an interview… yep, you got it, our fictional designer.

Will “The Worst Portfolio Ever” land you a job?

No. But neither will the best portfolio in the world. What this promo site will do is get you in the door, add you to the shortlist and give you a chance to impress at interview.

Cornell’s example isn’t particularly well designed, the copy is awful and the photos used are terrible clichés. But for junior designers this is closer to a design solution than many work-centric portfolios that at best obscure a junior designer’s abilities, and at worst exaggerate them.

The lesson we take away from Cornell’s amusing spoof has to be: when we design, target audience has to be central to every consideration. On that basis, “The Worst Portfolio Ever” isn’t the best portfolio ever, but it’s a long way shy of the worst.

Is “The Worst Portfolio Ever” the worst portfolio ever? What’s the worst thing you see in portfolios? Let us know in the comments.

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