Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: December 2010

Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use a specific wallpaper for a longer period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers for over 12 months. To make them a little more distinctive than the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you happen to be searching for a specific day of the month, isn’t it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application?

This post features 40 free desktop wallpapers, created by designers across the globe for December 2010. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free.

Please notice:

• 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?

So what wallpapers have we received for December 2010?

December 2010 Wallpaper

“For December 2010, illustration of myself Wishing” Designed by Benoit Chartron from France.

• preview
• with calendar: 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1366×768, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1600

Christmas Stuff

“Some of the things that come to my mind when thinking of christmas..” Designed by Jaro Mlkvy from Slovakia.

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

Starleaves

Designed by Fabio Toscani from Italy.

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

Spider web

Designed by Mohd. Aaqib from India.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Wicklow Winter

“Winter at the Sugar Loaf Mountain in County Wicklow Ireland.” Designed by Neil Bradshaw from Ireland.

• preview
• with calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1336×768, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1336×768, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440, 2560×1600

Fun in the Snow

“A girl and her friend, The Snowman, being silly in the first snow I love December. Happy Holidays, everyone!” Designed by Anca Varsandan from Romania.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Peace

“Let’s give our children the greatest gift off all — PEACE! Happy Holidays to everyone.” Designed by Kim Carney from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 2560×1600

Christmas Past

“Christmas old style.” Designed by Carmelo Ortuso from Australia.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Frosted Glass

“An illustration of someone who wiped a frosted window and is looking down on a town and lake below.” Designed by Shawn Rinkenbaugh from United States.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Cosy Retro

“Something warm and cosy for a cold December.” Designed by Ron Gilad from Israel.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1440×1152, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1440×1152, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Burnout 2010

“The Year of the matches is quite over!” Designed by Hansjoerg Schneider from Switzerland.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 1920×1440
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 1920×1440

Fresh & White

“Have a break, get out of your Design studio and go breathing. What if we raced or a had snowball fight?” Designed by Maureen Chaffurin from France.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1440×900
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1440×900

Sad Waters

“Based on the song Sad Waters, by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Ophelia’s myth. Photography by the author, made in Cantabria the first morning of 2010.” Designed by David Fernandez Rementeria from Spain.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 2560×1440

New Santa … New Gifts

“A year’s collection of happiness, wrapped inside a small gift.” Designed by Narendar . N from India.

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

Holly Light

“Warm lights sourrounding our Chritmas Festivities are like a warm touch, a hug from our beloved.” Designed by Ester Liquori from Italy.

• preview
• with calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×960, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050
• without calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×960, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050

Christmas Icons

Designed by Davide Vicariotto from Italy.

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

Cosy Socks

"One of my favourite months of the year is December. The whole month feels festive and I love the reds and green’s we have everywhere. So to celebrate the beginning of December, here are a pair of cosy red christmasy socks! I have spent all of November creating the design based on the photograph and making it in red for the theme of Christmas. Have a great December everyone! " Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Snowy December

Designed by Rosanna Bell from England, UK.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 2560×1600

Happy New Year

"December is time for Christmas rush, presents and greetings letters! We wish you and your friends all the best and Father Frost (russian Santa Claus) will take care of the rest." 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

Fallen Icon Mozart

“This month of December is flooded with commercial apsects of the Christmas Holiday(Thanks Coca Cola) I want to pay homage to a fallen young icon Mozart.” Designed by Jeremiah Selengia from Tanzania.

• preview
• with calendar: 800×480, 1280×720, 1440×900, 1920×1080, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 800×480, 1280×720, 1440×900, 1920×1080, 2560×1440

Snowy Love

Designed by Brad Cerasani from Canada.

• 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

Waiting for Christmas

“I wish you a merry Christmas!!” Designed by yellowbook from South Korea.

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

Winter Atmosphere

"I like these cold, gray winter days. Days like these let you savor a bad mood." Designed by Jaro Mlkvy from Slovakia.

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

Snow White

"The falling snow, wrapped up warm in colourful wintery gloves. Have a wonderful winter everyone!" Designed by Olivia Bell from England, UK.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Inspiring Well

“Celebrating the new coming year.” Designed by Peter Yee from Malaysia.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050

Flower Bokeh

Designed by Nathalie Ouederni from the Netherlands.

• 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

The Greatest Gift of All

“Today Christmas is all about buying presents, but actually the most important thing is to have someone to share the Christmas time with. That’s what this wallpaper is all about. The two birds – Milo and Pipita – are a wallpaper series and usually they argue about things men and women argue about. ” Designed by Nicole Bauer from Germany.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Angel

“All writers and reader of the fabulous Smashing Magazine feliz navidad y propero a–o nuevo!” Designed by Fresh&Eazy, Steffen Schmitt from Spain.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 2560×1440

Christmas Eve

“Wishing you a merry christmas” Designed by Ray Templates from India.

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

Khaos

“Photography + Light Painting, a simple way to make design.” Designed by Jose Tenorio from Costa Rica.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1920×1200

Frozen

“White and blue – like a December with a lot of snow and a blue, sunny sky. Hopefully!” Designed by Lotum from Germany.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

December Dream

Designed by Christine Bradway from United States.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Winter Wonderland

"The design was inspired by the Christmas story with charming characters that bring joy and magic in this festive occasion." Designed by Jo‹o Lima Jr. from Brazil.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 2560×1440

Waiting for a Winter

Designed by Adam Piotrowski from Poland.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Learn to Recycle

"We should care more about our planet." Designed by Adam Laki from Hungary.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Casual Catwalk

Designed by Nathalie Ouederni from the Netherlands.

• 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

West Christmas

"In west, Santa Claus uses a .44" Designed by Blackjack.

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

Snowy Ladybug

Designed by Tooshtoosh from Israel.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Happy Festivus

“Seinfeld in 1997 proposed a holiday, Festivus, for the rest of us. This desktop wallpaper reminds us of the non consumeristic nature of Festivus, sit back enjoy a drink and join Kramer, Frank Costanza, Jerry and Elaine in the airing of Grievances and challenge one another to feats of strength after dinner.” Designed by Jenny Heath from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Smashing Snowman

“He’s a smashing snowman, isn’t he?” Designed by Megan Burleson from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

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 this month? Please let us know in the comments! And have a smashing December, folks!

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© Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: december, Wallpapers

WordPress Wins CMS Award

I was just informed that WordPress, in head-to-head voting against Joomla and Drupal, has won this year’s Open Source CMS Hall of Fame award.

We have to be careful because if this trend continues people might think WordPress is a real CMS, useful for more than just a blog. This would ruin our stealth campaign and might bring dozens of new users to the WordPress community. If you could keep this on the DL we’d appreciate it.

We don’t want WordPress to develop a reputation.

WordPress Trademark Changes Hands

The WordPress community took a big step forward today when Matt announced that Automattic has donated the WordPress trademark to the non-profit WordPress Foundation. Moving forward, the Foundation will be responsible for safeguarding the trademarked name and logo from misuse toward the end of protecting WordPress and preventing confusion among people trying to figure out if a resource is “official” or not.

Community links: Open source motivations edition

What’s more fun to do over the weekend then catch up on WordPress community links? Set up the Christmas tree? Clean out the gutters? Shovel the driveway?

Alright, if you have to. Chores are chores. But when you’re done, reward yourself with a hot coffee and a good dose of WordPress reading. We have a truckload of links for you, so settle in.

The full list of links is after the jump.

In blog posts this week:

• Alex King, a well known WordPress plugin developer and entrepreneur, posted his thoughts on what motivations exist for WordPress plugin developers today. Chris Olbekson followed up with his own thoughts, as did Joost de Valk. Jeff Chandler started up a commentary at WBTC as well.
• WooThemes posted a preview of the upcoming launch of WPBundle. They also shared a few thoughts on the increase in support time that’s required of them with so many themes released.
• Dev4Press redesigned their site.
• James Dalman at WP Design Coach is now accepting themes for review on his new blog.
• Jeff Chandler wrote up how anyone can contribute to the WordPress.org theme review process. He also started a discussion around the legacy that plugins leave behind when they are deactivated.
• ThemesForge has decided to post 24 theme tips throughout December. I love the attitude and initiative behind the posts so far.
• WP Plugins has an interview with plugin developer Jonathan O’Shea.
• Matt Mullenweg was on The Big Web Show with Jeffrey Zeldman.
• Dre on the Sucuri blog wrote up yet another WordPress security post. These posts are always good reminders to secure your WordPress site. While we’re on the topic, WPZine has a collection of WordPress security plugins this week too.
• Brandon Cox wrote a really interesting post on how one particular WordPress theme ad depicted developers.
• 9seeds’ plugin WP Event Ticketing seems to have a few issues with the popular WordPress theme Thesis. They’ve posted a fix that should take care of the problem, though.

There were a few WordPress resources posted fresh this week too:

• DBS>Interactive created and released the Template Tag Reference Guide this week.
• Sarah Gooding at WPMU.org listed myself and WPCandy in their list of 50 people to follow for WordPress news on Twitter. Thanks Sarah! They also put up a collection of plugins to use with Foursquare.
• Paul Andrew posted a collection of plugins for integrating Flickr into a WordPress blog.
• Jean-Baptiste Jung posted a solid roundup of WordPress code snippets.
• iThemes has released the video tutorials in their Builder Basics series for free online.

Finally, in WordPress tutorials this week:

• WPEngineer has been laying into the tutorials this week, with a custom login page tutorial and a walkthrough of the upcoming post formats feature.
• WPBeginner has a new tutorial up showing how to add the official LinkedIn share button to your WordPress blog. They also have a nice roundup of plugins for managing images with WordPress.
• Vladimir Prelovac posted about how to disable post revisions and delete them from your database.
• Scribu showed how to insert a banner between posts, without editing the theme files.
• Chris Coyier put together a tutorial showing how to make the WYSIWYG editor really WYSIWYG.
• Sumeet Chawla at Nettuts+ put together a tutorial showing how to create an FAQ page with custom post types.

Wow, that may be a record for number of WordPress related links in a roundup post (for us). Who gets the plaque?

That’s it for links this week. If you run across something link worthy, don’t hesitate to let us know about it. If it’s worth a story we’ll jump on it, and if it’s best suited for a community news post it will show up in this space next week.

New Flash Player 10.2 Goes Easy on the CPU

[Updated, see below] Adobe has released the first beta of Flash Player 10.2, an update that focuses primarily on speed and performance improvements. New in Flash 10.2 is something Adobe calls “Stage Video hardware acceleration,” which the company claims will “decrease processor usage and enable higher frame rates, reduced memory usage, and greater pixel fidelity and quality.” And the hardware acceleration technology does do all of these things, though your mileage will vary depending on what kind of hardware and software you’re using.

To try out the new Flash Player 10.2 beta, head over the Adobe download page. Be aware that, while 10.2 appears to be relatively stable, it is a beta release and there may be bugs.

The Stage Video hardware acceleration means that Flash Player 10.2 can leverage your graphics card for not just H.264 hardware decoding (which works in Flash Player 10.1) but also color conversion, scaling, and blitting.

Adobe’s press release makes a rather bold claim: “using Stage Video, we’ve seen laptops play smooth 1080p HD video with just over 0% CPU usage.”

Sadly, we have not seen such results. While we won’t argue with the smoothness of the playback in this new release, Flash is still going to use quite a bit of your PC’s CPU. Based on my testing (done on a Macbook Pro laptop using both Firefox 4b7 and Safari 5, and a Mac Pro tower using the same browsers — Wired is an all-Mac office), while CPU usage is down in Flash 10.2, it’s still a long way from zero.

Update: Since this article was published, we’ve been hearing from you, our awesome readers, in the comments and over e-mail. Some things to note: The new beta performs much better on Windows computers than it does under Mac OS X. Also, full hardware acceleration on Mac OS X requires Snow Leopard or later, otherwise it falls back to using software rendering in the CPU. Thanks for the comments, and keep them coming!

On our Macs, we tested several 1080p videos on YouTube in Flash Player 10.1 and found that on average the 10.1 plugin used between 44-48 percent CPU. Watching the same movie in Flash 10.2 did drop the CPU usage down to the 18-22 percent range, but definitely not zero.

Worse, running the same tests on Adobe’s Stage Video optimized demos, Flash 10.2 actually performed worse than than it did on normal 1080p movies with the cpu usage varying widely between 5 and 60 percent (the 18-20 percent range appears to be the norm).

The short story is that, while Flash 10.2 does offer decreased processor usage, it doesn’t quite live up to Adobe’s claims. While Flash Player 10.2’s performance falls short of the hype, there’s no question that it’s a huge leap forward in terms of performance. The smaller CPU footprint alone is well worth the upgrade, provided you don’t mind running beta software. So far Adobe has not set a final release data for Flash 10.2.

One other thing to keep in mind: to take advantage of the new Stage Video tools, sites like YouTube and Vimeo will need to alter their video players. So, it may be some time before the full benefit of Stage Video’s improvements makes it to your day-to-day web browsing.

As for other new features in this release, there’s Internet Explorer 9 GPU support and support for fullscreen mode with dual monitors — meaning that you can have a movie on one screen and keep working on another.

Custom cursors get some love in this release, too, with Flash Player 10.2 handing off the job to the operating system rather than using resources to manually draw custom cursors. The beta also improves text rendering, adding sub-pixel rendering enhancements that should make your typography look a bit nicer and more readable.

It’s worth noting that the Flash Player 10.2 beta does not replace the Flash Player “Square” preview release — in other words, Flash Player 10.2 still isn’t 64-bit native. If 64-bit support is important to you, stick with the Flash Player “Square” preview.

See Also:

• Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Arrives
• Adobe Revamps Flash Player for Netbooks, P2P, Private Browsing
• Adobe Fights Off HTML5 Threat With New Flash Player 10.1

Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: November 2010

Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use a specific wallpaper for a longer period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers for over 12 months. To make them a little more distinctive than the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you happen to be searching for a specific day of the month, isn’t it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application?

This post features 50 free desktop wallpapers, created by designers across the globe for November 2010. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free.

Please notice:

• 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?

So what wallpapers have we received for November 2010?

Update (02.11.2010): You can also download the Windows 7 Wallpapers Pack with all wallpapers featured in this post.

Rose Petal

"Don’t underestimate the true beauty of a single dried rose petal…." Designed by Thuy Truong.

• preview
• with calendar: 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1600×1200
• without calendar: 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1600×1200

Infinite Space

"Infinite Space… Inspired by the infinite beauty of our universe" Designed by Natanael Fernandez from Santo Domingo, Rep. Dominicana.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Flying

"I’d like to fly away to warm countries for winter." Designed by Marta Miazek from Poland.

• preview
• with calendar: 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Pink Morning

"Some watercolor, inspiration and good mood!" Designed by Oxana Kostromina from Poland/Russia.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

UX cake

Designed by WitFlow from Poland.

• 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

Symbian World

"Scene from Symbian World." Designed by Anna Alfut from UK.

• preview
• with calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2048×1152
• without calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2048×1152

Favourite Pair

Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Fall into Place

"Photos from a damp, autumn day." Designed by Laurice Solomon from Canada.

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

Enjoy the creative process

"November will surely be rainy for most of us. Hopefully you’ll remember to take a glimpse through the window, at least a virtual one. This wallpaper also features great free font called Franchise." Designed by Lucijan Blagonic from Croatia.

• preview
• with calendar: 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Thanks For Giving

Designed by Randal Baker Jr from USA.

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

Bon Voyage

"And in the morning I’ll be goneFor other towns and other livesI’ll catch the first train, bag in hand. And I won’t miss you, and you won’t cry." Designed by Yellowbook from South Korea.

• preview
• with calendar: 1680×1050
• without calendar: 1680×1050

Fallen Leaves

"You know Autumn has arrived when the leaves have fallen, and it rains? Have a great November everybody!" Designed by Olivia Bell from England, UK.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Heavy Equipment

"In the vicinity of Zürich, the company hosted a field test with the new machine and presented the first diesel electrical chain dozer. The Caterpillar D7E Dozer is the November motif of the Heavy Equipment Calendar 2010.Weight: 25,7 Tons/ Performance: 175kW (238 PS) / Motor: Caterpillar with capacity 9,3 l / Location: Zürich, Swiitzerland" Designed by Bauforum24 from Germany.

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

Reprieve

"Watching nature prepare to go to sleep for the winter. The beauty of the process deserves a closer look. The austerity of a branch without its leaves and a leaf’s exposed skeleton. All for us to marvel at in this season of change." Designed by Kim Carney from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 320×480, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 2560×1600

High Treason

"After a bit of plotting and planning we decided we would use the British tradition of Bonfire Night and create something explosive for the desktops of Smashing Magazine’s followers for the month of November, so here it is, “High Treason” — inspired by the ultimate raving lunatic (Guy Fawkes) and crafted in a digital masterpiece!" Designed by Fluid Creativity from England.

• preview
• with calendar: 480×320, 640×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 480×320, 640×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

One Big Heart of Ours

"Thank you to Olivia Bell and Rosanna Bell for modelling." Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

November Tree

Designed by Christine Bradway from United States.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Autumn with gecko

"Graphics made in Illustrator and Photoshop, combining nature elements, like classic autumm leaves with a more exotic and unexpected little gecko. Its purpose is to create an athmosphere of mystery and stillness, before the harsh winter strikes." Designed by Diana Samoila from Romania.

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

Mechanical Month

Designed by Lemonsquash from france.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 2560×1440

Lonely White Guardian

"It’s almost winter and there’s only one thing stopping it from coming down the mountains and into the plains. This lonely white guardian struggling to keep the freezing snow at bay. Special thanks to Mikhail Dudarev for the photo." Designed by Bogdan Lazar from Romania.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080

Calaca for El d’a de Muertos

"This illustration was created to celebrate the day of dead in the Hispanic countries and reflects the joy of those who celebrates the life through the death." Designed by Celsiuspictor from Spain.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200

Autumn Fun

"After a happy cold and colourful afternoon, with the wet smell of earth filling my senses, we were walking home, for a hot chocolate, and with all these familliar feelings that sweet image got in my mind, and then I decided… I had to draw it!" Designed by Alkminnie Nestoridou from Greece.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1200

Expectation

Designed by Jaro Mlkvy from Slovakia.

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

November Rain

"Every night I look down this street, because I’m attracted to color and shape of the newly constructed gas station. This is the most beautiful street in my town, with plenty of benches and alleys. Walking along this street You can relax a lot, and forget all the problems. By day it is very noisy, because the school is close to the street, but in the evening – becoming very quiet and lovely. When it starts raining, the street is just Yours." Designed by Edis Selimovic from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Hendrix Fire Lyrics Micrography

"Hendrix micrography themed wallpaper, based on the “Fire” lyrics. Micrography is an ancient art of drawing shapes based on letters." Designed by Ron Gilad from Israel.

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

Remember, Remember

"Remember, remember the 5th of November." Designed by Ian Lunn from England.

• 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

Stereo is better!

"On November 5, 1955, the stereo radio was introduced. Stereo is really better!" Designed by Matteo Palazzani from Italy.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Diwali Greetings

"Diwali is the celebration of the Hindu new year which is celebrated all over the world. This piece wishes everyone warm wishes for the Hindu new year and the common new year holiday coming up soon." Designed by Smita Upadhye from New Zealand.

• preview
• with calendar: 1680×1050
• without calendar: 1680×1050

Friendship

"Day of National Unity." 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

A Myriad of Stars

"Each separate star, Seems nothing, but a myriad scattered stars, Break up the Night, and make it beautiful.” — Bayard Taylor. This photo was taken during the Perseids Meteor Shower this year, a magical night in the pine forests of Flagstaff, Arizona." Designed by Myriad Advertising from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Speaker Bird

Designed by Emily Shirley from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

November Girl

Designed by Yuskiv Taras from Ukraine.

• 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

Autumn Afternoon

Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Racing Incident

"For racing snails, a split minute decision can lead to disaster, but racing incidents are just one part of the crazy world of The Racers." Designed by Ian Pullen from Spain.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Ghost Friends

"Boney wanted to have friends but they are all ghosts." Designed by Constantino Co from Singapore.

• preview
• with calendar: 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1920×1200

Picturesque November

"Just another picturesque place from Iran!" Designed by Arash Zad from IRAN.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080

Transitions

"Autumn meets winter…The vibrant red leaves meet the grey mist of winter mornings." Designed by Nishith from India.

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

Life Thougths

"November is the month to think about the yearend and of the new year… where we plan about enjoyment… each one should enjoy the life during this month.. so a colorfull “11″ and some life quotes surronded." Designed by Darshan Kore from India.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

November in Africa

"One of the most striking attribute of any rural area of Africa is the calm and peace it has. This is why the number of tourists from far and wide come here to be a part of this memory-etching experience. It is in this light that I try to portray such nostalgic atmosphere. Keenako!" Designed by Aroyewun Babajide from Nigeria.

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

November Fire

Designed by Pietje Precies from The Netherlands.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Remembering George

"Nine years ago on November 29th, the world lost its second Beatle to cancer. George was my favorite of the four, and I thought this lyric was fitting for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday." Designed by Emily Blackwell from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Lawka

"photography" Designed by Mon from Poland.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Rustic Flower

"Decoration on a coffe table on a sunny autumn day on a beach." Designed by Ivana Stojkovic from Serbia.

• preview
• with calendar: 480×320, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 480×320, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Tiramisu

"Who doesn’t like a good piece of Tiramisu? Just created this simple wallpaper with no special reason, just felt like putting a vector piece of cake in a corner, and have everything else breathe and leave room for all you un-organized people with tons of icon on your desktop (just like me). Enjoy, and if you wonder what kind of desert you should have today, this week or this month (if on a really strict diet) well don’t look further!" Designed by Kevin Bedard from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2048×1152
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2048×1152

November

"It is November. It is rich. It is golden." Designed by Jade Cheng from USA.

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

Simple Sunflower

"This photo was taken in the spring, but I always think of sunflowers as an autumn flower." Designed by Allison Jirsa from United States.

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

Movember

"For a weird reason, Australia and New Zealand celebrate Moustache November. And USA and Canada call it No Shave Month." Designed by Sahil Khan from India.

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

Knitting Fall

"Cosy and bright knitting wallpaper will warm you on cold fall days." Designed by Maria Fisenko (marylika) from Ukraine.

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

Channel 11

"Have a nice November!" Designed by Marco Palma from Italy/Germany.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Expanse

"The shear magnitude of our corner of creation is inconceivably small compared to the known universe, which overshadows our solar system 1.25 quadrillion (successor to trillion) to 1 in diameter alone. Humility in this great expanse should be instinctive." Designed by Coswyn from United States.

• preview
• with calendar: 1365×768, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2730×768, 2880×900, 3200×900, 3360×1050, 3840×1080, 3840×1200
• without calendar: 1365×768, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2730×768, 2880×900, 3200×900, 3360×1050, 3840×1080, 3840×1200, 640×960

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 this month? Please let us know in the comments! And have a smashing November, folks!

(vf)

© Vitaly Friedman for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: Wallpapers

Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: November 2010

Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use a specific wallpaper for a longer period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers for over 12 months. To make them a little more distinctive than the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you happen to be searching for a specific day of the month, isn’t it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application?

This post features 50 free desktop wallpapers, created by designers across the globe for November 2010. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free.

Please notice:

• 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?

So what wallpapers have we received for November 2010?

Update (02.11.2010): You can also download the Windows 7 Wallpapers Pack with all wallpapers featured in this post.

Rose Petal

"Don’t underestimate the true beauty of a single dried rose petal…." Designed by Thuy Truong.

• preview
• with calendar: 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1600×1200
• without calendar: 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1600×1200

Infinite Space

"Infinite Space… Inspired by the infinite beauty of our universe" Designed by Natanael Fernandez from Santo Domingo, Rep. Dominicana.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Flying

"I’d like to fly away to warm countries for winter." Designed by Marta Miazek from Poland.

• preview
• with calendar: 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Pink Morning

"Some watercolor, inspiration and good mood!" Designed by Oxana Kostromina from Poland/Russia.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

UX cake

Designed by WitFlow from Poland.

• 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

Symbian World

"Scene from Symbian World." Designed by Anna Alfut from UK.

• preview
• with calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2048×1152
• without calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2048×1152

Favourite Pair

Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Fall into Place

"Photos from a damp, autumn day." Designed by Laurice Solomon from Canada.

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

Enjoy the creative process

"November will surely be rainy for most of us. Hopefully you’ll remember to take a glimpse through the window, at least a virtual one. This wallpaper also features great free font called Franchise." Designed by Lucijan Blagonic from Croatia.

• preview
• with calendar: 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Thanks For Giving

Designed by Randal Baker Jr from USA.

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

Bon Voyage

"And in the morning I’ll be goneFor other towns and other livesI’ll catch the first train, bag in hand. And I won’t miss you, and you won’t cry." Designed by Yellowbook from South Korea.

• preview
• with calendar: 1680×1050
• without calendar: 1680×1050

Fallen Leaves

"You know Autumn has arrived when the leaves have fallen, and it rains? Have a great November everybody!" Designed by Olivia Bell from England, UK.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Heavy Equipment

"In the vicinity of Zürich, the company hosted a field test with the new machine and presented the first diesel electrical chain dozer. The Caterpillar D7E Dozer is the November motif of the Heavy Equipment Calendar 2010.Weight: 25,7 Tons/ Performance: 175kW (238 PS) / Motor: Caterpillar with capacity 9,3 l / Location: Zürich, Swiitzerland" Designed by Bauforum24 from Germany.

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

Reprieve

"Watching nature prepare to go to sleep for the winter. The beauty of the process deserves a closer look. The austerity of a branch without its leaves and a leaf’s exposed skeleton. All for us to marvel at in this season of change." Designed by Kim Carney from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 320×480, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 2560×1600

High Treason

"After a bit of plotting and planning we decided we would use the British tradition of Bonfire Night and create something explosive for the desktops of Smashing Magazine’s followers for the month of November, so here it is, “High Treason” — inspired by the ultimate raving lunatic (Guy Fawkes) and crafted in a digital masterpiece!" Designed by Fluid Creativity from England.

• preview
• with calendar: 480×320, 640×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 480×320, 640×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

One Big Heart of Ours

"Thank you to Olivia Bell and Rosanna Bell for modelling." Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

November Tree

Designed by Christine Bradway from United States.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Autumn with gecko

"Graphics made in Illustrator and Photoshop, combining nature elements, like classic autumm leaves with a more exotic and unexpected little gecko. Its purpose is to create an athmosphere of mystery and stillness, before the harsh winter strikes." Designed by Diana Samoila from Romania.

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

Mechanical Month

Designed by Lemonsquash from france.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 2560×1440
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 2560×1440

Lonely White Guardian

"It’s almost winter and there’s only one thing stopping it from coming down the mountains and into the plains. This lonely white guardian struggling to keep the freezing snow at bay. Special thanks to Mikhail Dudarev for the photo." Designed by Bogdan Lazar from Romania.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080

Calaca for El d’a de Muertos

"This illustration was created to celebrate the day of dead in the Hispanic countries and reflects the joy of those who celebrates the life through the death." Designed by Celsiuspictor from Spain.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200

Autumn Fun

"After a happy cold and colourful afternoon, with the wet smell of earth filling my senses, we were walking home, for a hot chocolate, and with all these familliar feelings that sweet image got in my mind, and then I decided… I had to draw it!" Designed by Alkminnie Nestoridou from Greece.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1200

Expectation

Designed by Jaro Mlkvy from Slovakia.

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November Rain

"Every night I look down this street, because I’m attracted to color and shape of the newly constructed gas station. This is the most beautiful street in my town, with plenty of benches and alleys. Walking along this street You can relax a lot, and forget all the problems. By day it is very noisy, because the school is close to the street, but in the evening – becoming very quiet and lovely. When it starts raining, the street is just Yours." Designed by Edis Selimovic from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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Hendrix Fire Lyrics Micrography

"Hendrix micrography themed wallpaper, based on the “Fire” lyrics. Micrography is an ancient art of drawing shapes based on letters." Designed by Ron Gilad from Israel.

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Remember, Remember

"Remember, remember the 5th of November." Designed by Ian Lunn from England.

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Stereo is better!

"On November 5, 1955, the stereo radio was introduced. Stereo is really better!" Designed by Matteo Palazzani from Italy.

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Diwali Greetings

"Diwali is the celebration of the Hindu new year which is celebrated all over the world. This piece wishes everyone warm wishes for the Hindu new year and the common new year holiday coming up soon." Designed by Smita Upadhye from New Zealand.

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Friendship

"Day of National Unity." Designed by cheloveche.ru from Russia.

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A Myriad of Stars

"Each separate star, Seems nothing, but a myriad scattered stars, Break up the Night, and make it beautiful.” — Bayard Taylor. This photo was taken during the Perseids Meteor Shower this year, a magical night in the pine forests of Flagstaff, Arizona." Designed by Myriad Advertising from USA.

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Speaker Bird

Designed by Emily Shirley from USA.

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November Girl

Designed by Yuskiv Taras from Ukraine.

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Autumn Afternoon

Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.

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Racing Incident

"For racing snails, a split minute decision can lead to disaster, but racing incidents are just one part of the crazy world of The Racers." Designed by Ian Pullen from Spain.

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Ghost Friends

"Boney wanted to have friends but they are all ghosts." Designed by Constantino Co from Singapore.

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Picturesque November

"Just another picturesque place from Iran!" Designed by Arash Zad from IRAN.

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Transitions

"Autumn meets winter…The vibrant red leaves meet the grey mist of winter mornings." Designed by Nishith from India.

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Life Thougths

"November is the month to think about the yearend and of the new year… where we plan about enjoyment… each one should enjoy the life during this month.. so a colorfull “11″ and some life quotes surronded." Designed by Darshan Kore from India.

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November in Africa

"One of the most striking attribute of any rural area of Africa is the calm and peace it has. This is why the number of tourists from far and wide come here to be a part of this memory-etching experience. It is in this light that I try to portray such nostalgic atmosphere. Keenako!" Designed by Aroyewun Babajide from Nigeria.

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November Fire

Designed by Pietje Precies from The Netherlands.

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Remembering George

"Nine years ago on November 29th, the world lost its second Beatle to cancer. George was my favorite of the four, and I thought this lyric was fitting for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday." Designed by Emily Blackwell from USA.

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Lawka

"photography" Designed by Mon from Poland.

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Rustic Flower

"Decoration on a coffe table on a sunny autumn day on a beach." Designed by Ivana Stojkovic from Serbia.

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Tiramisu

"Who doesn’t like a good piece of Tiramisu? Just created this simple wallpaper with no special reason, just felt like putting a vector piece of cake in a corner, and have everything else breathe and leave room for all you un-organized people with tons of icon on your desktop (just like me). Enjoy, and if you wonder what kind of desert you should have today, this week or this month (if on a really strict diet) well don’t look further!" Designed by Kevin Bedard from USA.

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November

"It is November. It is rich. It is golden." Designed by Jade Cheng from USA.

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Simple Sunflower

"This photo was taken in the spring, but I always think of sunflowers as an autumn flower." Designed by Allison Jirsa from United States.

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Movember

"For a weird reason, Australia and New Zealand celebrate Moustache November. And USA and Canada call it No Shave Month." Designed by Sahil Khan from India.

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Knitting Fall

"Cosy and bright knitting wallpaper will warm you on cold fall days." Designed by Maria Fisenko (marylika) from Ukraine.

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Channel 11

"Have a nice November!" Designed by Marco Palma from Italy/Germany.

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Expanse

"The shear magnitude of our corner of creation is inconceivably small compared to the known universe, which overshadows our solar system 1.25 quadrillion (successor to trillion) to 1 in diameter alone. Humility in this great expanse should be instinctive." Designed by Coswyn from United States.

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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 this month? Please let us know in the comments! And have a smashing November, folks!

(vf)

© Vitaly Friedman for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: Wallpapers

Transparent CSS Sprites

One of the most useful front-end development techniques of recent years is the humble “CSS Sprites”. The technique was popularised by Dave Shea on A List Apart in 2004 with his article CSS Sprites: Image Slicing’s Kiss of Death. CSS Sprites are a relatively simple technique once you understand the fundamentals and it can be applied in all manner of ways. A common use is for a graphic intensive navigation, but it can also be useful for buttons or even styling headings with the corporate font.

Sprites are simply a collection of images which are merged together to create a single file. You then use CSS, changing the

the image, to display the correct part of the image you need. I often use the analogy of a large object passing a window — you only see what is within the frame.

Over the last couple of years CSS Sprites has been one of the most widely adopted CSS-related techniques. Popularised by the Yahoo’s research and documentation around speeding up your website, many high profile websites implement the technique, including Google and Amazon. There are numerous tutorials which help you get to grips with the techniques and sprite generators which help you create the graphics themselves.

The Benefits and Potential Problems

CSS Sprites have become a de-facto way of improving the speed of your website or web application. Merging multiple images in to a single file can quickly reduce the number of HTTP requests needed on a typical website. Most browsers only allow for two concurrent connections to a single domain so although individual files can be large, the overall request and response times are considerably lower. Combining images with similar hues also means the colour and compression information is only need once, instead of per file, which can mean an overall reduced file size when compared to the files individually.

The benefits of reduced file size and HTTP requests are often publicised, but potential problems are rarely ever discussed. One of the main techinical issues with CSS Sprites is memory usage which is explained in the article “To Sprite Or Not To Sprite”. Another issue is the maintenance of the sprites, the images and the CSS, both of which can become rather complicated.

A Technological Solution

A common practice in solving slow-down in computing seems to simply throw in more hardware. We all know hardware prices are dropping all the time, so this seems like a reasonable solution. However, I feel there is a fundamental flaw with this philosophy and ingrained mentality. Developers have access to more computing power and as such they code their applications to be handled in these environments. With each new feature the application becomes slower and slower, but this problem has already has a solution — upgrade your hardware. This is an endless cycle.

Many of the user interfaces people come across today are on the Web. This means the user has to download most of the related material (images, CSS, JavaScript) before interacting with the content, so the same philosophy must be applied to the Web. Websites, or more recently web applications, are becoming more complex, even replacing many desktop applications, therefore the user must first download more and more information before beginning their experience.

Although file sizes required to view a website have increased dramatically over recent years, more and more people are upgrading their Internet connections, with broadband becoming the norm in many countries. This cycle conforms to the hardware upgrade philosophy and in theory should negate any potential user experience problems.

However, web developers are falling in to the same trap which many application developers have before. As layouts become more complex, more images are required and so the developer creates more images — even if they are sprites. This seems like a reasonable assertion, but it doesn’t mean it is the best solution.

A Twist on the Technique

Due to the limitations of the Web, there have been many inventive solutions to problems. But the Web isn’t the only place where there can be very tight limitations. Innovation strives on limitation. A great example of this was in the iconic game Super Mario Brothers where the bushes were just recoloured clouds.

This very simple but extremely effective implementation made me think about how to reuse common interface elements, trick the user to believe something the same is different!

Now on to the twist, this idea is to create a transparent sprite allowing the

to show through. If you are familiar with CSS Sprites, you should be able to grasp this twist relatively easily.

Simply, an image with a transparent “knocked-out” transparent center is placed over a background colour. Changing the background colour changes the appearance of the element. The only thing you need to pay attention to is that the colour surrounding the transparent part of the image matches the background in which you are using the techinque. This stops the background colour bleeding in to other parts of your image.

Anyway, this technique is much easier to understand in an example…

Example

The following example is only made up of three images. One for all the font samples, one image for both sets of droplets, including hover and active states, and one for the all buttons.

The Images

Fonts
The font image contains transparent typefaces on a white background, meaning they aren’t viewable on a white background. Save the file from the example, open it in your favourite graphics editor and you will see the transparent typefaces.

Drops
The drops image is used on the example above as the colour picker. A single graphic containing the gradient drop on the two different backgrounds, so the

is masked out correctly. The image contains all three states used in modern interactive interfaces — static, hover/focus, pressed/active.

Button
The button technique is the most flexible and probably most useful way to use this technique. A simple sprite image containing two states — static and hover/focus — which is then placed over text to create the button. Simply adding a

will make every use of this button the same style across your application or website.

Below is some CSS which styles simple fixed width buttons with a grey background colour, but also has two different treatments, “warning” and “go”, which have red and green background colours respectively.

a.button {
  display: block;
  width: 80px; height: 30px;
  margin: 0 20px;
  font-size: 14px; line-height: 30px; color: #fff;
  text-align: center; text-decoration: none;
  background: #4a4a4a url(button.png) no-repeat 0 0;
}
a.button:hover,
a.button:focus,
a.button:active {
  background-position: 0 -40px;
}
a.button.warning {
  background-color: #ea1d22;
}
a.button.go {
  background-color: #309721;
}

The CSS above produces the following buttons:

• Normal
• Button
• Continue
• Go!
• Stop!

Conclusion

This techinque could be useful when providing a range of themes for a website. You could create one set of buttons and icons then add the background colour which best suits the selected theme.

Although this technique will never be as broadly useful as the original CSS Sprites, the idea can be useful for websites which allow user theming. The technique could also be used when creating HTML mockups, allowing you to easily update colours based on client feedback.

The main benefit this technique has is that it reduces the number of HTTP requests. But it also reduces browser memory usage compared with what would be needed if you created a larger sprite to handle all the colours you need.

I would like to mention one caveat though, IE6, because it does not natively support transparent PNGs. There are PNG fixes, but none¹ of these support

which is needed if you are using this technique with CSS sprites, such as with the buttons and droplets above. However, you could provide a slightly less optimal experience using GIFs instead.

1. The IE PNG Fix from TwinHelix does include support for

, but the solution requires JavaScript.

Further Resources

If you are interested in any aspect of CSS Sprites, check out the following extra resources.

• Fast Rollovers Without Preload – the initial inspiration for CSS Sprites.
• SpriteMe – a bookmarklet to generate sprites based on an existing website.

Below are a list of links used within the article:

• CSS Sprites: Image Slicing’s Kiss of Death – the A List Apart article by Dave Shea.
• Yahoo! Performance Guideliness – best practices, tools and research from Yahoo!
• CSS Sprite Generator – a tool to help you create your sprites by Ed Eliot.
• To Sprite Or Not To Sprite – an article about some potential system performance caveats with sprites.

© Trevor Morris for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: CSS

Take The Initiative and Create Your Own Projects

During my last job with a large corporation, people started to get laid off. Many fellow creatives came to me, as they had no idea what they would do if they were let go. I had come to that small city from New York and my experience was varied and impressive to those who started their careers with this company. Their parents had hoped for their own children to work there and eventually retire in the same homey place. They were anchored in this town that held no other industries. Like layoffs in a town that has a steel mill, there weren’t many options to those looking for work.

“You’re creative,” I would tell people before my turn came in the next to last round of layoffs (which is some comfort). “You can do so many things that are creative. If you get pushed out the door, make your own projects!” Then advise them where to go and spend the rest of the day creating a book, or painting a series for a gallery show, or create postcards, greeting cards, dolls and websites. This was usually followed by the persons to whom I was speaking to, to ask about something they obviously wanted to explore; leading to a discussion, usually joined by others as well, on how to achieve it. The dividing line is how badly does one want it?

Take The Initiative!

Tailor (A) gives creative (B) a snappy new “power suit”, SO irresistible that the client (C) hugs the suit (D) causing it to hit paddle (E), smashing expensive vase (G) and wasting a perfectly goof head of cabbage (I). Further destruction reigns havoc (K – P), dousing all competitors with a toxic chemical (Q). Illustration by Rube Goldberg.

I’m a big believer in self-propelled initiatives. It’s how I make a living. Writing for Smashing Magazine is an initiative. Everything is done before Smashing ever sees it. Authors have to come up with the idea, research it for presentation, get the approval and then write it and submit it. It’s initiative. As with what you may perceive as easy to pitch an article, most initiatives are simple!

All of my career I’ve had people come to me to relay that they have written a book and need a cover or images for the inside so they can send it to a publisher. I tell them they don’t need all that. Just send in the manuscript with a self-addressed-stamped-envelope (many publishers have digital submissions on their sites) and the publisher will choose cover designers and illustrators themselves.

Some people smile at the realization that their dreams were an easy step closer. Some didn’t believe me and insisted I design something for them (and draw, because I’m an “artsy-type!”). I look over the pages and tell them it’s an idea that shouldn’t be “set aside lightly”. They smile and then I tell them it should be “thrown with great force” (with apologies to Dorothy Parker). Some people want it to be done for them. Maybe it’s the prompting of a contest or a “might-as-well-take-it” project.

Would you rather be working on a low-paying project that is screwing you up at every turn or invest in yourself with the time put towards your dream project? It’s not hard coming up with an idea and creating the images, code or what-have-you. The difficult part is making yourself do it and then selling it and that’s where most people fail.

One of my recent favorite self-initiative stories was about an injured creative with time on his hands and a need for income. Dave is a designer at the Iconfactory and responsible for the ultimate Twitter icon Ollie the Twitterrific bird; he had broke his foot while playing soccer over the Fourth of July. That meant that the poor guy was relegated to staying off his feet at home. Rather than wallow in self-pity, he decided to use the opportunity to keep himself from going completely Rear Window and offer up his design skills to the large Web community — and successfully so!

Self-initiative is not easy for most people. Working for someone else provides a regular paycheck, security, after a fashion, and someone telling you what to do. No self-motivational projects needed. As one person commented on a past article on crowdsourcing,

“I recently participated in the LG “Design the Future” contest (yeah, I didn’t win)… but rarely do I get the chance to design a cell phone like product… it was a great exercise in creativity and it really let me flex my muscle… and they had some substantial cash prices (first prize was $20,000)… I feel like competitions like that are great for the industry. The rules were pretty relaxed and it really let people go hog wild and show off what they can do. Too often you’re forced to roll with the clients vision. It’s great to have a contest that let’s you be you.”

As I was arguing the pros and cons of crowdsourcing in that article, I just had to reply for his edification:

“I understand your point, but let me play devil’s advocate and explore another option. So you submitted something you really enjoyed designing and it stretched your creativity. You loved your final submission. You didn’t win and the client, I assume, owns it anyway. What if you had designed it but not submitted it and then sought out companies that might purchase the rights to the design? You would have taken a cue to create your own initiative and owned the product rights.”

Was the prize worth giving away all rights to the winner? What would the client have paid a design firm or freelancer to do the work? I’m guessing that the prize cost was considerably less than the one that would have run the company. So, who was the real winner? Which avenue held a better chance for him? The odds of him winning the contest and giving up the idea anyway without winning, or the odds of him being able to sell the design on the open market, or  maybe not, but owning it to try again? I can’t say.

Persistence in selling the idea and protecting it can be daunting. Even though, sometimes even an e-mail comes back right away that says, “I love it!”… and a check eventually arrives. (Note: you shouldn’t participate in such speculative design work as a professional in the first place and here is why — Smashing Editorial)

What Will Get You Started?

A tidal wave of ideas or bills (A) will motivate another creative nearby to foolishly open an umbrella (E) in a lame attempt to hold back the flood, causing what looks like a giant earring (H) to fall and pull the hammer (J) so it strikes a piece of metal (K), waking up the baby (L) who must be rocked to sleep (N) by a trained and poorly-paid dog (M), causing the attached backscratcher (O) to tear at your flesh until you decide it’s better to get off your rear and do something. Illustration by Rube Goldberg.

Your idea. Your dream. No one will do it for you. Even if you have to work at something non-creative — use the money to live, but make your dream the priority. Crappy job gets in the way of your dream? Find another crappy job! They’re everywhere and except for the slaughterhouse idea, they won’t drain your creativity. Have the idea? Now set your plan. Just like your previous boss who had always made projects go around and around, it’s finally time to make your own plan, knowing it will work better, and make it happen!

First, research who your customer is. Using Web sources or going to stores are the best way to find out some helpful examples of consumer habits (yes, marketing people never leave the office, they rely too much on figures supplied to them). See what people are buying and talk to them. I used to go to stores that carried products made by the company for which I worked for, and watched what people bought or didn’t and asked them why.

I would smile as I approached them, excuse myself and explain what I was working on and gathered their opinions. This is probably why my products sometimes sold very well. Know your consumer base!

Also, figure out costs and how you will cover them. You may need a loan or investors. What website and functionality will you need? Packaging, having stock, shipping, advertising, taxes? Is your dream project for you to start a business or do you want someone else to produce it? If you are producing it yourself, you can get a business loan, but you are about to take many, many risks. Get legal and financial advice next. It’s well worth the money and will give you the final tally of whether or not this will be your dream or nightmare.

If you are creating something to pitch to a company for their purchase or licensing a property (certain photos for calendars and cards, for instance), there are a similar but different set of rules.

Start with the idea and marketing, create a style guide and/or presentation. A friend of mine wanted to publish a graphic novel for a pitch for a property she was trying to sell but couldn’t afford upfront fees for an artist and writer and printer, so I told her to use a WordPress blog to post her promotional material that she already had and that would give her a great presentation — the easy way.

Research which company you think would want to take on the project. Again, go online or to a store and look around. Want to really impress potential clients? Ask the store’s permission to set everything up; take videos of shoppers and their answers. What better way to produce proof of a need and then give clients the means to fulfill it!? Let your imagination run wild! As with the man who was so excited by the contest he entered, stretch yourself creatively.

Found the perfect prospect? Do your research and find the people you need to reach. There are many business networking sites. Search the company and find people and their titles. Get addresses and phone numbers. Call the receptionist and ask her/him who is the head of marketing or if they have an R & D contact person. If they don’t know, ask to speak to the secretary of the VP of marketing. Maybe she/he can get you closer. Also, use your network. Do any of your contacts know someone you are trying to reach?

Sounds difficult? It isn’t really; just keep in mind that it takes a lot of persistence, patience, as well as a good sense of humor. Once you lost one of those, you won’t make it.

A Non-Disclosure Agreement Is Standard

While feeding yourself (A), the spoon pulls the string (B), flipping a piece of drilled iron into the head of a parrot (E), who is knocked unconscious and knocks it’s beak into a bowl (G) which spills parrot food into a bucket (H) that sets of fireworks (K) inside your house with a razor sharp sickle (L) attached to it, cutting the string (M) and forcing you to remember the paperwork to enforce your rights by smacking you in the face with a contract repeatedly! Illustration by Rube Goldberg.

It’s standard to either have your own Non-Disclosure Agreement or pick up a copy of Tad Crawford’s book on contracts and forms. Bigger companies will insist on using their own. Bigger corporations, to their own detriment, usually have no access point for outside ideas. They are afraid your idea may be something they are working on and they will be sued down the line. Middle-sized companies will just tell you they happen to be working on the same idea. Document your contacts and submissions well.

I was recently told over a dozen product designs would not be used. I later heard the products were available in every catalog world-wide. Did they think my price would go up if I found out how well the work did? You bet it will! Keep your expectations high (expect the middle to low high) when negotiating. A recent question came in from an artist in Mexico who ran across a sleazy representative in the United States who was basically ripping her off for one of her licensed characters. She had jumped at the chance because it was her first time working in a licensing arrangement. I hope she followed my advice.

As with any business transaction… think! Anyone who rushes your decision is up to something. Do your research and see what you find.

Bless The Web And All Who Surf It!

Extended and dangerous hook (A) catches old fashion sign (B), causing electrical shorts that start a fire and the boot to swing back, kicking the football (C) over the goal post (D) and into a colander (E) which tips the watering can (G) to soak the creative’s back, pants and shoes, which will lead to misunderstandings and new nicknames. The string (I) pulls open the cage (J) allowing the bird (K) to go to eat the worm (M), as the bird had been starved in retaliation for all the Twitter fails, causing the shade to be pulled down (N), which reminds the creative to mail that proposal in his pocket. Using theiWeb only takes half the steps. Illustration by Rube Goldberg.

The Web holds a billion of possibilities. As I mentioned about my friend who built a blog, rather then going through the costs of print, you can hardly lose with a great idea and the ability to bring it to life on the Web. With e-commerce made so easy, how can you not have a site that sells something? At least most of the people I know have a Cafepress or Zazzle “shop”.

When I first started with web design, back in the days when processors ran on mud and sticks… and fire, which was new, I put up sites for my infamous chili recipe, one for each of my kids, a site for toy collectors, and it went on. Why? The Web was young and there were probably only 73 sites live and forty of them were mine!

Use your down time. Partner with friends and split the rewards. Ever hear of a group of social outcasts who got together and created something called “The Onion?” No? I haven’t either, but I do hear good things and that they crawled their way up to be, I believe, the number one humor site in the world. It must have started with an idea and someone’s dream.

(ik) (vf)

© Speider Schneider for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: creative, initiative, projects, spec

How to create a kick-ass CSS3 progress bar

Please note: The original CSS3 progress bar shown in this tutorial has been created by Ivan Vanderbyl, which hereby gave me the right to reproduce and document his work.
The following tutorial and the demo works best on Chrome and Safari, correctly on Firefox and very badly in Internet Explorer (eh…I’m sure you hadn’t guessed that).

The Demo

Click on the image to view a live demo. You can also get the source on Github.

Getting ready

Let’s start by organizing our work. To achieve the effect of this tutorial, we’ll need to create 3 files:

• progress.html

  , which will contain our markup.

• ui.css

  which will contain our CSS styles.

• progress.js

  which will contain some additional jQuery animations.

Create a directory on your webserver (or hard drive) and create the files.

The HTML markup

Here we go. Open your

file and paste the following markup in it:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
	<meta charset="utf-8">
	<title>Pure CSS Progress Bar</title>

	<link rel="stylesheet" href="stylesheets/ui.css">
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="stylesheets/ui.progress-bar.css">
</head>
<body>
	<div id="container">
		<div id="progress_bar" class="ui-progress-bar ui-container">
        	<div class="ui-progress" style="width: 79%;">
				<span class="ui-label" style="display:none;">Processing <b class="value">79%</b></span>
      		</div><!-- .ui-progress -->
    	</div><!-- #progress_bar -->  

		<div class="content" id="main_content" style="display: none;">
	    	<p>Hello, World!</p>
	  	</div><!-- #main_content -->
	</div><!-- #container -->
</body>
</html>

Let me explain the code a bit: On line 1, I’ve declared a HTML5 doctype. Then, lines 12 to 16 contains the markup for the progress bar itself. If you save the file and view it in your browser right now, you’ll see that nothing appears. Don’t worry, we’re going to apply so CSS3 magic in a minute.

Diving into CSS3

Open your

file and paste the following code in it. There’s nothing fancy there, just some basic styles (that I’ve simplified from the original source) for the layout.

body {
  background:#eee;
  padding: 30px;
  font-size: 62.5%;
  font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
  position: relative;
  margin: 0;
}

#container {
  margin: 0 auto;
  width: 460px;
  padding: 2em;
  background: #DCDDDF;

}

.ui-progress-bar {
  margin-top: 3em;
  margin-bottom: 3em;
} 

.ui-progress span.ui-label {
  font-size: 1.2em;
  position: absolute;
  right: 0;
  line-height: 33px;
  padding-right: 12px;
  color: rgba(0,0,0,0.6);
  text-shadow: rgba(255,255,255, 0.45) 0 1px 0px;
  white-space: nowrap;
}

Once you are done, we can finally get into more serious things. The code below will make your progress bar come to life. I’ll explain it in details in a minute. For now, copy it and paste it in your

file.

@-webkit-keyframes animate-stripes {
  from {
    background-position: 0 0;
  }

  to {
   background-position: 44px 0;
  }
}      

.ui-progress-bar {
  position: relative;
  height: 35px;
  padding-right: 2px;
  background-color: #abb2bc;
  border-radius: 35px;
  -moz-border-radius: 35px;
  -webkit-border-radius: 35px;
  background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left bottom, left top, color-stop(0, #b6bcc6), color-stop(1, #9da5b0));
  background: -moz-linear-gradient(#9da5b0 0%, #b6bcc6 100%);
  -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0px 1px 2px 0px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5), 0px 1px 0px 0px #FFF;
  -moz-box-shadow: inset 0px 1px 2px 0px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5), 0px 1px 0px 0px #FFF;
  box-shadow: inset 0px 1px 2px 0px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5), 0px 1px 0px 0px #FFF;
}        

.ui-progress {
  position: relative;
  display: block;
  overflow: hidden;
  height: 33px;
  -moz-border-radius: 35px;
  -webkit-border-radius: 35px;
  border-radius: 35px;
  -webkit-background-size: 44px 44px;
  background-color: #74d04c;
  background: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0 0, 44 44,
    color-stop(0.00, rgba(255,255,255,0.17)),
    color-stop(0.25, rgba(255,255,255,0.17)),
    color-stop(0.26, rgba(255,255,255,0)),
    color-stop(0.50, rgba(255,255,255,0)),
    color-stop(0.51, rgba(255,255,255,0.17)),
    color-stop(0.75, rgba(255,255,255,0.17)),
    color-stop(0.76, rgba(255,255,255,0)),
    color-stop(1.00, rgba(255,255,255,0))
  ), -webkit-gradient(linear, left bottom, left top, color-stop(0, #74d04c), color-stop(1, #9bdd62));
  background: -moz-repeating-linear-gradient(top left -30deg,
    rgba(255,255,255,0.17),
    rgba(255,255,255,0.17) 15px,
    rgba(255,255,255,0) 15px,
    rgba(255,255,255,0) 30px
  ), -moz-linear-gradient(#9bdd62 0%, #74d04c 100%);
  -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0px 1px 0px 0px #dbf383, inset 0px -1px 1px #58c43a;
  -moz-box-shadow: inset 0px 1px 0px 0px #dbf383, inset 0px -1px 1px #58c43a;
  box-shadow: inset 0px 1px 0px 0px #dbf383, inset 0px -1px 1px #58c43a;
  border: 1px solid #4c8932;
  -webkit-animation: animate-stripes 2s linear infinite;
}

Save your

file and view

in your web browser, and you’ll see your gorgeous progress bar, done without using any image.
So, what’s inside? Let me explain the code a bit.

First, we have two CSS classes:

and

. The first is the container, and the second is the green progress bar.

• Lines 1 to 9: These lines define a webkit-specific animation, which allows us to move an element from a pint to another.
  For more details about webkit animations, see http://webkit.org/blog/324/css-animation-2/.
• Line 16: The
  border-radius

  CSS3 property allows you to define a radius and get rounded corners.

• Line 17: Mozilla specific property for
  border-radius

  .

• Line 18: Webkit specific property for
  border-radius

  .

• Line 19: The -webkit-gradient property allows you to add a gradient to an element. It works only on Webkit, other browsers will ignore this property.
• Line 20: Mozilla specific property, similar to
  -webkit-gradient

  with a different syntax.

• Lines 21 to 23:
  box-shadow

  (and its browser specific alternatives) allows you to add a shadow to an element.

• Line 34: Webkit specific property, based on the standard
  background-size

  property, which allows you to specify the size of a background image.

• Line 56: Triggers webkit animation defined on line 1.

Final touch: Using jQuery to animate the progress bar

A pure CSS3 progress bar is a very cool thing, but progress bars are here to show progress, so we have to animate it. We’re going to use jQuery to do so.

Open your

file and paste the two line below just above the closing

tag.

<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.2/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>
<script src="progress.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>

This code will load jQuery from Google (Which I recommend to do instead of loading your own copy) as well as your

file, which will contain the required code to animate the progress bar.

Now, paste the code below in your 

file:

(function( $ ){
  $.fn.animateProgress = function(progress, callback) {
    return this.each(function() {
      $(this).animate({
        width: progress+'%'
      }, {
        duration: 2000, 

        easing: 'swing',

        step: function( progress ){
          var labelEl = $('.ui-label', this),
              valueEl = $('.value', labelEl);

          if (Math.ceil(progress) < 20 && $('.ui-label', this).is(":visible")) {
            labelEl.hide();
          }else{
            if (labelEl.is(":hidden")) {
              labelEl.fadeIn();
            };
          }

          if (Math.ceil(progress) == 100) {
            labelEl.text('Done');
            setTimeout(function() {
              labelEl.fadeOut();
            }, 1000);
          }else{
            valueEl.text(Math.ceil(progress) + '%');
          }
        },
        complete: function(scope, i, elem) {
          if (callback) {
            callback.call(this, i, elem );
          };
        }
      });
    });
  };
})( jQuery );

$(function() {
  $('#progress_bar .ui-progress .ui-label').hide();
  $('#progress_bar .ui-progress').css('width', '7%');

  $('#progress_bar .ui-progress').animateProgress(43, function() {
    $(this).animateProgress(79, function() {
      setTimeout(function() {
        $('#progress_bar .ui-progress').animateProgress(100, function() {
          $('#main_content').slideDown();
        });
      }, 2000);
    });
  });

});

Save the file, and view

in your web brower: Wow, the progress bar is now animated. How cool is that?

This Javascript code makes the progress bar go from 0 to 100, and then, it displays a message, which is simply “Hello World” in our tutorial.

I hope you enjoyed reading this tutorial as much as I enjoyed writing it. Have fun with CSS3!

Like CatsWhoCode? If yes, don’t hesitate to check my other blog CatsWhoBlog: It’s all about blogging!

How to create a kick-ass CSS3 progress bar