Good morning everyone! I hope all of you in the U.S. are having a wonderful 3 day weekend, and that everyone else had a great weekend. I’m so excited to finally show you all the DESKTOP BATTLE! winners from last month! Once again I got a ton of amazing entries and it was pretty hard to pick, but these were definitely my personal favorites.

Our first place winner is Krzysztof Domaradzki, whom some of you may know from his brilliant work over at Studio KXX. Krzysztof has the hardest name ever to type out, but his Darwinian/Walt Whiman/butterfly collage definitely makes it worth it. I love all the details in this image, the colors, the fonts, everything resounded with me, and I pretty much knew this was going to be the winner as soon as I saw it. Plus that beard is absolutely magical!

Congrats Krzysztof on destroying your competition!

Second place goes to the wonderful Zara Picken who brings us a simple but witty entry. As most people know, beards are wonderful places to store bits of food for later consumption, but by the looks of Zara’s desktop, other objects can also get stuck in there, such as corkscrews and fish bones. It’s funny, I’ve been a secret fan of Zara’s for a while now, but it wasn’t until writing this that I really realized who she was. Definitely check out the rest of her work, it’s extremely cute, and yet again congratulations on stomping the competition (well, almost all of it)!

And finally, third place goes to Mr. Jon Correll of Columbus, Ohio. Jon’s entry was also rather witty like Zara’s above, bu his relied upon facial hair to spell out the word moustache, how rad is that?! I think the S and A and T are my favorites, but all of them are pretty dang funny. I also love how old-timey it looks, with a nice amount of attention to the page rot, as well as a good selection color-wise. Follow Jon’s guide and you’ll definitely look better, feel stronger, AND meet women! Good job Jon!

Once again, congrats to the winners and a huge thank you to everyone else who sent in a desktop, you all are awesome! Check back sometime this week for this month’s theme and prize announcement!

Bobby

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DESKTOP BATTLE! with SELECT
Posted: August 4, 2008 // DESKTOP BATTLE!

Oh man I’m so excited! So it’s already August, which means the next installment of DESKTOP BATTLE! is here and ready to destroy some people’s faces. First I want to start off with the sponsor of this month’s battle, the awesome folks over at SELECT, Threadless’ curated line of t-shirts which feature awesome artists from around the world. I happened to have a connection over there so I was able to score an ample amount of prizes for you all! Here’s the breakdown:

1st place = 5 SELECT t-shirts and 2 issues of Faesthetic
2nd place = 2 SELECT t-shirts and a copy of Faesthetic
3rd place = 1 SELECT t-shirt

In order to win these awesome prizes, I need you to make the most wallpaper you possibly can based around the idea of FACIAL HAIR. That doesn’t mean just drawing some face with a beard on it, I’ll e-crumple your entry for doing that. I want to see crazy ass beards, moustaches on dogs, pencils ’staches on grandmas, and handlebars killing things. I’m hoping this is specific enough without being too narrow, so be super-creative and have a ton of fun with it! Here are the rest of the rules:

Please create your wallpaper at 3840px x 2400px, but send me a small JPG to preview. If you win I’ll ask you to send me your larger sized version. Also be sure to create it in RGB mode only.

You’ve gotta send your wallpaper to me August 24th, 2008 at Midnight PST. Anything sent past this time will be disqualified because I say so.

Send all wallpapers to: desktopbattle@gmail.com
If you have any questions about the project, feel free to leave them in the comments section because someone else could be wondering the same thing!

And because SELECT and I are so awesome, there’s also a free wallpaper today as well from the amazing Andy Rementer. Andy created this design for SELECT but was rad enough to make it into a happening wallpaper for you all. The design on the t-shirt is actually front and back, but he merged them together to make one epic part of a design. Definitely check out the rest of Andy’s work as well, I got all kinds of flustered when I saw this rad Reference Library sign he painted.

I hope everyone has fun with this one, there’s so many rad prizes to be won, not to mention being the jugular-ripping winner of DESKTOP BATTLE! The DWP will still be on for Wednesday as well, so be sure to check back again!

Bobby

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Causecast
Posted: August 1, 2008 // DESKTOP BATTLE! + Kitsune Noir + Life

Hello everyone! I can’t believe it’s August already! Time is certainly flying. I wanted to make a quick post about my lack of posting this week. On Monday I started an amazing new job as the designer for a new startup company called Causecast. Everything is in beta right now, but basically the site connects people to important causes through celebrities and organizations. It’s going to feature a ton of great content like videos and a steady stream of news and info about issues ranging from the environment and animal rights to art and education. You can click the link above to sign up for an email list letting you now when the site gets released, but I’ll also be letting everyone know as well, it should be rad.

So far I’ve been having a blast working there and being creative non-stop. Everyone who works there is so amazingly passionate about the site, but they’re also some of the nicest people I’ve ever met and I feel totally welcomed and appreciated. But this past week I’ve been pretty exhausted as well, it’s been hard to find time for work, a social life, and the blog. So all I ask is for a bit of patience while I find a good balance between all things, because as you know this blog is my baby and I’m not going to abandon it for anything.

I also wanted to say again to be sure to check out the site over the weekend when I’ll be doing a lot of updating, as well as on Monday when the next DESKTOP BATTLE! theme gets announced, as well as the sponsor. I think everyone will be pretty damn excited by the amount of prizes you’ll be able to win, not to mention WHO the sponsor is. Let’s just say it’s kind of cool to have some friends in creative places.

Anyhow, thanks for putting up with my busy-ness, I promise to get back on the ball with things, I just need some time to adjust to things. I hope everyone has a rad weekend!

Bobby

P.S. Big props to the girl at The Groop with short hair and glasses rocking the Jean Jullien wallpaper on her monitor at work, that totally made my day!

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DESKTOP BATTLE! Winners – Ghosts Edition
Posted: July 30, 2008 // DESKTOP BATTLE!

The last Wednesday of the month has finally arrived which means I can reveal the winners of the first DESKTOP BATTLE! Almost everything I got was amazing and it was really hard to chose a winner but here they are in order

Our first place winner is Brad Haubrich. Brad resides in the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA, grew up drawing and skateboarding, and really hasn’t changed much over the years. I really love this image because as Brad describes it, ” It’s a ghost riding on a bike with everything he owns.” Ghost kitties and ghost umbrellas are pretty awesome, plus it makes for a great desktop with lots of free space for icons. Congrats Brad on being the CHAMPION!

Second place goes to Veronica Hebard, who’s way artsy fartsy and went to school at SVA in NYC and MassArt in Boston. Right now she’s illustrating three comics for independent publishers and working on projects with Image and DC Comics. When I first opened this image the first thing that struck me were the colors. I love the colors A LOT; the bright pinks, blues and greens compliment each other and give the scene a feeling of movement. Also, the anime influence, sort of reminds me of James Jean but doensn’t feel like a ripoff.

Gary Goa, the third place winner, is a web developer who dabbles in illustration and photography. Gary got the idea for this image from two places: his fascination with old cameras and the idea that they were once thought to steal your soul. I love ghosts and cameras. Cameras in some cultures are known to steal your soul so this whole idea of ghosts paired with cameras seems like a natural fit.

I just want to send a big thanks out to everyone who submitted! There were a lot to choose from and it wasn’t easy, but I totally appreciate everyone who gave it a shot. Be sure to check back on Monday, not next Wednesday, when I announce next month’s theme and fill you all in on what awesome prizes you can win!

Bobby

18 Comments

The Desktop Wallpaper Project Presents: DESKTOP BATTLE!
Posted: July 2, 2008 // DESKTOP BATTLE! + The Desktop Wallpaper Project

For the past couple weeks I’ve been trying to figure out a way to take The Desktop Wallpaper Project and put a new spin on it. The idea is definitely still fresh and fun, but I wanted a way to connect with you all, the readers, just a little bit more. So I thought, well, why don’t you all start helping out by creating your own? Thus DESKTOP BATTLE! was born (yes, all uppercase, like you’re screaming it at the top of your lungs, haha…).

DESKTOP BATTLE! works like this. I’ll be giving you all a theme at the beginning of each month, it’ll be something random and fun each time, and then you have until the end of the month to email it to me. Then I’ll go through everyone that submits a design and choose my favorite three designs. The judging is based solely on what I think looks the best, there’s no playing favorites or anything like that, it’s just my personal opinion. Then at the end of the month, the top three designs will be displayed on the site and given away as official Desktop Wallpapers. So not only could you, the awesome creative type you are, be seen by lots and lots of people, but everyone who reads the blog now gets three wallpapers to choose from at the end of the month. It’s a pretty win-win situation.

But amazingly, that’s not all! The three top designs chosen will also win prizes! I’ve teamed up with the awesome folks over at Gama-Go to give you guys some pretty awesome rewards as well. The first place winner is going to receive one of their awesome new messenger bags (I have one, it’s crazy nice), second place is going to receive one of their ultra-fun pillows, and third place will get a t-shirt. Not bad a deal, huh?

Here’s the details, so be sure to read this part thoroughly:

This months theme is going to be GHOSTS. Your wallpaper needs to have a ghost somewhere visible on it. Zombies or dead people don’t work, nor do Ghost in the Shell-based wallpapers. Although if you did a Patrick Swayze/Demi Moore wallpaper, you might get kudos for creativity, but you might also get disqualified. If it doesn’t fit these very simple standards, it gets the boot, capiche?

Your wallpaper needs to be created at 3840 x 2400 pixels, but I want you to send me a smaller JPG of the large file instead. I’ve got about 7000MB of space in my Gmail account, but I don’t want giant images clogging things up. Also, don’t post a link to your wallpaper in the comments section. That ruins the surprise and disqualifies your design, no matter how rad it may be.

You must get me your wallpaper by July 27th, 2008 at Midnight Pacific Standard Time. That gives you 25 days to get your design to me, which should be VERY do-able. Anything that comes in later than that will be burned on a sacrificial alter as a tribute to some horrible pagan gods.

Send all wallpapers to: desktopbattle@gmail.com
If you have any questions about the project, feel free to leave them in the comments section because someone else could be wondering the same thing!

And of course, because today is Wednesday, you still get a wonderful wallpaper, this one courtesy of the guys at Gama-Go, since they were kind enough to hook you guys up with prizes!

For some reason or another, Deathbot is totally pissed off and throwing these giant-spiky-mountain things around. I don’t know what his deal is, but makes for an awesome wallpaper, and it looks particularly great on my iPhone. Be sure to check back next week for another awesome wallpaper and be sure to get started on your ghosty drawings! I’m so excited to see what you all come up with!

Bobby

19 Comments