The Desktop Wallpaper Project + Just Us. with Ben Cain & Tom Edwards
Posted: July 1, 2009 // The Desktop Wallpaper Project

I received an email from a fellow named Will Hibberd a couple months ago asking me if I’d be interested in featuring some of the work from a design collective he helped start in The Desktop Wallpaper Project. The collective is called Just Us., and is made up of a number of young designers and recent graduates from the U.K. They’ve banded together to pool their talent, I think the idea being that if you one of them gets noticed, there’s a chance another of them might as well.

Looking through their work, I realized this was one extremely talented group of people. But the DWP is only once a week, and I wanted to be able to feature these young creatives faster then that. So Will and I plotted and planned and came up with a novel idea. We decided to release a wallpaper every weekday for the entire month of July. Monday through Friday, nonstop wallpapers, a constant stream of beautiful art.

The wallpapers I’ve received are pretty amazing, and I’m sure many of you will be finding new favorite artists over the next month. I’ve also decided on a different format for these artists. I’ve asked them some basic information about themselves and to describe their wallpapers, just to give a bit of insight. I can’t wait to show you all the rad stuff we have in store. Their styles are all over the place and there’s definitely something here for everyone. I hope you enjoy the next month of wallpapers and we’ll see you back tomorrow.



Name: Ben Cain
Degree/College: BA (Hons) Illustration, University for the Creative Arts (Maidstone)
Website: www.bencain.co.uk

About Your Wallpaper:
Halfway through working on an idea that was really just an excuse for me to draw lots of wolves, I started to think about where the icons would go. I looked at my desktop, which is usually swamped with hundreds of different versions of whatever I’m working on at the moment – left dumped wherever I’d dragged them to – and I started again, trying to design a wallpaper that would work for messy desktop keepers, and letting the icons play a part in the image. I had a couple of scenarios in mind, but I got into drawing divers, so that was that.



Name: Tom Edwards
Degree/College: I’m studying Illustration at the University of Brighton
Website: www.edwardstom.com

About Your Wallpaper:
My wallpaper has no real meaning to it other than the fact that all the little faces are more interested in the fancy gold jewels rather than the flowers and the brilliant colourful shrine.

The Desktop Wallpaper Project featuring Emily Eldridge
Posted: June 24, 2009 // The Desktop Wallpaper Project




Well whaddya’ know, it’s Wednesday already. This week’s artist is the fantastic Emily Eldridge, an artist and illustrator who’s currently living in Hong Kong. I think Emily may just be the first Hong Kong based artist to created a desktop wallpaper! Anyhow I fell in love with her style, her line work is really playful and she has a great sense of shape and color. Everything she does just evokes this really great positivity, something I absolutely agree with.

Emily was kind enough to give away two wallpapers this week, each of them being inspired by the city of Hong Kong. The first was her “interpretation of a vintage-y junk shop with random old electronics for sale”, which she also says she loves to explore and look around in. The second desktop was inspired be her morning commute, which she says there are, “a million people everywhere all the time – always jostling for space, moving quickly, and trying to walk in a straight line (impossible!) and of course, Mr. Fox is in the background, chilling & grabbing some wonton on the go!”

I love love love these, they feel like summer to me.

Bobby

The Desktop Wallpaper Project featuring Cleon Peterson
Posted: June 18, 2009 // The Desktop Wallpaper Project


This week’s wallpaper is an absolute gem, I definitely should have released it yesterday. It’s by an artist that I discovered at New Image Art some time last year I think, who as soon as I saw their work I was completely blown away. His name is Cleon Peterson, a Los Angeles based painter who graduated from Art Center and is just amazing. Cleon uses a strict palette of neon pink, black and white, with the occasional splash of red. His style is intense and graphic, but it’s unlike anything else out there.

For his wallpaper he took a scan of one of his paintings for us. The scene is totally out of time and place, with people fighting, almost like a riot. I would love for someone with a cozy desk job to put this on their background and take a photo of their space, it would be amazing. I’ve also came up with three different iPhone versions, as I couldn’t decide which character to focus on. Enjoy the carnage.

Bobby

This Is Why You Don’t Steal People’s Artwork
Posted: June 11, 2009 // Art + Design + Illustration + Kitsune Noir + The Desktop Wallpaper Project

I got an email from Dustin over at Threadless Select yesterday letting me know that one of the Desktop Wallpaper Project contributors, Kristina Collantes, was having her artwork ripped off. You might remember her wallpapers, filled with beautiful patterns and colors, they’re both really beautiful.

Well some tranny girl named Melissa Ortiz has decided to take her skull wallpaper, blow up the images and make them into masks for some advertisements for some crap-looking wallets she’s made. This is not acceptable. The Desktop Wallpaper Project is an exhibition in which artists can give away their art for your personal enjoyment, like putting it on your desktop so your screen is a bit nicer.

But talking her artwork and using it in an advertisement is bullshit. You’re using someone else’s artwork, something you didn’t commission, credit, or pay for, and used it for your personal gain. Melissa, did you even consider if she’d want you using her beautiful art to be displayed along with your tacky bags? I highly doubt it.

Kristina even emailed this Melissa person to ask her to stop using the photos with her art, and she got this insane response back:

“I believe that it is very rude of your part act like that when it is a free image that one can take of kitsune, we thought that was a way of following your work and to please it, a sorrow gives me great that you take this attitude it was not the idea ” to make yourself be a nuisance “, we hoped to talk to work with you , but already not even desire we have, regards.”

I’d just like to reiterate again that these wallpapers are not for you to EVER make money on, they are purely for your desktop enjoyment, and the rights to all of these pieces of art are property of their respective artists, and always will be. Don’t be an asshat and steal people’s hard work.

End rant.

Bobby

P.S. If you’d like to email Melissa Ortiz and tell her to stop using Kristina’s work you can reach her at melissa.ortiz@tresymedio.com. Please take a second to let her know she’s very wrong.

P.P.S. Sorry if I offended any real transexuals with my tranny remark. As a gay man, who goes to gay clubs, who knows many many transexuals, I didn’t even think about it. I meant no harm and I’ll be more careful in the future.

The Desktop Wallpaper Project featuring Bupla
Posted: June 11, 2009 // The Desktop Wallpaper Project


Good Thursday, sorry for not posting this yesterday. As I was getting this week’s desktop wallpaper ready I realized that last week was Bosque, and this week is Bupla, both odd little B names. Oh well. Bupla is made up of Clémentine Dérodit and Mathieu Quiblier, a French artist and designer who make really cutesy characters and colorful art together. There’s just something about their style that totally grabs me and still feels really unique.

Their wallpaper is quite minimal and almost creepy. I really haven’t the faintest idea of what’s going on, but I love the soft focus and the muted colors. And the little critter by the tooth tree should definitely be made into some kind of plush figure. Enjoy!

Bobby

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