Since I started my blog almost a year ago I’ve written almost a thousand posts, made a ton of amazing and talented friends, and learned that keeping a blog going isn’t as easy some people make it look. I’ve also felt that I wanted this blog to be more, and do more, than a normal blog does. Finding the new, cool thing is fun and all, but my blog has grown so much since I started it that I felt like I should try and do something more, something that would benefit you, the reader.

First and foremost I decided that I wanted this project to be something that was free. Well, free doesn’t leave a whole lot of options that don’t include me going into debt, so I had to be creative. What I decided to do was start a project based off the of the Radiohead desktop wallpapers I created last year in honor of In Rainbows coming out. But this time around, I decided to write all of my favorite artists and designers, many of which you’ve seen featured on this blog, and see if they’d contribute a wallpaper. As it turns out, my favorite artists and designers happen to be some of the nicest people out there, and so many of them were more than happy to help and be a part of this project, which I’ve called The Desktop Wallpaper Project.

Here’s the plan: I’ll be releasing one desktop wallpaper every Wednesday morning (California time) until I run out of wallpapers. They’ll be free to download, and come in a multitude of monitor sizes, as well as iPhone and PSP versions just for the fun of it. As of writing this, there are 60 artists involved with the project, some of them providing multiple wallpapers. Who are these 60 artists that are participating? Well I’m not telling because I really like secrets and surprises, and I want you all to be surprised and excited come Wednesday.

To get things started though, I’m releasing three wallpapers by three amazing artists, Tim Biskup, Mcbess, and IMAKETHINGS. Having to narrow down which three wallpapers would go first wasn’t easy, but I wanted to give you a good idea of what the coming months have in store. There are going to be some of the biggest artists out there today, mixed in with some artists you may have never heard of. But the one thing they all have in common is just how damn amazing and creative they all are. So without further ado, here are the first three wallpapers.

Tim Biskup is one of those artists that I’ve admired for years now and consider to be one of the best out there. I first came across his artwork on a Gama-Go t-shirt which I bought in Villains on Haight Street. It was a design called Gama Turtle, a giant blue monster with some janky looking teeth and a massive spiked shell. Since then he’s created vinyl figures, giant murals and fine art that’s hung in galleries all over the world.

In his wallpaper is a little character he created called Calli, which in real life are cardboard cut-outs which turn into tiny stackable figures. I oddly enough bought a bunch of these as X-mas and birthday presents for friends, unbeknownst to Tim when he was creating this. In between the figures is the kanji for Black Fox, aka Kitsune Noir.

Mcbess is the alias of Matthieu Bessudo, an amazing illustrator who lives in France and graduated from the art school Supinfocom in 2006. I came across Matthieu because of an awesome little animation project he helped work on called Sigg Jones, which was one of the best things I watched all last year. He ended up sending me a link and I was totally blown away by his style, somewhere between old Disney cartoons and anime. I honestly have no idea what’s going on in the wallpaper above, but I’m absolutely in love with it, and I’m sure that Mcbess is going to become a huge star in the illustration world.

Our last wallpaper for today comes from IMAKETHINGS, better know by friends and loved ones as Andrew Groves. Andrew is a British illustrator who’s style borders on the edge of creepy and cute. His art is inhabited by tons of black creatures with bright white teeth and red eyes. But then he places them into the magically colorful backgrounds, and for some reason they don’t seem so scary any more, just awesome.

The image above is some sort of haunted forest, or so I’d guess. I’m especially fond of the floating crystals which are also hanging out, though I doubt they’re haunted. The color of this wallpaper alone instantly made it one of my favorites.

I just want to say thank you to all the artists that are involved with this project. Without them this obviously wouldn’t have been near exciting. I also want to take a moment to invite anyone reading this to send me their artwork for an opportunity to be a part of The Desktop Wallpaper Project. I’m sure there’s a ton of amazing art out there that I haven’t seen yet, so please send things to hello@kitsunenoir.com. Be forewarned that I may not be able to get back to everyone, so if you don’t hear back from me don’t hate me!

Please come back next Wednesday to see who’s wallpaper will pop up next! And if you want to stay alerted of DWP goings-on, sign up for the memo in the sidebar. You never know, it could be worth your while!

Bobby

P.S. My friend Jacob sent me this wallpaper, which I have to say isn’t quite true, especially after this project.