The Desktop Wallpaper Project featuring Chad Kouri
January 6, 2010 // The Desktop Wallpaper Project

Good morning, I hope you’re having a nice Wednesday so far. This week’s wallpaper is pretty rad, we’re talking like cutting edge desktop wallpaper technology (insert bad 80’s theme song). This week’s wallpaper comes from the extremely talented Chad Kouri. Chad is a Chicago based artist who works with a lot of collage but also does a bunch of great hand-drawn fonts as well. He also has a solo exhibit opening up this Friday at the Rotofugi Gallery in Chicago from 7 to 10PM, so if you’re in the area be sure to stop by.

Now as I was saying, revolutionary desktop wallpaper technology. What Chad’s done is created sets of wallpapers that come in three colors. With these three colors you can have your computer change your wallpaper to a different color every minute or hour or so. So slowly throughout the day your wallpaper changes color, do you get it?

The links will have you download ZIP files instead of JPGs and I promise they’re virus free, I created them myself. I know you can do this if you’re on a Mac, simply go to System Preferences > Desktop and then choose the folder you downloaded. Below the images there’s a box that says “Change Picture.” Click that and then set the time to whatever you like best. I think you can do this on Windows 7 as well, but I can’t promise anything. If you’re totally lost feel free to leave a comment and I’ll try to help, but honestly this isn’t very hard.

I hope you enjoy the wallpaper and if you’re in Chicago stop by Chad’s show and say hi!

Bobby

The Holiday Wallpaper Competition Winners
December 23, 2009 // The Desktop Wallpaper Project

Well it’s two days before Christmas which makes me realize that I should have had this contest a little sooner. Nonetheless I’ve got three amazing wallpapers for you by three very talented folks… well two of them are folks.

The winning wallpaper comes from a fellow named Luke Pearson who’s an illustrator currently studying at Loughborough University in the UK. I had never seen Luke’s work before but he tweeted something about entering the contest, so I checked out his work and I was really impressed. Thankfully he ended up participating and entered the amazing wallpaper you see at top.

I think this sums up the holidays extremely well. Everyone’s in a hurry, you’ve always got a million things in your suitcase and you try to jam everything into your already over-crowded schedule. Plus I feel like it’s a wallpaper that’s still appropriate even for the next few weeks. Congrats Luke!

Coming second place was Hendra Permana, an Indonesian designer/illustrator who came up with a clever way of detaching from your computer. I also love the little icon of the Santa riding the bike, which is the focus of the iPhone wallpaper as well. Good job Hendra, you totally nailed it.

I decided to create a third place winner as well because I loved their wallpaper so much. It’s from a group of Hawaiin desginers who call themselves Humanhand. They created a very pretty wallpaper that sums up a Hawaiian holiday beautifully. In good conscience I couldn’t let this amazing wallpaper be wasted.

I hope you enjoy these wallpapers, have a wonderful Holiday no matter what you do or don’t celebrate. I have a present waiting for you on Friday, a present that’s long overdue.

Bobby

The Desktop Wallpaper Project featuring Always With Honor
December 17, 2009 // The Desktop Wallpaper Project

Whenever I open up a new issue of Monocle, one of the first things that catches my eye are the illustrations. 95% of the time those illustrations are done by Always With Honor, or as some know them Tyler Lang and Elsa Chaves. They have this highly stylized, minimal colors and shapes kind of thing going that I absolutely love. The fact that they can tell such a rich story with so little always impresses me.

So when Tyler offered their services for the Desktop Wallpaper Project, how could I say no? When Tyler sent this to me it was just a random YouSendIt file with no name attached and I was freaking out trying to figure out who it was from. The wallpaper features two cute pups lounging on a rug in what seems to be some kind of study, surrounded by a skull and a globe. I love this wallpaper, it feels seasonal to me, and I hope you love it too.

Bobby

Holiday Wallpaper Competition Reminder
December 15, 2009 // The Desktop Wallpaper Project

I just wanted to give you all a little reminder that the Holiday Wallpaper Competition is still going on and you have about a week left to turn in your entries. One lucky winner has a chance to win a set Herman Miller Spinning Tops. I’ve decided to make a second place winner as well who gets a Kitsune Noir Poster Club poster of their choice. I might even include a third place winner if you all start turning in more entries. So far there haven’t been many entries, so get to it!

The deadline is December 21st by Midnight PST.
Please send all submissions to thefoxisblack@gmail.com with the subject “The Holiday Wallpaper Competition”. All submissions should be sent as JPGs and sized to 1920px x 1200px.

Bobby

The Desktop Wallpaper Project featuring Richard Perez
December 9, 2009 // The Desktop Wallpaper Project

I was really feeling the kind of psychedelic, hippy-ish vibe of the previous post so I thought this was a nice way to continue the feeling. This week’s DWP designer is San Francisco based designer Richard Perez whom you might also know as Skinny Ships. I’ve been a big fan of Richard’s work and one of my favorite things he ever did was this fake rebranding of Jell-o. I’ve never wanted to eat anthropomorphic fruit so hard in my life.

His desktop is titled High Eyes (which right now is reminding me of Oscar from Arrested Development) and features a bunch of bugged out looking eyeballs. Funn enough it also kind of looks like it could be a nice, X-Mas inspired background. If your grandma asks I would go with that story. Enjoy the wallpaper and check back next week for another great one!

Bobby