AMB Album

Fwix, a website for local news, aims to be a “real-time local newswire” for your hometown. Offering a combination of traditional content pulled from newspapers and blogs along with items submitted by citizen journalists, the site reads more like a location-based lifestream than a typical news site. Key to the site’s success will be the inclusion of user-generated content coming in from iPhone submissions. The company plans to launch an updated version of their Fwix iPhone application this week which will allow anyone to file news stories, photos, and videos from anywhere, all geo-tagged thanks to the iPhone’s GPS location data.

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The original incarnation of Fwix, launched almost exactly a year ago, focused more on aggregating content from sites like Craigslist and Yelp instead of on local news. Today, the San Francisco-based venture offers up local news streams for nearly 85 cities in the U.S. and has plans to expand internationally later this year.

How it Works

When you first visit Fwix, the site auto-detects your location by looking at your IP address. If you’re in one of the supported cities, you’ll immediately be shown the local homepage for that area. The presentation of the headlines is simple, displaying only headlines and brief one-sentence summaries – perfect for this modern day-and-age where people don’t read entire articles as much as they scan the headlines.

Current news items take up the main part of the page while active (aka “popular”) stories, weather, and site activity panels fill the sidebar. Another interesting feature is the “break” button which appears under each story. By clicking this, you have the opportunity to “break” the story by posting it to Twitter or Facebook. That’s a bit of twist on what people usually mean when they say a news story was “broken by Twitter” – i.e., Twitter was the first place it appeared. In this case, though, you’re just tweeting something that someone already reported. However, in the case of user-generated submissions, you still may be the first to bring the news to the microblogging network.

The iPhone App

According to Fwix’s 22-year-old founder and former Facebook employee, Darian Shirazi, the company’s new iPhone application will make its appearance in the iTunes App Store sometime this week. With the free app, which will let you use your Facebook or Twitter account for sign in purposes, you’ll be able to submit stories, and take pictures and videos (the latter if you use the newer iPhone 3GS which includes video-recording functionality). Your items will then appear on the Fwix web site. You can also use the app to read the news stories from your city.

Although there are plenty of iPhone applications for local news (just do an iTunes search), none really offer what Fwix does. Even CNN’s popular iReport only takes emailed-in submissions for when you’re mobile, there’s no dedicated application. The closest iPhone app competitor is probably outside.in’s Radar (iTunes link), a complement to the company’s own local news service. Radar pulls in relevant news, blog posts, and Twitter updates based on your current location. However, neither it nor any of the others allow you to use their app to actually do reporting like this. And once you’ve submitted your eye-witness report, the news story will make it to the Fwix homepage almost instantly.

With all the talk of the failing newspaper industry and declining revenues, Fwix has come up with an innovative new concept for gathering news. This is precisely the sort of iPhone application your hometown local paper should have thought of first. Unfortunately, they didn’t – which is probably one of the many reasons they’re struggling today. Good thing Fwix is open to syndication. Says Shirazi, the company has some deals “in the pipeline” to offer Fwix content to local media outlets but isn’t announcing anything just yet.

The Fwix website itself gets 400,000 unique visitors per month but their content network receives nearly 8 million, reports Shirazi. (Quantcast reports 7.3 million people globally). If citizen journalists adopt the new app when it arrives, those numbers may soon increase.

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ReadWriteWeb

The Oyster card is an RFID smart card used for electronic ticketing on London public transport services, notably the London Underground and buses. Other countries have similar smart cards. A couple that I’ve come across in real life recently were Boston’s CharlieCard and Wellington’s Snapper card. Some smart cards are used for other types of micro-payments as well as transport – for example Hong Kong’s Octopus card and Japan’s Suica card.

The Oyster Card and others like it are significant from a web technology perspective mainly because they introduce RFID technology to the masses; and this data will eventually end up being utilized on the Internet.

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The way Oyster works is pretty simple: you purchase the card, buy tickets or concessions either at terminals or online, then swipe the card at a Reader when you take a train or bus trip. The Oyster card makes ticketing much more efficient for the consumer: no paper tickets, no handover of cash, little to no interaction with ticketing staff, speedier processing when entering the train station or bus. For the transport authorities, there are cost savings and instances of ticket payment avoidance / counterfeit are greatly reduced.

As the following statistics show, Oyster has been a very large scale deployment of RFID. The statistics are from a March 2008 presentation by Birkbeck College senior lecturer George Roussos:

• 10 million Oyster cards issued
• 5 million journeys a day
• 16,000 readers in stations
• 8,000 buses
• 2,600 readers at external retail points
• cash accounts for 4% today

Oyster Cards & The Web

Right now the Internet isn’t a major part of the Oyster Card. There’s a website for the card, where consumers can purchase cards and refill them (including an auto top-up option). But that’s the extent of the site’s functionality. [UPDATE: Andy Black comments: "You can [also] view your detailed journey history made over the past 8 weeks.”]

The Oyster card has many potential Internet applications, particularly in the retail area. For example you might be offered personalized shopping offers in future, if retailers had access to your travel habits. Of course you may not want retailers to have that data; and therein lies the problem. So far security and privacy have naturally been the main concerns for the Oyster Card and similar smart cards.

Nevertheless, enterprising British geeks have been exploring less serious applications for the Oyster Card over the past few years. The Tinker.it! team in London wrote a post earlier this year outlining creative uses for the Oyster card. One was an interactive exhibition that translated a user’s unique Oyster card id into a unique snowflake, which was then displayed on Tinker.it’s office window for passers-by to play with.

While there isn’t much of an Internet story yet for the Oyster Card, the fact that RFID chips and readers are so widespread in London (and for other smart cards in major cities across the world) means that there’s much more data being produced about people in their everyday lives. That data is destined for the Internet, to be re-used, at which point we will see some very useful applications arise… if the privacy and security concerns can be assuaged.

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ReadWriteWeb

Updated at 4:45 PM PST with a response from Google.

Google has reportedly sent a letter to a high-profile Caribbean investigative website called The TCI Journal saying it will supply the IP addresses used to access the Journal’s primary GMail account unless the Journal supplies a legal counter-motion within the next two weeks. A libel suit filed against the Journal in Santa Clara, California Superior Court concerns its reporting of government corruption in the Turks & Caicos Islands.

This case is just the latest to be followed closely, reported on and even participated in by the controversial public interest document-exposure organization Wikileaks, a website where a staff of journalists and lawyers vet sensitive documents submitted by anonymous independent sources. The status of the case was summarized tonight by Julian Assange, Investigations Editor at Wikileaks.

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According to Wikileaks and other reports, the TCI Journal has a history of reporting on rampant corruption on the Turks & Caicos Islands, a former British colony. “A trail of evidence dug up by the TCI Journal, a UK commission of inquiry, and others,” Assange writes, “showed that foreign property developers were giving millions in secret loans and payments to senior Islander politicians, including an alleged $500,000 cash payment to the Island’s now former Premier, Michael Misick.” According to the UK Guardian, it was due to that corruption that the British government took over key governance processes on the island again earlier this month.

A property developer discussed at length in the Journal’s documentation of corruption and in the official UK government inquiry report is now suing the journal for libel.

Google said the following in a letter to the TCI Journal last week, as posted on Wikileaks and sent to us by the Journal:

To comply with the law, unless you provide us with a copy of a motion to
quash the subpoena (or other formal objection filed in court) via email at
legal-support@google.com by 5pm Pacific Time on September 16, 2009, Google
will assume you do not have an objection to production of the requested
information and may provide responsive documents on this date.

Google has not yet responded to our inquiry asking what the company might do once the TCI Journal does send a motion to quash the subpoena, which we presume it will do. Hiring lawyers in California will likely be an onerous task for a volunteer-run website from a tiny Caribbean island. Journal editors tell us that they hope Google will decide to help them fight the case on 1st amendment grounds.

Update: A Google spokesperson sent us the following response to our inquiry.

“When Google receives legal process, such as court orders and subpoenas, where possible we promptly provide notice to users to allow them to object to those requests for information. Users may raise any and all objections they feel are relevant, including First Amendment arguments. In addition, we are still evaluating all our legal options regarding this particular request.”

In some ways, this case is reminiscent of Yahoo’s providing user account information in 2005 to the Chinese government for journalist Shi Tao’s Yahoo Mail account. Tao allegedly summarized a government order directing media organizations in China to downplay the upcoming 15th anniversary of the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy activists and was sentenced to 10 years in prison for “illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities.”

Discuss

ReadWriteWeb

Creating beautiful, unique websites seems to get harder every day. There are so many amazing website designs out there that coming up with something fresh and different is getting close to impossible. And even if you’re not looking for something entirely unique, creating beautiful designs that don’t look dated is a constant challenge.

Below are twenty excellent techniques and design elements you can incorporate into your designs to create a beautiful, polished website. Combine them or pick and choose which ones you want to use for each project you do. And we’ve also included plenty of examples to give you real-world examples of how designers are using them to create gorgeous website designs.

1. Vivid Colors

Using bright colors in your website designs can add a lot of visual interest. They’re best for sites that want to appeal to younger demographics or for more casual sites. Using colors either in the similar hues or saturation makes for a more cohesive appearance and keeps things from looking too busy.

Make sure when using vivid color schemes that you allow sufficient contrast between elements without using too much (such as red text on a green background). This is especially important with text, as improper contrast can make things very difficult, if not impossible, to read.

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noupe

Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use some specific wallpaper for a long period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers over 12 months.

And to make them a little bit more distinctive from the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you need to look up some date, 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. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free.

Please notice:

• all images can be clicked 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 September 2009?

Snow Leopard

“The new version of Mac OS X, Snow Leopard, has just been released, so I wanted to celebrate it with new artwork. In some way, I designed it in contrary to the OS box design, which is a bit too aggressive. Well, mine is a bit too ’sweet’ probably ” Designed by Vlad Gerasimov from Irkutsk, Russia.

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Colors of Autumn

"Illustration presenting the beginning of autumn." Designed by Berenika Kolaczynska from Poland.

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

Little Paris

"This was fun to play around with.Hope you guys like it.It shows the city center of Bucharest, Romania in the golden era of the city.Back then itwas called “The little Paris”.The image is part of an existing calendar ilustrating the old Bucharest in different times of the year." Designed by Ilie Vlad from Romania.

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

V for Vendetta

"This wallpaper was inspired by the movie V for vendetta (one of my favourites), the quote is from a very dramatic part of the movie where V kills one of the characters after having said the line(hence the blood)." Designed by Luka Dadiani from UK.

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

Caballito

"Ride a small sea horse and find the depth of your own ocean." Designed by pampaneo from Spain.

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Prelude

"An experiment with photo manipulation and digital collage techniques. (Many thanks to&nbspand that provide free high quality images for mixing and alteration. Also, thanks to for the free script font, Porcelain)." Designed by S. Beehler from Canada.

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Sunset Supervisor

"My wallpaper is an illustration of the Sunset Supervisor, Jack the Gecko and the White Elephant on an expedition through the desert of time." Designed by Manuel Esposito from Germany.

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Centuries

Designed by Valentin Bojilov.

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Where Acorns Come from

"Acorns coming to life in September." Designed by Monica Corduneanu from Romania.

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• without calendar: 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1600

Queen

"Forest in Autumn." Designed by Jana Jelovac from Serbia.

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

Sticking Art

"The idea behind my wallpapers is ‘Smashing Magazine’ with it’s amazingway of taking art from every place around the world and putting it infront – it is the way I thank you for everything you do." Designed by Catalin Boroi from Romania.

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Upside Down World Map

Designed by Vlad Gerasimov from Irkutsk, Russia.

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Dussehra

"Dussehra is a very famous festival of hindu people. On this holy day lord ram killed dashanan (rawan). So it is a holy religious day and celebrated as the victory of truth and goodness over bad people. On this day, effigies of Ravana, Kumbhakaran and Meghanad are stuffed with firecrackers and set alight." Designed by Supriya Kunal Dcunha from India.

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Illustration Talk Like a Pirate Day

"A little Illustration for the month of the International Talk Like a Pirate Day." Designed by Leo Lemes from Brasil.

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Shattered

"September marks the beginning of Autumn and this wallpaper design is a geometric depiction of dead leaves falling from trees." Designed by Franz Jeitz from Luxembourg.

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The Jam Factory

"The tastiest jam is being freshly prepared in the sky." Designed by Chris Alexander (Yipori) from England.

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Glowing Grunge

Designed by Sebastian Gonzalez from USA.

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Potato Pirates

"September being the national “potato month”, and having the international”talk like a pirate day” on the 19th, inspired us at gelattina to create a wallpaper, celebrating these two things.. that’s why we have Mr. Potato Pirate and his crew!! ARGGH…" Designed by Débora Márquez from Gelattina, México.

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Neon House Spirit

"This deserted house needs some magic to return for life… so i send him a little bit of neon spirit light, maybe after it will recover his past life…and you some inspiration!" Designed by Dovi Vausk from Lithuania (resident Spain).

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Music

"This is a little wallpaper I did according to abduzeedo’s supercool frilly bits typography tutorial of course i changed a lot of details so as to make it look different. The wallpaper itself has one simple word “Music” why? Because I love music I think u can get the hidden meaning yourself. " Designed by Luka Dadiani from UK.

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Last Melitea

"Just another thought to the summer… September will bring a lot of nostalgia ;(" Designed by m-mstudio from Italy.

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Chicken Sunrise

"”The Inspiration for this Calender is the city of Mumbai itself. The city which usually never sleeps, but gets buzzing right in the early hours!I shot this picture of the hen, who was probably laying her eggs, but looks lost and sleepy in her thoughts! The graphic represents the hustle-bustle of Mumbai, represented by itstwo most common (and cheap) modes of transport- the three wheelers and the vintage FIAT taxi’s! Its Chaotic, Its Grungy, Its loud and Buzzing, but like thischaos has its own symphony which unfolds in front of you everyday!”A little bit about me – I’m Principal – Design at Pineapple Consulting ( www.pineappleconsulting.biz ), we deal into areas like branding and communication design, Product and packagingdesign, and interaction design! Located in Mumbai, India, I’m looking to meet some interesting people and projects from across the world!" Designed by Ameet Mehta from India..

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S for September

"I made this wallpaper because I am a big fan of Typography especially the Old English type, I drew the S myself and then scanned it in and made a wallpaper, I hope you will like it, let me know what u think." Designed by Luka Dadiani from UK.

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Brown September

Designed by Barney from Slovakia.

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First Fog

"This is the day the first fog came to this valley after a hot summer. The castle is preparing for the autumn. My first contribution to Smashing Magazine, feels really good though I didn’t have much timeto work on this one. Thanks for the inpsiration and the best online magazine ever!" Designed by Akif Top from Sweden.

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Field of Gold

"Ready to start again after vacation? Take a deep breath! If you use an unsupported resolution and would like a version please send me an email: I’ll do my best to create it." Designed by Federica Sibella from Italy.

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Darkness with Rays of Light

"Here comes another September filled with equal darkness and rays of light. The darkness and light flows in circles. The birds are tweeting to welcome the spring. The colorful lights are all around.Blessed are us for this is a transformation of energy. That will return three-fold back!" Designed by Puneeta Prakash from India.

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Circles

Designed by Hector Ruiz Gonzales from Peru.

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Curiosity and the Rose

"Alaskan Malamute Dog and Red Rose, This work is dedicated to the Public Domain. You may use this photo for any purpose, including commercial." Designed by Photos8.com from USA.

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The Blessed Night of Al-Qadr

"The first day of September 09 will be the 11th day of the Holy month of Ramadan in the Hijri calendar. The month of Ramadan is a very special month for the entire Muslim nation. Muslims are supposed to fast this holy month. Fasting is from first light of dawn until sundown, abstaining from food, drink, and sexual relations. On the moral, behavioral side, one must abstain from lying, malicious gossip, quarrelling and trivial nonsense. Fasting is a great act of worship for the Muslim which he performs by neglecting his desires to please his Lord and hopes for His Reward. The last 10 days of Ramadan have special virtues. Among the unique virtues of these special nights is that Laylat al-Qadr (the night of veneration or honor) is among them. It is the night on which the Quran was sent down. God described it as being blessed and better than a thousand months. He forgives the previous sins of the one who stays up and prays during this night out of faith and in hope of earning the reward from Him." Designed by Ahmed Hassan Alley from Egypt.

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Walking

Designed by Pedro Quesada from Spain.

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Smashing September

"A type-based wallpaper celebrating Smashing’s September set of wallpapers!" Designed by Justin Zalewski Design from USA.

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The Gift of The Nile

"The Greek historian, Herodotus, wrote that ‘Egypt was the gift of the Nile’, and in a sense that is correct. Without the waters of the Nile River for irrigation, Egyptian civilization would probably have been short-lived. The Nile provided the elements that make a vigorous civilization, and contributed much to its lasting three thousand years." Designed by Mahmoud Ahmed Hamam from Egypt.

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Zommmbie Girl

Designed by John Kichote from Poland.

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Coils

"September, the time when most of the worlds students go back to school after the summer holidays, something to cheer them up." Designed by Aleksey from Australia.

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Septypo

"Best month in the Year. Elegant Helvetica typography." Designed by Dannci from Slovakia.

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Breathe

Designed by Misty Michelle from USA.

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Dogtember

"Dedicated to all doggies missing their masters" Designed by Inna Dekhtiar from Ukraine.

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Bye Bye Beach

"The photo was taken at Sidmouth (England) this summer. The arm is a friend who posed in other photos." Designed by Jesús Ludeña from Guadalajara, Spain.

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September Colors

"”September Colors” wallpaper is based around colourful starting and peaceful endings. Most people think that the most favourable color for the month of September is purple but I refuse to agree. So i created this wallpaper with some mix feelings." Designed by DKumar M. from USA.

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September

"There are many remarkable events in september which make this month importantfor everyone.Some countries celebrate their independence day in it and some nations ascribe its daysfor remembering their heros. 11 September brings sad memories thus many good and bad belong tothis month. It also brings a special day (birthday) for me. Through this typographic wallpaper I try toexpose the value of september." Designed by NarjisNaqvi from Pakistan.

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Autumn Green

"Autumn starts on or around 15 September in solar term. September begins on the same day of the week as December every year. September’s birthstone is the ‘sapphire’ which means clear thinking. The birthflowers for this month are the ‘forget-me-not’, and ‘aster’. " Designed by Sagar from Bangladesh.

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• with calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200
• without calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200

Tea anyone?

"In September the weather gets cold and it starts raining very often, here in Germany. A nice way to keep yourself warm is a delicious cup of tea. I designed a clean wallpaper with some nice typography-elements and a warm cup of tea to express all that." Designed by Jens Thamm from Germany.

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• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

September Sentense

"Just motivating sentence for September " Designed by Temeshi from Poland.

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

A Geometric Vision

"This months wallpaper is inspired by the work of Andy Gilmore with the colours swatch based on the Blade Runner (final cut) DVD cover. The font is called Neighbourhood by Andy Chung" Designed by Paul Randall from England.

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• 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

Rusting Beauty

"Old Changi Hospital in Singapore is a favourite amongst thrill-seekers and photographers for spine-chilling and paranormal experience. Served its purpose during WWII, decades of desolation brought the all-too familiar forlorn spookiness which abandoned architecture tends to present. Hopefully HDR techniques can bring out the rusting beauty in them." Designed by Wong Kuo Tsung Jordan from Singapore.

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• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1600

Hang In There

"Things are always changing – hang in there: it’ll be alright." Designed by Marlaine Weber from Canada.

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

Existence

"Through thought and madness the gods of ages past dwell in eternal etherial lands, where time is lost and insight gained." Designed by Daniel Whyte from New Zealand.

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

Full Moon Dancing

"Just the imagination of the full moon dancing,inspired by the music album named “Buddha Moon”, produced by Chinmaya Dunster." Designed by Smalllotus from China.

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

Dream

Designed by Carolina Araujo from Brasil.

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

September Song

"A dark visualization of “September Song”, a song composed 70 years ago by K. Weill and M.Anderson, recorded by many music monsters (Frank Sinatra, Sara Vaughan, James Brown,Willie Nelson, Lou Reed)… and printed on the background of this wallpaper." Designed by Daniele Marino from Italy.

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

Retro Fall

"Simple and minimalistic wallpaper with a retro feel based on my analog photographs from Tokyo." Designed by Adrian Tomic from Sweden.

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• 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

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 September, folks!

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© Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2009. |
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