Hvass&Hannibal is a multi-disciplinary arts and design studio based in Copenhagen, founded by Nan Na Hvass & Sofie Hannibal in 2006. All of their designs combine vibrant colour palettes with geometric shapes to great effect. For more inspiration make sure to visit www.hvasshannibal.dk.

The May 2013 Calendar Wallpaper, entitled M2, is minimal geometric design using fresh, summery colours. As the name suggests, this is a stylised form of the letter M (for May). The typography infused with vibrant colours, subtle textures and block shapes should get you in the mood for the upcoming hot summer days. Let’s hope that there will be plenty of days like that in May.

Download the May 2013 Desktop Wallpaper

The following resolutions are available. Simply right-click on the link and choose ‘save target as’.

• 2880×1800 (Retina Display) (non-calendar)
• 2560×1440 (non-calendar)
• 1920×1200 (suitable for 1440 x 900) (non-calendar)
• 1600×1200 (non-calendar)
• 1280×1024 (non-calendar)

iPhone Wallpaper

iPad Wallpaper

Adam Spizak is a Polish multidisciplinary illustrator and designer currently based in London, UK. Combining Cinema 4D with Photoshop Adam manages to create vibrant portrait illustrations of popular characters that’ll make your jaw drop. For more inspiration make sure to check out spizak.com where you get to see close-ups and process studies of most designs.

Sean McCabe is a hand lettering artist, type designer and illustrator from San Antonio, TX working under the moniker seanwes. I’ve been following Sean’s work for quite a while on Instagram and decided to give him the spotlight he deserves. I’ve recently gotten into the hand lettering typography myself and Sean as been one of the biggest influences. For more inspiration make sure to check out seanwes.com

Andrew Fairclough is an independent illustrator, designer and art-director from Sydney working under the moniker of Kindred Studio. I first stumbled across Andrew’s gorgeous vintage illustrations when researching gig poster. He really knows how to add grain, textures and halftone patterns to his illustrations for that authentic vintage look. Not to forget the colour palettes which are beautifully muted. For more inspiration check out kindred.prosite.com

The April 2013 Calendar Wallpaper goes by the name of Last Exit. This is a reference to the Pearl Jam song with the same title. In terms of design the wallpaper combines my favourite elements: type, geometric shapes and subtle textures. After the initial sketch I build all the shapes in Illustrator. Once they were exported as individual smart objects into Photoshop all I had to do was to add the textures and adjust the colours. As always, the calendar comes in the most common resolutions for all of your iGadgets.

April 2013 Desktop Wallpaper

The following resolutions (both calendar & non-calendar versions) are included:

• 2880 x 1800 (Retina Display)
• 2560 x 1440
• 1920 x 1200 (suitable for 1440 x 900)
• 1600 x 1200
• 1280 x 1024

iPhone Wallpaper

iPad Wallpaper

Justin Erickson is an illustrator & graphic designer based in Toronto, ON. Justin’s best known for his amazing movie posters, often sold through Mondo. Each poster, whether minimal or filled with detail, always hits the mark and conveys the feel of the movie perfectly. Below are some examples, for more inspiration make sure to visit justin-erickson.com

Lauren Hom is a graphic designer and illustrator based in New York City. Today I want to focus on one of her personal projects: Daily Dishonesty. This is where Lauren gives lovely little lies a nice typographic treatment. When I first came across this I couldn’t help but smile. I hope this will brighten up your day. For more lovely typography inspiration got to dailydishonesty.com and check out Lauren’s portfolio.

Step 1:

You get sent a file similar to one below. Let’s assume the background and logo colour are quite similar. Using the quick selection tool or ‘selective colour’ method often results in fuzzy edges. Bummer!

Step 2:

Add a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer above the flat logo layer (2) and create a Clipping Mask (3). The default black and white gradient doesn’t cut it though. We need to tweak this a bit.

Step 3:

Double click on the gradient to open it’s settings. Now we have to tweak the position of the stop points in order to get the desired effect. This is the trickiest part and might requires some fiddling around to get the smooth edges between the black logo and white background. When you’re done, just make sure that the logo is in fact 100% black and the background 100% white using the eyedropper tool. Since we’re working with a non-destructive adjustment layer we can always go back to further tweak the stop points.

Step 4:

All that’s left to do is to set your flat logo layer (Merged Layers) to Multiply in the Blending Mode options. That’s it. You’ve now got the logo in black, cut out from the background and ready to place on whichever background you like.

Step 5:

Below is the comparison between the cut out logo and the live text on a coloured background (which represents working with a vector logo). The results are great and will work just fine for web purposes. I wouldn’t recommend using this techniques for print files though.

Extra tip:

If you need the logo in white to place on a dark background you simply have to reverse the gradient colours (not the gradient itself!). So the black stop point should be white and vice versa. Then you simply choose ‘Screen’ as Blending Mode.