We have almost made it to another month! Tomorrow is the first day of the month in the Gregorian calendar named after Julius Caesar. This month's calendar desktop includes the Roman leader on his "triumphal chariot." I hope you enjoy this one. If so, please pass along the link.

Here's a preview:

Also, thanks to John at I Love Typography for posting the June desktop in his Sunday Type. (Maybe this one will make it, too!) If you have any interest in typography or design, his blog is a must-read! The site is climbing its way to 20,000 subscribers. Be one of them.

Right click and save the desktop below:

1440x900

UPDATE:

John did in fact post this desktop on I Love Typography. (Thanks John!) Be sure to check out the rest this week's Sunday Type.

As you may know already, we don't build Flash websites here at Newfangled. Some of our sites have flash content, but that's as far as we go in that direction. However, we do concede that the control you can obtain with Flash can greatly increase how the experience the user has with the site. For instance, I see a new trend rising of sites (or even parts of sites) that use a "no-click" navigation. In these environments, the roll-over is all that is needed.

The most obvious example, and they take it to the extreme, is www.dontclick.it. You are asked to click one last time before entering the site. After that, if you click...well, I won't spoil it.

Does anyone know if this would be possible without using Flash? 

Bettina posted a video the other day of a musical roller coaster. Below is a still from another musically themed video made from blood! Beautifully done, watch the video here.

I'll be out of the office Friday, and I am not sure if I will have time to post this tomorrow so here we go. Below is the June desktop calendar. This is the third desktop I've posted, and I plan on keeping them coming each month so stay tuned! Grab the RSS feed, and don't be shy about leaving requests for future imagery in the comments.

Right click and save the desktop below:

1440x900 (most of you will probably want this one)

1243x969 (This is the dimensions of my external monitor)

I've been on the hunt for a while now trying to find the best free image-editing software. I reviewed Picnik a while back, and I have been recommending it to clients. From what they have told me, it has been a great resource.
Just when I was feeling good about having found the best comes a whole suite of editing software, all named after birds! The suite is call Aviary. Described on their site as:

A suite of web-based applications (RIAs) for people who create. From image editing to typography to music to 3D to video, we have a tool for artists of all genres.

It's no secret that I love birds so I am anxious to see if these products live up to their branding. Right now use of the products is by invitation only, and I have yet to receive access. I will let you know, once I get in there, exactly what we're looking at. As of now, they have these tools:

Phoenix: Image editor

Toucan: Color swatches and palettes creator

Peacock: Computer algorithm-based pattern generator

Raven: Vector editor

Hummingbird: 3D modeller and skinner

Myna: Audio editor

Roc: Music generator

Starling: Video editor

Owl: Desktop publishing layout editor

Penguin: Word processing software geared towards creative writers

Pigeon: Painting simulator

Tern: Terrain generator (minitool)

Horus: Font editor

Woodpecker: Smart image resizer using seam carving (minitool)

Rookery: A free, unlimited distributed file system network that anyone can connect to and store data in. It also powers Aviary's file search engine.

Hawk: Digital content marketplace

Crane: Custom image product creator

Eagle: A smart online application that can identify complex data about an image based on the pixel patterns (i.e. which specific camera an image originally came from)

Whew! That's a handful. We'll see if it lives up to our expectations. For now, I'll stand by picnik for image-editing. Here is a list of other free resources Aviary will have to compete with:

GoogleSketchup: 3D for everyone (not to be confused with Google's ketchup)

Fontstruct: Create geometric fonts. 

Chocoflop and The Gimp: These are more like Photoshop. Chocoflop for MAc, Gimp for PC. 

Inkscape: Create vector art without Illustrator! 

I Like Your Colors: Type in a url and get the hex colors. 

Stripe Generator: Need a striped background for part of a website you are designing?

Audacity: Cross-platform audio editing software 

Open Office: Replace Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat for free! 

Avidmux: Video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks.

NVU: "A complete Web Authoring System for Linux Desktop, Microsoft Windows and Macintosh users."

Please keep in mind that I have not used all of these, but ahve bookmarked them over time. I link them here just to spread the word, and I hope they come in handy for some one. Please let me know either way, and feel free to leave some links in the comments. Maybe you have created your own software? Cheers! 

Swiss musician and programmer, tokoloten, has built a fancy little online application that creates art by the movement of your mouse. It's called paintingmachine. Below is a progression that I created. I think the colors are different each time. I was hoping to introduce more colors in to this composition somehow, but could not. Maybe tokoleton will add this in a future version? Anyways, try it out. Maybe you can design the next Amon Tobin record cover. (Be sure to check out tokoloten's music while you are at it. It's electronica/ambient/noise)

Okay, I pulled it off. Another desktop calendar for you! Last months' was unusually bright and futuristic so I thought I'd bring it back with some earth tones, and I started with a drawing from my Moleskine sketchbook. I also created April's to look like it were in motion, but decided to have May be very grounded. Happy Spring, enjoy!

Download here (1243x969)