It is hard to believe, when looking back, that my iDownloadBlog Wallpapers of the Week is celebrating a 10th anniversary. At least once, every week, for 520 weeks, you’ve downloaded fresh, crispy wallpapers for your favorite Apple devices. To be honest, I’m a bit shocked by the milestone. Inside, we take a look at my favorite collections from each of the previous 10 years!
10 years of Wallpapers of the Week
I first came to iDB more than 10 years ago. In fact, my first ever post was on June 27, 2012. Primary focus was on reviews of Apple  focused gadget accessories. I tested a couple of wallpaper posts along the way and reception was incredible! One of these early test wallpaper packs was designed for the Evas10n Jailbreak and was included in an article on Forbes!
Needless to say, but I was incredibly excited by the inclusion on Forbes and it drove incredible amount of traffic with a link back to iDB. These early wallpaper posts quickly rose to the top list of visited pages on a weekly basis. As a result, Seb, our EIC, and I agreed to a weekly wallpaper commitment.
The first official “Wallpapers of the Week” were posted on July 7, 2013 and included pictures from a photographer that I was tracking on DeviantArt, which is a throwback in and of itself. From the early days, one of my primary goals was to spot light individual digital artists who created packs of downloads for Apple devices.
Across the previous 10 years, we have featured loads of artists and some more than others. I am sorry if I leave you any of you out of the list, but my thanks to some of the most frequently featured artists or sharers of great wallpapers, including but not limited to: @AR72014; @BasicAppleGuy; @Surenix; @iSpazio; @JasonZigrino; @wallsbyjfl; @Arthur1992aS; @fresk0_; @jianoliu; @its_shevi; @Axellvak; @iDeviceArt; @Red1860; @MattBirchler. Naturally the list of featured artists and repos is much longer, but these come to mind quickly when thinking back across the years.
To give a guess at the scope of my curated gallery on iDB, I’ll offer some quick math. If you will indulge me: I posted 1 article per week for 52 weeks per year, but often had midweek special editions for Apple device hardware launches or media events. I’ll take a conservative guess and say that 60 posts per year is an easy average. Each wallpaper post averages five downloads per post… sometimes more, never really less. Okay, let’s call it six downloads. Therefore, 60 posts per year multiplied by six wallpapers per post multiplied by 10 years equals 3,600+ uploaded wallpapers in the gallery.
Across the journey to upload thousands of wallpapers, y’all have contributed too, by catching up with me via Twitter @jim_gresham. Since starting the collection I have appreciated you following along, as I now have more than 10,000 followers, but started with less than 1,000 at the time. My follower count drastically increased during a collaboration with YouTuber MKBHD, when I created a wallpaper pack that helped launch his second merch line.
I collaborated with Marques to help boost his channel to 6M followers (now 17.2M) in order to launch his new line of swag on the store. In turn, he helped promote the wallpaper post and our iDB Wallpapers of the Week gallery. We received a lot of referral traffic as a result!
Thanks for indulging me this quick jaunt down memory lane. Editing the wallpaper gallery has been a passion project for the last 10 years. At times, it has been hard to get the post up every.single.week. To share a possible surprise, I’m not a full time iDB writer, but the consistency of the post, gathering of the images, and weekly expectation is tough when life and other commitments get in the way. I’ve only missed one Sunday post in the 10 year period! If you’ve loved the wallpaper posts, I’d love to hear about it.
Please, shoot me a message on Twitter @jim_gresham, if you’ve appreciated the downloads at any time in the past.
Check out my favorite wallpaper pack from each of the previous calendar years. To be clear, I didn’t consider official Apple hardware related wallpapers in the list!
2023
Incredible mountainscape wallpapers for iPhone
2022
Amazing iOS 16 Depth Effect wallpapers for iPhone
2021
Waves: a macOS Big Sur-inspired wallpapers pack
2020
Sunset wallpapers pack for iPhone and iPad
2019
True black and OLED optimized wallpapers for iPhone XS pack 2 (pack 1)
2018
Wallpapers of the Week: true black pack
2017
iPhone X wallpaper pack 4 (pack 1; pack 2; pack 3)
2016
Designer Star Wars wallpapers collection
2015
San Francisco wallpapers for dual screens
2014
Winter chilled wallpapers for iPhone and iPad
2013
Wallpapers of the week: parallax ready walls for iOS 7
Thanks to placeit.net! They provide me with a subscription account that lets me quickly create the mockups you see at the top of my posts. They have been an absolute life saver for my time. An incredible list of Apple devices ready for screen shot mockups is ready on their site, including other gadgets. Check them out!
Most importantly, a special thanks to my spouse for being supportive of my weekend hobby, that also spilled into the week nights…and vacations…and family events… and, all kinds of other things. Since this isn’t my day job, there is an extra time commit here that she has always supported and for that I am very thankful and appreciative.