Your artwork could appear in the next version of Debian

The Debian Linux project has opened a call for community design submissions ahead of the release of the next Forky (Debian 14). If you think you have artistic skills, your art could appear on the home screens, login messages, and desktop wallpapers of millions of users. The submission deadline is November 26.

Continuing with Debian’s community-driven spirit, the artwork submission process mirrors that of previous releases. The artwork should feel distinctively “Debian”, integrate cleanly without the need for core software patches, and remain visually appealing in the long run.

Theme “Ceratopsian” by Elise Couper was chosen as the winning default for Debian 13 trixie. For anyone not up to date with the latest developments in the Toy Story franchise, the names of the releases echo the names of the characters from the animated films. Trixie was a triceratops introduced in toy story 3hence the “ceratopsian” nod in the winning presentation. It makes sense that the next version of Debian will continue this trend with Forky, a character introduced in the fourth entry in the franchise. The Debian team warns against overly busy designs that can cause user fatigue, but if someone can successfully incorporate Forky’s googly eyes into the design somehow, know that they would at least win the contest by my Debian desktop wallpaper.

Debian celebrated its 33rd anniversary in August 2026 and continues to position itself as the “universal operating system,” with support and compatibility extending across different hardware architectures. The latest Debian spot release, Trixie 13.7, arrived on September 12, 2026. Forky (Debian 14) is now in the late stages of its development cycle, and the artwork selection process checks one of the last boxes that must be checked before the release is available. Interested artists can review the submission requirements on the Debian Wiki.