We asked a group of our favorite collaborators to contribute to a USA-themed collection of desktop backgrounds. The only requirement was that the image be USA-related, and in return, we got popsicles, stadiums, thumbs, statues of liberty, a Teddy Roosevelt quote, and of course the American Flag.
Download the whole set and set them on rotation on that big-ass monitor you're using.
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BRYAN METZDORF, "The Love of Soft Living"
The wallpaper is a doodle loosely based on a quote by Theodore Roosevelt, that reads, "The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life."
GEOFFRY SMALLEY, "Marine off Big Rock, Splash Hit Cove"
To understand the history of American team sports is to understand our national development. From our rural, agrarian beginnings comes baseball: originally played during the day, on a “field”, tethered to the elements, with no clock, rife with personal failure, overcome. Out of the Industrial Revolution came football. The synchronicity of specialized moving parts, the restrictions of performing tasks within a time limit, the taking of land by force-a blithe reflection of a nation at work and at war. The post-industrial era saw a rise in the popularity of basketball. Free-formed and creative, individualism within a collaborative scheme, stripped of gear and protection and played at a continuous pace. The “big three”American sports are, at their core, representations of our past and so they embody our parochial and national allegiances, and in part define our ethos.
The games that professionals play are staged in architectural wonders only found in urban centers. The modern sports stadia are “homes”, cathedrals to their sport, icons of urban planning, and big time money makers. They are triumphs over nature, with vast fields of perfect grass grown partially indoors when retractable roofs stave off the harsher elements. They are gleaming examples of man vs. nature and again mirror the moment when Americans' roots were re-planted into city plots. The stadia are visible signs of bustling urban development and activity, in spite of the fact that they sit idle for half a year, every year. After the crowds disperse and fireworks fade, we are left with grand sporting vistas, quiet pilgrimage sites for dedicated and decorated masses.
Geoffry Smalley makes interruptions of Industrial Revolution-era images by inserting and embedding into them references to American Sport.
KLAIMCO, "American Flag"
ODLCO KC USA
American Accents & your set—trip
Keep your lines on HAZE & your colors correct
Its like your free space space
:0)
Klaimco wallpaper by Benjamin Niznik & Christopher Roeleveld
MARTINE SYMS, "Thumbs-up Thumbs-Down"
The icon in my background was found on a thumbs-up (thumbs-down) stamp that I received as a gift. I use it to vote.
Martine Syms is a conceptual entrepreneur based in Los Angeles, California who grew up going to punk shows and watching lots of television.
MICHAEL SAVONA, "8 Liberty's Waving"
Michael Savona is a Chicago-based designer working in graphics, objects, and art direction.
MORGAN CARTER, "VOTE"
With all rockets blazing, America is fighting to recapture its youth. Known for exhibiting a rapacious attitude towards the consumption of its pleasures, we are now facing an impending meltdown of our collective values. It is time to get out and VOTE November 6th 2012.
Morgan Carter, is an artist and designer currently practicing the freedom of thought and individual conclusions in Santa Barbara, California.