Actual Objects Blog

Election 2012. Campaign Posters, Buttons and Banners

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 07:23:29 -0700

In anticipation of the upcoming 2012 Presidential Election, we have put together a suite of free campaign-related vector graphics.

These campaign graphics have been designed to work in conjunction with our new "Politics As Usual” graphics collection.

Regardless of your party affiliation, these vector assets can help jumpstart your next rally, sit-in or town hall meeting.

We would love to see what you do with our graphics!

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Save The Gulf. Protest Posters and Buttons

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:39:00 -0700

See the full gallery on Posterous

Growing up I spent many summers waking up at the crack of dawn to go catch blue crabs in the bayous of the gulf coast with my dad and grandfather. As I grew older, we would drive from Houston to New Orleans to go eat gumbo and fresh crawfish. I still think New Orleans has some of the best seafood I have ever eaten. Seriously, turtle soup is amazing. Just ask my grandmother.

It was during these trips to Galveston and Louisiana that I really began to understand that there are people in the world that don't have desk jobs and literally live off the bounty of the bayous and estuaries of the gulf coast. Over the last two months the BP oil spill has been heartbreaking for me. With hurricane season upon us there is no telling how the spill will affect the rest of the Gulf as well as Florida and the eastern seaboard. Like most folks I feel pretty powerless and want to do my part to help and to voice my own frustration.

As a small token, we have assembled a collection of vector posters and buttons you can download free here.

Whether you are on the front lines of the spill or want to voice your concern at a local rally, we hope that you will find our posters and buttons useful in voicing your opinion. In addition, we have provided some links to resources online where you can donate and become involved.

National Resources Defense Council

National Wildlife Federation

Deep Water Horizon Response

Grassroots mapping the Gulf oil spill

Greater New Orleans Foundation

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World Cup 2010. Team Flags and Soccer (Football) Assets.

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:29:00 -0700

See the full gallery on Posterous

We are excited for the start of the World Cup! In celebration of the festivities we have assembled a collection of your favorite team flags along with a handful of other assets to commemorate the upcoming games.

Update: These objects are no longer available here on the blog as we've turned the flags into a proper AO collection, Flags of the World. Stay tuned here on the blog for more freebies in the future.

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Re-make/Re-model

Mon, 31 May 2010 22:50:00 -0700

Have you ever listened to Roxy Music’s 1972 self-titled debut? It’s a wonderful record that I discovered somewhere toward the end of high school (as my punk-rock musical tunnel vision started to loosen up a bit.)

What makes Roxy Music special is that it synthesizes so much of what rock music had been (rock n roll, doo-wop, soul) and would be (glam, new wave). By introducing new sounds, and a new level of kookball, art-school, avant-rock (that, btw, Williamsburg hipsters are still struggling to recreate) Roxy Music managed to carve out a new space for themselves, and for the many artists that followed in their path.

The aptly titled opening track, “Re-make/Re-model”, is a riff on a galloping rock n roll tune that, at its core, is relatively straightforward. The backing track – drums, bass, piano – isn’t anything out of the ordinary. But then they layer on a rambling fuzzed guitar lead, insane saxophone squall, Eno’s non-stop synth oscillations and finally Brian Ferry’s vampiric crooning. The sum becomes something altogether unique.

Check it:

Oh, and the visuals! Wacky costumes, makeup, antics—the total package. How amazing is this:

After 10 years of digesting Roxy Music, the mythos of “remake remodel” has stuck with me. There’s something interesting in the idea that one can arrive at something unique by simply manipulating and expanding upon established patterns and conventions. Through this lens, creativity is less about being “original” and more about being clever in how you draw from the world around you.

I think this idea applies to all creative disciplines, and design in particular as it relies so heavily on the arrangement of separate elements (type, illustration, photography, etc.) Regardless of the particular expertise – be it motion graphics or web design – the designer’s job is to first understand the patterns and conventions of the world around, and then to arrive at a solution by manipulating the conventional forms in a unique fashion.

The real trick of course is in finding the little twist or turn that will take something from ordinary to remarkable. For Roxy Music that was a balding guy in a peacock outfit twiddling knobs on the synth. For the rest of us, who knows where the magic will sprinkle. CPL593H!

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Actual Objects for Fast Company Magazine

Mon, 17 May 2010 13:17:00 -0700

We're excited to have a number of illustrations in this month's Fast Company.

See the full gallery on Posterous

You will recognize a few things from AO's Social Networking and Icon Essentials collections.

We'd love to see what others are doing with AO assets. Let us know!

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Man's Ruin Collection

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 09:29:00 -0700

Inspired by tattoos, vices and all things tuff, our new Man's Ruin collection features some great vector assets for your next rumble or hot rod rally. We have broken down the collection into 4 objects - Weapons, Killer Hands, Various Vices and Skull and Banner. Whether you are opening a tattoo shop or making a flyer for your rockabilly band, the Man's Ruin collection will certainly come in handy.

View the full Man's Ruin collection here.

We have also posted a new free vector of a Tattoo Dragon, perfect for that neck tattoo you have been meaning to get with your tax return money.

Download our Dragon Tattoo vector here.

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In the hopper: "In the News" and "Snack Break"

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 10:26:56 -0700

We're excited about two new collections we have in the works. Have a sneak peek.

See the full gallery on Posterous

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What's up with Social Networking?

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 12:24:00 -0700

Lately we've been thinking about our digital lives, and the way technology and social networking have changed the way we communicate. From Facebook and Twitter to Chat Roulette and the iPad, social networking is everywhere.

In just the last year it seems we have all become more connected than ever before. Even my parents are trying to get me to play Mafia Wars on Facebook and jumping on Twitter to tell me about a church bake sale.

As a response to the social networking explosion, we put together a Social Networking Collection that talks about social networking and new technology. We often find information graphics to be a bit dry so with our collection, we decided to take a more human approach that pokes fun at our digital world.

All of the objects in the collection are modular so that you can create your own stories. We kept the overall look simple so that you can easily expand the collection with your own elements.

Finally, to bring the collection to life, we also put together a humorous information graphics video called "What Up With Social Networking." Check it out below. We hope you enjoy the video and the collection.

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Welcome to Toon Town

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:02:00 -0800

We are excited to present the Welcome to Toon Town collection. We have always enjoyed creating characters and thought it would be fun to create a family of cartoon characters that could be used together or on their own. Each of our Toon Town characters was developed around an illustrated scene that give each character a bit of a story and personality. As opposed to drawing each character as outlines, we decided to use flat color so that each character could be easily manipulated or moved around the scene. Toon Town is a perfect collection for anyone that is interested in using a character in a larger design project our if you want to expand upon a scene and add your own elements.

View the full Welcome To Toon Town collection here.

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Lloyd Goes Digital

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 13:31:00 -0800

Update: This freebie has expired. Lloyd is now available for purchase. Keep an eye out for future freebies!

Lloyd Goes Digital is part of a larger collection of information graphics we are working on centered around technology and social networking. As a digital culture, we always seem to be on the verge of "the next big thing". In homage to all things new, we wanted to have Lloyd Dobler hoisting a Kindle and an Apple iPad. We considered illustrating an Apple Newton or the first Blackberry but we will leave it to you to incorporate your own Amiga or Nintendo 64.

This object is available for free for the next month.

Once we get the new collection completed, Lloyd will join the rest of the objects. So turn up some Peter Gabriel solo jams and enjoy this actual object on us.

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Welcome to Actual Objects

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 06:31:00 -0800

We are excited to finally launch Actual Objects - it has been a long time in the making. As we have been working on the site and its collections, many of our friends and colleagues have asked us what exactly Actual Objects is and why we have created it.

As designers working in fields ranging from print, branding, and information graphics, to web development and broadcast, we are always creating design assets. As you create client work, inevitably good ideas are not chosen and you amass a collection of unused graphic elements and concepts. Instead of having these ideas end up as digital landfill on our hard drives, we decided to flesh out the good ideas into coherent collections of graphics that we felt might be useful in the future.

As we began to build our collections we decided that it made sense to make them available to other designers for use at a reasonable price. We also want other creatives to feel free to use our objects and collections in a flexible manner, without the burden of strict or complex usage rights. If someone uses one or more of our objects in storyboards that end up getting approved, for example, the objects used in the boards can be implemented in the final piece without any additional cost.

We also feel that designers should be able to customize and change collections and objects to fit their project. All objects created in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop files are separated out into layers so that objects can be easily modified. For us, we feel there is real value in developing high production value graphics around specific visual and conceptual themes that have a larger creative idea behind them. We hope that our collections and objects will help other designers jump-start a project or fill a gap in a time crunch.

As we expand our collections we will be balancing practical assets like information graphics with collections that have a specific concept and aesthetic in mind. As you check out our collections and objects if you have any ideas or recommendations, please email us. Our goal is for Actual Objects to be a great resource, not only for us, but for the larger design community. We hope that our collections and objects will help you save time, be more creative, and compliment your own growing collection of creative ideas.

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