Stock Images

I got reminded a few hours ago on the utopian discord chat that the graphics moderators don’t like us to use stock imagery. The arguments are a bit over the place but in essence they feel that everything should be authentic and specially made for utopian.

I can understand and respect that, but I wanted to share my 2 cents with you. And these 2 cents might feel more like a million pennies after wards. I already feel sorry for whoever reads this :D

There are a lot of different licenses for images. I will not explain everything into too much detail but I do my best to sketch it so you understand if and when I talk about it.

Royalty Free

The most common and straight forward of the 3. Once bought you can use it as many times as you want when you want it.

Rights Managed

In essence you buy the rights to use an image in
one design. Not two just ONE. And a lot of the times it also implies for a specific time period. There is often a way to change the license to Royalty Free afterwards.

Extended or Enhanced

This implies that an already license has been replaced or altered to include more rights. Like for example TWO used or a longer period of time.

Why is there an issue

I want to start with a question, this will let you all think before you read my conclusion and my reasoning. If you own a business and you want a website is cost and speed at which you get the website important?

The answer in any common business is yes!

Let’s take the utopian mods words that everything needs to be original and see how this would affect the market. Dig into the realm of the designers and developers that swear stock is a evil that needs to be exterminated (damn needed to think of doctor who here :D).

If someone needs a banner with a whale for example. Without stock images this would mean I need to take a plain to whatever country these beasts reside at. Then take a boat to whatever spot they are swimming threw. And then I need to take the perfect shot at sea and hope the weather is with me. As you can see this would have made this banner really, really, really expensive.

The time and money involved is not realistic. That’s why in the real-world designers and graphic artists are using stock images. You see them nearly on every site.

What about actions – brushes – tools in software

The tools provided to us in whatever form or shape in different software’s are handy. A lot of the same people who swear that stock images are not to be used are saying I should not use an action in photoshop. Well I beg the difference.

When I can spare out 20 minutes of designing with one action I will use it. Does this mean I can’t do it myself? No, it does not, it proves that I think cost effectively and know how to utilize the program that I am using. It proves that I have invested into it. And that people that utilize me are getting more for the same money.

I have a library of small shapes and backgrounds and brushes and what not. And I use them. Why? Because if I need to make a new brush for every project I will be doing nothing else then creating these brushes, small shapes, templates, …. . I made brushes myself when I need them. Should I throw them away afterwards.

For example, my girl has her own photography business and she needs to crop images and place a watermark on all of them. I made here an action to make this automated. Is that wrong? If that isn’t wrong why shouldn’t I use an action that I bought with a royalty free license. These people earn their money making these actions and library’s for us designers to use.

So get back to the real world and think logically!

Just my 2 cents :D