DIY design 6 - toolbox: finding images
11 May 2008 Jeff Gill
Let’s review what we have covered so far in the DIY design series
- Start with the right attitudes
- The obligatory and boring post on hardware
- Page layout software
- Image editing software (Photoshop, etc.)
If you are a creative person you haven’t been sitting around twiddling your mouse waiting for me to write this post. You probably found where to get images already. Nevertheless, I shall continue writing.
Unless you are a World-Famous Graphic Designer your image budget is probably about £0. That’s okay. It is 2008; everything is free. Just search Google for whatever you want. Copy. Paste. Voila!
WRONG.
Those images took time, energy and creativity to create. If you use them without permission, you are stealing. Thou shalt not. Also, my favourite wife, Christine The Photographer, and I, the World-Famous Graphic Designer will be very cross with you.
Instead, visit stock.xchng. They have over of 360,000 image. All are free. Many are very good. There is very little snapshotty stuff. Be sure to give proper credit to the photographers where required.
If stock.xchng doesn’t have what you need, do a Creative Commons search of Flickr. I recommend searching tags only and sorting by most interesting.
Morgue File is also good.
And there is lots more here.
You will have projects where none of these sources has the image you need. I suggest you do one of the following:
- Draw or make or photograph the image yourself.
- Make friends with a photographer now.
- Think – there may be a different and possibly better way to tell your story.
If for some reason you do have an image budget find a good photographer and hire them. If that won’t work, visit Getty Images or Alamy.
del.icio.us Digg Technorati StumbleUpon
tags: design
Things being said about DIY design 6 - toolbox: finding images