Designers increasingly rely on stock images | weekly comment

The design magazine Graphic Design USA (GDUSA) recently released a survey of their readership. One of the most interesting findings of the study is that designers increasingly rely on stock images.

About 95% of the more than 1,100 surveyed designers use stock images in their work, nowadays. More than half of them use it more than 20 times a year. Compare this to the meagre 29% of designers who searched for stock imagery online in 1995.

That’s quite a change in numbers and it explains the rapid rise of online image stock providers during the last years. The undisputed leader in the field seems to be iStockPhoto. 70% of the respondents claimed this is the agency they preferably use. Reasons are manifold, with improved bandwith and web-technology just being some of them.

What are the consequences of these findings? GDUSA editor Gordon Kaye said that it basically means stock has become “ubiquitous in the world of design”. No wonder if you look at the industry. Time pressure spiralled upwards together with the need to instantly react to trends of the ever changing online world. That the sweet days of infinite budgets are long gone also likely contributes to this development.

If you now start to chime in with the ages old “quality is going down the gutter“ tune, wait a second! It’s simply not the case that stock photos are of inferior quality. They are often produced by high profile photographers and designers with recognised names and the same standard they set for assigned work. And you also have a far greater chance of finding a new talent in the business you might otherwise never have heard of, who’s producing exactly the style you want for this and that campaign.

To finish this comment with a little irony we also have to note that a whopping 93% of designers still recommend new design talent to sit down on their behinds, go through design school, do their homework and basically learn to create from scratch. And they are right!