stock art
Competitor Research
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 | Art, Design Inspiration, Web Design | No Comments
Following on from our stock art related articles, web design enthusiasts can help create their own unique and well balanced web designs with a varied use of unique stock art pictures. However, if you are unsure about how to start off with this, or how your project is developing with its imagery, look and feel you may wish to try checking out your competitors. Having a sneak peak at what other people are up to in the world of web design and development can help inspire you and give you ideas for your own unique imagery. Have a look at other web developers and see what kind of pictures they typically use for certain concepts. What kind of image are they representing? What idea of the business do you get from the overall design of the website as a whole?
When designing any concept for web design you need to think about your target audience and at the same time, how the client wishes their business to appear. They can choose to be bold, exciting and innovative which will require bright, artistic illustrations and innovative design features. They may want professionalism to be a high priority in which case smooth website transitions, professional sleek and simple logo designs and simple toned down colour combinations work well. Your website design may have the younger generations in mind which will need funky colour schemes, interesting imagery and probably lots of pictures of rebellious teens, graffiti and other features to keep them entertained. If the business wants to be cute and fun and is aimed at kids primarily you need bold simple cartoon imagery with simple bold colours, lots of interactivity and above all an extremely user friendly interface.
All of these should be bringing up different images and pictures in your mind to suit the situation. Even if you envision a woman with a head set for the help page, a ten year old user isn’t going to be impressed with it. Instead a cartoon figure, bubbly question mark or the website “mascot” would be much more entertaining.
Do some thorough research on your client’s business, the website target audience and what kinds of imagery other competitors are using. Never copy another web developers work, but you can use it for ideas and inspiration to get you on the right track.
The Design of Photographs (Use Stock Art part 2)
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 | Art, Design Inspiration, Web Design | No Comments
Stock art is not just about picking up random images as we touched upon in our previous post. Stock art is about deep and thorough design and thought. Every image presented on your website has to be carefully selected and should discourage the ideals of stereotypical information. Placing a girl with a headset for the “Customer Support” team is like committing electronic suicide. These harsh stereotypical and un-imaginative images will only serve to provide a negative, cheesy and wholly unprofessional look to your website. It is in fact, these types of images that people will envision when you talk about stock art, and it is these myths we must endeavour to dispel.
When considering each individual piece of stock art you wish to use, you need to ask yourself a series of questions. For example; is this concept a stereotype? Is this image relevant? Is this picture artistic, unique and interesting? Will this image appeal to the target audience of your website? You need to satisfy all of these questions before you can consider if the image is suitable.
Get a good feel for the imagery that the competition uses. Research websites that have content like your own and what kind of images they are using to convey their own ideas and products. You may find a wide range of different viewpoints stemming from one single concept. Examine which images most appeal to you and why they work and alternatively examine the ones that are uninteresting and have a negative impact on the company and think about why that is.
Creating the right blend of stock art in your website is like a well put together collage. You can have some interesting splashes of colour and random images that don’t jump out on their own as relevant or immediately associated with the concept in question. When you put them all together with a well designed website you can create a beautiful and stunning collage that immediately conveys all the right messages and ideas
Use Stock Art
Saturday, September 20th, 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments
When designing a website, it’s not rocket science that you will need to put in some pictures and designs in there to bulk it up, give it a theme and generally make it more appealing. What you shouldn’t be tempted to do is nip onto Google and pick up the images you can find there. The problem with doing this is you will not have a license to be able to use these pictures, especially if you are selling this website to a client or using the art for anything other than personal use. If you are found out, you could not only be fined a hefty sum but you would also lose your credibility as a designer.
The solution to this is of course to use stock art. Stock art can be free or purchased, so get as many images as you can through various stock art providers and web development magazines and check for the magic words “free to use”. Make sure you can legally use the stock art for business purposes. For any other stock art and pictures, you can choose to buy a few select pieces from stock art firms which means you will be able to download the pictures you have bought which also means you will then have a license to use those pictures.
You can choose to make your own stock art if you have a high quality camera and a keen eye, ensure your pictures are clean, crisp and clear or they will only serve to cheapen the look of your website rather than enhance it.
Remember, it’s not just a case of sticking in photographs to a few places that sort of appear related to the topic. Just as you have designed the website, you need to design the look and feel of the images within it as it is all part of the same package. Every picture needs to compliment the others, and they should also be unique and relevant. Try to avoid cliché pictures and common poses or designs. You want your website to stand out and be appreciated, so put some thought into the stock art you choose.