We have all seen it or used it ourselves in a community newsletter or annual report or the like. It is the image of two hands holding a mound of soil, out of which a new plant is growing. This picture has almost become a cliche for illustrating the concept of growth, yet at the same time it is probably used at such great extent because of its effectiveness to express how it takes work on our part to nurture development. (more…)

Do you ever have a project that might be coming up for which you like to get prepared early? It might be your new web site on fashion or a direct mail piece for the auto account your hoping to land. For me I’m am probably going to be working on a site design for a general contractor friend of mine in the near future. (more…)

Here’s an easy question, what type of stock photos are you looking for right now? For me I am in the middle of looking for tax related images, and it’s kind of boring IMO. But you might be here to make your exciting photo search for “19th Century Kitchen Counter-tops of Finland,” faster and more fruitful.

The problem is, well there’s two, the first being is there really such an interest in Finish counter-tops from the 1800’s to devote your time to looking for said stock photos?? (more…)

When I first realize that I will need an illustrated cityscape or skyline for a project, they are the types of images that I figure I can easily construct on my own. “Its just a matter of several boxes with random heights,” I tell myself, “No need to incur an added stock expense.” (more…)

I’ve always wanted to make an icon set, sure I create icons for my work but never as just a way of giving back to the design community. Well while I sit on my butt and just say “It would be nice if…”, Smashing Magazine has put out another great collection of icon sets by designers that don’t share my lazy-shmoe-itis. Though it is frustrating that a lot of the prettiest sets are for Desktops (aka non-commercial) use they still are quite inspiring. Below are my top three picks from the list of 35, and of course the link to the article. (more…)

I’m one of those types of people that will very occasionally try new things to eat for lunch or dinner, while at the same time I could eat things that I like, over and over and over again. For instance, give me a pepperoni-pineapple pizza every other night and I’m good to go. (more…)

This is the second article in stock photos of children playing, focusing on children in costumes or playing dress up. You can find the first article with photography of children physically playing here. (more…)

Sometimes in my search for great stock photos I come across ones that I find quite humorous or just plain awkward. Today I thought it would be fun to share one of the awkward Photos with you, and ask you to comment below with a clever, witty, or interesting, headline you would give this photo if you were to use it. (more…)

Everyone seems to be going green now a days, which as far as I’m concerned is an awesome thing to see. All the kids who grew up seeing movies like Fern Gully, are now grown up and can do a lot to help the planet. This mentality of taking pride in green has made its way through companies as big as Apple with their “A Greener Apple” commitment, to sites where the focus is on showcasing sustainable products like Ecolect, to web designers that simply want to express that they care about clean designs, in more ways than one. (more…)

Looking through stock photos of children playing for my own work on a recent children’s catalog, I have seen one of the highest concentrations of good stock photography than in any other category thus far. As such, I decided to split this article into two pieces, the first one of children literally playing i.e. involved in an action (below), and the second will be of children playing in costumes here. (more…)