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.

Stock photos of children playing and expressing joy offer imagery that can cover a vast array of a designer’s work. Not only are these types of photos a natural, if not obvious, fit for promoting children’s products and services, but can also be used in collateral for industries that have nothing to do with children. I have seen several examples of the latter in items such as a financial firm’s quarterly/yearly reports or on collateral for non-profit organizations such as churches. It would seem the primary reason for utilizing stock of children playing, when used in these atypical ways, is as a visual allegory for the vitality, hope, energy, friendliness, youthfulness and/or imagination of an organization.

Though I wanted to select mostly images of children not looking at camera (see my rant on this in Easy to use Technology Stock photos) I found that this was less of an issue when considering that the child model may not simply be someone interacting with a product that the viewer relates too (an probably isn’t unless the creative is made for a child audience) but is almost like a very vivid graphic representation of the characteristics listed above.

As always let me know what you think and if you were able to use any of these images in your work :).

Photos.com Search

Are you finding the Children at Play Stock Photos you were hoping for? If not you can try Photos.com for even more stock choices; just do a search below.