A State of Stock (3 of 3) - Jumping to Conclusions

The way that this used to work in my former position was that, at the end of a bulleted list outlining the issues I’d just gone through in the previous two posts, I’d outline a list of conclusions and action elements specific to the company and departmental goals. Here, rather than make specific conclusions, I’m going to outline more general conclusions, and observations that I’d suggest for publishers and agencies, and more specifically individual designers, in regard to the RF stock industry, keeping the options as open as possible and keeping cost effective measures in mind.

The talent that manipulates the image is your best resource in stock imagery. This is a major issue with many publishers, in my experience. Often the product is seen as the key resource, and not the personnel developing the product. But often that designer will make the difference between a mediocre design and something truly excellent. The committee can’t design it. The AD can do little more than inspire and direct. The designer needs to have the freedom of inspiration, and feel he or she has the confidence of the AD and Marketing to run with an idea.Bottom line; they used to say the image is only as good as your photographer. Now, in this digital age, I'd amend that to say the image is only as good as the photograpehr AND the designer who manipulates it for the end product. One can make up for the shortcomings of the other, but you need one to have a high level of skill. And most often it's the designer who you have the most ability to train, to bring the image to the level you need. Treasure that.

Create micro-payment accounts for key personnel, and let them purchase the images from that account. Between Us, this is an alien concept at most publishers, which prefer to let the money flow through one set of hands, and always want the left hand checking what the right hand is doing. But for crying out loud, no real damage can come from allowing staff members to manage a specific account for images using company credits. Make each individual responsible for acquiring, and documenting their imagery (and usage rights for that imagery) then just let them go.

Create a special service account with a RF stock house (with a contact person or account manager), or specifically limit the use of that house. It’s a pretty simple concept-get your best deal, play hardball, or move on to the next guy. This can work with a corporation or a one-person agency. Getty currently has one of the best and most robust search engines and image identification tools out there. But that does not mean they have the market cornered on the best images. Not yet. Get a contract with them to get the best deal and discount, or pull the plug and don’t use that agency for a year. Get them to give you something, or cut them off. Poor customer service should be rewarded with less or preferably no, business. Move on to the next guy, the likely hungrier guy, and cut a better deal.

Ensure you are on their e-mail list, and check the site often. The best deals are often available through the site. This includes free images, and special discounts (though it’s hard to beat free). Checking the sites regularly can amass a very large collection of free, especially useful for budget-conscious smaller agencies. Stockbyte (before they were swallowed) used to offer three large format images per week. iStockPhoto still has a free image (and free video) of the week. Corbis has a disc-of-the-month, offered at significant savings. But both of these can be hard to find unless you are on their direct e-mail list.

There are more recommendations, of course, more specific to specific situations, but these are the start and should give casual readers an idea of how to frame the coming changes in the RF stock image industry, to take advantage of those changes cost-effectively and with intelligence.

Next: A perspective on Designing for Generation Y