I just discovered something: Norebbo has been holding out on us! I haven't been to his site in a while, but I just discovered that he has been producing some very cool exclusive royalty-free 3d illustrations that are exclusive to his site. Case in point: these kick-ass Apple logos. And there are a bunch more of them, so be sure to check them out.

Seems like everyone is updating their website lately. Not sure what's inspiring all this change, but it's good! Anyway - you all know that I'm a huge supporter of Norebbo and his awesome royalty-free 3d illustrations, and I frequent his site a lot. Well, I got a nice surprise today when I discovered that he ditched his clunky old template for something fresh and modern. Woo hoo! It's been a long time coming, as he is definitely one of the best in the business when it comes to royalty-free content.

The new site is fresh and modern, and it has some pretty cool features like an image zoom a "search similar" toolbar. I'm diggin' it like a ditch.

Every now and then I'll come across a great designer by just by chance - and this is one great example. I was browsing graphicdesignfourm.com earlier today while scarfing down lunch, and I found a link to the portfolio of a guy named Thomas Maxson. He's a well-rounded designer, focusing on logos and print design - and his web design skills are pretty strong too based on the quality of his site. Very clean, simple, and nice. Check it out.

However, this image (and a crapload others just like it) caught my attention recently while I was browsing Dreamstime searching for some royalty-free images for my latest project. It's just like any other Gold Guy image - cute and clever...but...how the hell did he get an entire series of iPhone images past the reviewers?!

I was specifically looking for touch-screen images of mobile phones a while ago, and I contacted an admin at Dreamstime to see if they could arrange that. Their response was short and sweet: the design of the iPhone is copyrighted, and therefore not allowed to be sold as stock. Hrmph...that shut me up for a while, until I saw this image a few days ago.

So what's the scoop? Lumaxart2d is definitely one of the top contributors at Dreamstime at the time of this writing, so is there some sort of special "club" for these types of members? I don't know. I'm not a contributor, so it doesn't bother me all that much. But it does strike me a little odd that there is this much inconsistency at a stock photo site as large as Dreamstime.

Okay, that's my rant for the day.

The biggest thing I'm concerned about is rising prices for royalty-free stock photos and illustrations. The second most troubling thing is the fact that while they continue to raise prices, they are paying the contributors less and less. How messed up is that? The site they replaced stockxpert with is a little disaster called Thinkstock. It's basically the same content that stockxpert had, but they (Getty) are paying the contributors significantly less.

Anyway, I'm not sure where I am going now when I need stock photos. I tend to do a lot of conceptual design, so I like Norebbo.com a lot. Dreamstime is also good, as I hear from my photographer friends that they treat their contributors fairly. But no matter where I end up do hanging my hat for a while, I will always have a place in my heart for stockxpert and the simple (and friendly) operation they had. Sigh...

My introduction to Solarseven's work came about two years ago, when I was desperately in need of a vivid vector illustration of jumping and dancing people. I was having difficulty coming up with something on my own, so I raced over to istockphoto.com to see what I could find. Oh yes - I found exactly what I was looking for in Solarseven's portfolio.

He has a very unique style, mixing photography and vector art, and using bright colors over black backgrounds. This creates a ton of contrast, which is very eye-catching and useful for poster and flyer design. I wouldn't necessarily consider him to be a superstar illustrator, but he does now how to use color and contrast to create some really spectacular vector graphics. I've even considered buying one or two as artwork for my studio walls.

His royalty-free illustrations can be purchased at all of the major microstock agencies, including:

istockphoto.com
dreamstime.com
veer.com
stockxpert.com

Norebbo is expanding his empire. Not only has he partnered with TemplateGraphix.com to offer tons of super-cool PowerPoint templates, he has recently launched a website to sell his famous object icons in a multitude of different formats. Those familiar with Norebbo and his signature 3d royalty-free images will find great value in objections.com, as all of those large format object icons he sells on his website are now available in smaller sized .ico (Windows), .ins (Mac), and .png formats with transparent backgrounds. Cool!

The entire set of icons (570 individual objects) can be purchased and downloaded directly from the website for only $10. That's a pretty good price, IMHO, and very competitive with other icon packages of this size. There are 16 different main objects in the set, each containing about 30-40 variations and arrangements with other elements. The categories include: globe icons, film reel icons, padlock icons, audio speaker icons, lifesaver icons, automotive wheel icons, people icons, calculator icons, clock icons, binocular icons, brake rotor icons, and office building icons.

I am really diggin' what the folks at dryicons.com are doing. They produce some of the best free icon sets available on the web today, and their daily free vector images aren't too shabby either. Of course they have a "house" style, meaning that most of everything that they produce is kind of the same design language. No matter though - that shit is free, and who can really complain about that?

Of course, those icons are totally free, because they require a license to be purchased if they will be used for commercial projects. Now, I don't know about you, but most of the work that I do is considered commercial because I am being paid by a client. That means that I really don't have a use for those free icon sets, and I'm willing to bet that many others do not as well. But dryicons.com gets a ton of web traffic every day, so there are many designers who are sniping those sets. Are they paying for them? I'm willing to bet no. But that's not the point of this article...

The point is that dryicons.com is a must-have bookmark for any designer to have in their arsenal when the creative doldrums set in. There has been many an occasion where I have spent a few minutes on their site to get some ideas for projects I'm working on, and I think it's pretty damn cool that they are offering so much of their content for free. At the time of this writing, that free content includes: icons, vector images, and web templates. Personally, I think that their templates are kind of weak, and the vector images a bit generic, but their icons are top notch. Check out this example:

Here's an interesting site I came across a couple weeks ago. It's run by a guy named Mario Xiao, an independent web designer and marketing guy who runs a company called Black Belt Publishing. His English is a little rough around the edges, and his marketing style is a little coarse, but he's a very talented visual designer. His marketing graphics are top-notch - some of the best I've seen from an independent designer.

Plusminisites is one of his more successful projects. Minisites are usually just a one-page web template built to promote one product or service, and he has quite a nice portfolio of ready-made templates available for purchase. Or, he is available for custom work for those who are looking for an exclusive template.

I'm diggin' it.

First of all, no, these icons aren’t free – so all you leecher’s are out of luck! But they are very inexpensive, and oh so very worth it. Don’t be stingy. If you like someone’s work, spend a couple bucks for it instead of opting for an illegal download! Oops, getting of tangent a bit…

Anyhoo – I discovered the work of Tele52 late one night as I was putting the final touches on a CSS template for a client. I need icons, and I needed them fast. That’s kinda why I like Dreamstime I think – I can scurry over there and run a quick search for any type of image at all, and I’m always presented with a crapload of good choices. But anyway, Tele52’s icons came up in that particular search, and I have been a big fan ever since. His (her?) icons are extremely versatile!