Inside the Mind of a Graphic Designer
Interview with Rhonda Schaller
Mark: When you work on a project, can you tell me how the search of stock photos fits into the process?
Rhonda: Sometimes there aren’t enough funds in a project budget to hire a photographer—or I’m not in the location, or I don’t have the right skills, time, or equipment to take a photo myself. Stock photos are one way to overcome those challenges, but they are equally great at using along with original images to help communicate a message and aid understanding.
Mark: After you obtain the stock photos, how do you integrate them into your design?
Rhonda: This is very dependent on the scope of the project. In these two examples, I chose to use them in a collage. On the web site I also used them as straight photographs for a gallery page. I’ve used stock photos in the past to build background images for company folders. To represent the services of a hospitality consulting company, I used stock images of construction, maid service, and office support.
Sample designs by Rhonda Schaller.
Original image by Mark Chen.
Sample design by Rhonda Schaller.
Original images by Mark Chen.
Mark: Is it easy to find the stock image you are looking for?
Rhonda: No. The drawback of stock images are that they may not be specific enough. I’ve done a lot of design work for real estate companies that need photos of specific property. What I can do with stock photos, though, is help create a mood or give a greater understanding of the area. I can usually find stock photos of landmarks or, in the case of my Florida real estate clients, photos of the coastline and beach.
“What I can do with stock photos is help create a mood or give a greater understanding of the area.”
Mark: Do you have specific stock photo agencies that you search on? If yes, what are they?
Rhonda: I’ve primarily used istockphoto.com, a subsidiary of Getty Images. Getty Images is a great place for premium photos and iStock is less premium but marketed still as signature and essential images. I’ve also recently discovered Pixabay which has crowd-sourced images by those who join, but with a creative commons license that doesn’t require attribution. I’ve used a few photos from them in the Silver Spike project, but I have not used any of their images for commercially-driven paid projects. In an educational setting, where students are creating work for a portfolio and not for a client, I don’t want students using other people’s art or photos, so Pixabay is helpful when they aren’t able to generate their own photos or art. A nice thing on their web site is that a search brings up options for both the Pixabay crowd-sourced images or stock photos for purchase at Shutterstock.
Negative space is a relative concept. There is no clear definition as which area is considered “negative” or which area is “positive.” Take the horizontal image to the right, for example. This very tight composition of a snow plow at the front of a locomotive is seemingly without any negative space. However, many graphic designers would use the black part of the machine as the negative space. This is due to the colors, the forms, and even the implication of how it works: the red part is the tip and, therefore, the center of attention.
Sample design by Rhonda Schaller.
Original image by Mark Chen.
Sample design by Rhonda Schaller.
Original image by Mark Chen.
Mark: Do you have any advice for stock photographers? Do you ever think, “I wish they would have photographed this or that!”?
Rhonda: I wish they would photograph cows on pogo sticks—oh wait, Getty Images already has that. Who thinks of these things? And how would you use it? I’m guessing this is about milkshakes, but I don’t particularly want to think of bouncing cows and shaking udders while enjoying that frozen treat. I’m not sure how often that image is purchased, but it’s available. It’s also a bit unexpected—and I like the thought of that, even if I can’t use it in a real project. I know I have had “I wish” photo requests while working on projects in the past, but I haven’t harbored any grudges against stock photographers when I couldn’t find what I was looking for. So I don’t have a running wish-list. However, I can generally find plenty of what I call “advertising slick” posed, beautiful model stock photos, but less of the real and practical. Show me real people in real situations, like work settings, homes, or in locations (generic or landmark-specific), etc.
Sample design by Rhonda Schaller.
Original image by Mark Chen.