What happened to stock imagery?
Why are companies opting for custom imagery for their brands?
If you take some time to look at any of the big companies around, you will see all their imagery, illustrations and designs are customised to their brand. Their imagery will be tailored to them, featuring their colours and their logos, this is to show you who they are as a company or at least how they want you see them.
The popularity of photographic imagery, specifically stock imagery has seemed to decline over time. It’s use in advertising, print and on websites were the norm for a long time. This was due to its availability and usually being very cheap or free in most cases.
Stock Photography can usually be vague and generic, to find the perfect image to fit your brief would mean wading through thousands of images and most of the time you won’t find the exact image you are looking for. Alternatively, hiring a photographer for your brand or project can be very expensive, and most newer companies and start-ups or SME’s will not have the budget to create their own image library.
The problem this causes is that choosing the wrong image can mean you end up sending the wrong message to your audience. Images are powerful and evoke emotion from their viewer.
Illustrations on the other hand are more malleable. They can be very specific and created for the purpose of evoking and exact emotion and response you desire. Custom illustrations and custom imagery are more than just decorative, they can simplify complex ideas and showcase your products just the way you want your audience to see it. These are amazing tools for communicating, capturing, curating, and evoking desired emotions.
Big companies have seen the benefit of creating their own illustrations and imagery. As these elements work to strengthen their brand and add value to any business, they also help connect the company directly to their target audience.
What this means is that companies using stock imagery run the risk of promoting the wrong message and not achieving the effect they desire. Choosing the cheaper option of using stock imagery may be having a negative impact on businesses. This means more companies are opting for custom, tailored imagery, or illustrations to help their brand showcase their true values, target their audience directly and show to its audience it offers a more premium service.
This doesn’t mean stock imagery has and should stop being used, but it should be used carefully as images can be a powerful and used incorrectly will work against a brand or business.
