The results of the annual
GDUSA Stock Survey of graphic designers in the U.S. is now available online. For several years nearly every graphic designers has answered that they use stock sometime during the year, but this year, for the first time, two-thirds of those answering the survey use stock more than 20 times a year and one-third use stock imagery more than 100 times a years.
Eighty-four percent of respondents use stock illustration as well as stock photos and 27% are using stock footage. Ninety-four percent of the media licensed is used in print, but 81% is also used online and for mobile.
Over two-thirds said the images designers license are used across multiple channels while less than one-third of the designers said the imagery they license is “mostly used in a single channel.” In addition at the time the image is licensed multi-channel licensors often don’t know all the ways the image might be used in the future, or for how long, and for that reason they tend to prefer RF.
When asked the license types they use the responses were as follows:
| Royalty Free |
94% |
| Micropayment |
84% |
| Subscription |
71% |
| Rights Managed |
38% |
| Creative Commons |
5% |
While 38% still use RM occasionally, clearly they also use a lot of RF, Micro and Subscription for many projects. There was no question that asked about the prices paid for RM, but from other research we’ve done we know that a significant percentage of the RM images are licensed for fees of less than $25. Often the fee for licensing a RM image is less than would be charged for some microstock licenses.
A number of very useful charts are provided
here. Among these charts is a list of the top 20 subject categories that are needed most frequently. This list tends to change very little from year-to-year, but this year multi-cultural/ethnic images, education and healthcare joined the top 10 most licensed categories. This list is always a useful guide for photographers who want to know what to shoot for the stock photo market.
When it comes to the top 10 reasons that influence the use of a stock site or provider Price ranked number one ahead of Quality with Search number 3. Eight important “Take Aways” from this survey can be found
here.
GDUSA always provides long lists of comments from graphic designers that are well worth reading. This year they asked “
Why Has The Use Of Stock Visuals Become so Frequent and Common?” and “
How Can Stock Visual Sites/Providers Serve You Better?”. Also, be sure to read “
Thoughts from Andrew Saunders, Senior VP of Creative Content of Getty Images.”