When I began studying graphic design, criticism wasn’t something that I’d considered part of it. Once we started doing projects we would have a final critique to constructively criticize the work. These sessions helped us to find what we did “right” (what’s really “right” though, is design a matter of perception, and is beauty found in the eye of the designer?) and what we 
could have done differently. Every crit helped us to gain more knowledge for the next project. By criticizing work it helped us to build up our knowledge and understanding of what is right and wrong in the world of design including our individual project but not limited to anything less than the whole world of design. With so many people designing so many different things designers are bound to run into a whole array of challenges. Many of these problems will be faced continuously. After all, the job of the designer is to solve problems, so why not come up with a solution or alternative to the problems being faced in design? My major gripe within the world of design is the issue of stock art. For a student studying design, a new designer in the field or an old pro, stock art is something that may not have even posed as a threat on the creativity radar. Here I mean to inform the unaware of the many dangers as well as joys that
may be faced when using stock art and encourage these individuals to make their own decisions on how they will use it.
I’m positive that everyone out there has encountered stock art at one time or another. Most people probably come into contact with it multiple times a day without ever realizing it. It can be found anywhere from images in a newspaper or magazine to accompany a story, to cheesy backgrounds on Myspace to heart, star, skull and gun icons, even stretching to flash tattoo’s you pick right from the book. A lot of people are probably wearing stock art around on t-shirts too, again without even realizing this possibly (horrible, lazy) unoriginal trend that they’re buying into.
Stock is easy. That’s what its there for, to save the designer a little time and make one less step in an otherwise tedious job. This kind of ready-made art can help give you ideas or play up what you’ve already created. Being a time saver when you can’t draw something from scratch is a no brainer. How often do any of us have time to create a piece of work from the ground up? Herein lays the problem. Making everything so easy and readily available takes the problem-solving element out of the designer’s job. Instead of starting with a blank canvas and deciding how to put work together to create the final layout, designers are now faced with the problems of what stock photos, fonts or themes to use and how to use them. Stock art allows and possibly forces designers, creative, problem solving people, to simply combine elements together in a seemingly visual solution. Much like the creation of design programs like Photoshop and Indesign, stock art makes everything a little more computerized and almost robotic and a little less human and personal.
This raises the question of what the true job of the designer is. Is it our responsibility to create every visual element of the project? At one point in time, people were specialized in different fields. One person would be an illustrator while one would be the photographer and finally the designer would use those people’s elements to create a final product. Now designers are facing pressures to take on all 3 jobs, face the time constraints of doing so and still above all struggling to maintain a certain originality.
One positive way that stock art is being viewed is as a tool, much like a font is a tool. If we had to take the time to create every single character in a font before we used it we would never get anything accomplished. Time is a major factor in why designers are choosing to use stock art as much as they do. As designers it is quite rare that one would get the luxury of working on one project for a long period of time with no other distractions. In this case the designer would be able to immerse themselves completely in every aspect of the project from start to finish. But realistically we are facing a hundred things at once and working on multiple projects at a time. With time constraints like this we can see why it’s often easier for a designer to pull an image, brush, symbol or even idea from an archive of “stock” and put it to use in the most creative way possible.
The use of stock art has been compared to such professions if you will as a DJ or Chef. In terms of a DJ, of course you’re using other peoples work but it’s your job to create something different and unique from it; a mosaic of sorts. For a Chef it can be compared to something as simple as making a pizza. It’s your job to put together the different ingredients to come up with the final product. This seems to put things in perspective. The issue with using such standards elements in work is almost questionable as to whether or not people should be mad. In most cases all “artists” are using something that someone else has created at one point or another in their creative process.
There are many ways in which stock art can be used tastefully to portray meaning and still look good appearance wise. Overuse of elements is what leads people to just not care because its meaning is lost after the first 100 times that image or idea is seen. To use one element of stock and build on it to create your own idea from that is usually more acceptable than designing something with the most overused photo, brush and concept out there as the focal point of the project. The trick is to using a stock element in such a way that it becomes unique and people won’t question the originality of it. The choice is really in the hands of the designer. A few cautious people can be quick to eliminate this “problem” with the use of stock art. If it starts to be used in a less obnoxious way, people might forget about it all together. Still there will be that designer who doesn’t have enough time and instead of getting an extension on their project they’ll be the one to throw in the most overused element available and remind people of just how bad it can be. Just remember as designers of all skill level it is our job to make the world look good and keep things in order in one way or another.
could have done differently. Every crit helped us to gain more knowledge for the next project. By criticizing work it helped us to build up our knowledge and understanding of what is right and wrong in the world of design including our individual project but not limited to anything less than the whole world of design. With so many people designing so many different things designers are bound to run into a whole array of challenges. Many of these problems will be faced continuously. After all, the job of the designer is to solve problems, so why not come up with a solution or alternative to the problems being faced in design? My major gripe within the world of design is the issue of stock art. For a student studying design, a new designer in the field or an old pro, stock art is something that may not have even posed as a threat on the creativity radar. Here I mean to inform the unaware of the many dangers as well as joys thatmay be faced when using stock art and encourage these individuals to make their own decisions on how they will use it.
I’m positive that everyone out there has encountered stock art at one time or another. Most people probably come into contact with it multiple times a day without ever realizing it. It can be found anywhere from images in a newspaper or magazine to accompany a story, to cheesy backgrounds on Myspace to heart, star, skull and gun icons, even stretching to flash tattoo’s you pick right from the book. A lot of people are probably wearing stock art around on t-shirts too, again without even realizing this possibly (horrible, lazy) unoriginal trend that they’re buying into.
Stock is easy. That’s what its there for, to save the designer a little time and make one less step in an otherwise tedious job. This kind of ready-made art can help give you ideas or play up what you’ve already created. Being a time saver when you can’t draw something from scratch is a no brainer. How often do any of us have time to create a piece of work from the ground up? Herein lays the problem. Making everything so easy and readily available takes the problem-solving element out of the designer’s job. Instead of starting with a blank canvas and deciding how to put work together to create the final layout, designers are now faced with the problems of what stock photos, fonts or themes to use and how to use them. Stock art allows and possibly forces designers, creative, problem solving people, to simply combine elements together in a seemingly visual solution. Much like the creation of design programs like Photoshop and Indesign, stock art makes everything a little more computerized and almost robotic and a little less human and personal.
This raises the question of what the true job of the designer is. Is it our responsibility to create every visual element of the project? At one point in time, people were specialized in different fields. One person would be an illustrator while one would be the photographer and finally the designer would use those people’s elements to create a final product. Now designers are facing pressures to take on all 3 jobs, face the time constraints of doing so and still above all struggling to maintain a certain originality.
One positive way that stock art is being viewed is as a tool, much like a font is a tool. If we had to take the time to create every single character in a font before we used it we would never get anything accomplished. Time is a major factor in why designers are choosing to use stock art as much as they do. As designers it is quite rare that one would get the luxury of working on one project for a long period of time with no other distractions. In this case the designer would be able to immerse themselves completely in every aspect of the project from start to finish. But realistically we are facing a hundred things at once and working on multiple projects at a time. With time constraints like this we can see why it’s often easier for a designer to pull an image, brush, symbol or even idea from an archive of “stock” and put it to use in the most creative way possible.
The use of stock art has been compared to such professions if you will as a DJ or Chef. In terms of a DJ, of course you’re using other peoples work but it’s your job to create something different and unique from it; a mosaic of sorts. For a Chef it can be compared to something as simple as making a pizza. It’s your job to put together the different ingredients to come up with the final product. This seems to put things in perspective. The issue with using such standards elements in work is almost questionable as to whether or not people should be mad. In most cases all “artists” are using something that someone else has created at one point or another in their creative process.
There are many ways in which stock art can be used tastefully to portray meaning and still look good appearance wise. Overuse of elements is what leads people to just not care because its meaning is lost after the first 100 times that image or idea is seen. To use one element of stock and build on it to create your own idea from that is usually more acceptable than designing something with the most overused photo, brush and concept out there as the focal point of the project. The trick is to using a stock element in such a way that it becomes unique and people won’t question the originality of it. The choice is really in the hands of the designer. A few cautious people can be quick to eliminate this “problem” with the use of stock art. If it starts to be used in a less obnoxious way, people might forget about it all together. Still there will be that designer who doesn’t have enough time and instead of getting an extension on their project they’ll be the one to throw in the most overused element available and remind people of just how bad it can be. Just remember as designers of all skill level it is our job to make the world look good and keep things in order in one way or another.
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