Open Path Blog

If you’ve been around microstock, you may remember not so long ago that Stockxpert, a long-time favorite among stock artists, was acquired by Getty and subsequently shut down. SXP had a special place in my personal history in the business, being the first agency I worked with and also one of the most fair and professional organizations in microstock. Needless-to-say it was a sad day for Open Path Design when SXP announced that they would cease operations.

Last week, just mere months after the SXP closing, it was revealed that Peter Hamza and Andras Pfaff of Stockxpert would be venturing back into the fray with a new company, Stockfresh. Considering the wonderful job Peter and Andras did with SXP, I can confidently get on board with Stockfresh without any hesitation. These guys are some of the best in the business, and I would happily follow them into any venture they embark on. So welcome back, guys, and best of luck to you and the rest of the Stockfresh crew.

After dwelling on the last blog post for a few days and thinking about my recommendation to “look no further than Dreamstime” for your stock image needs, I’ve decided to amend my recommendation a little. Of course I still fully endorse Dreamstime and think that they have the right mix of collection size, quality, functionality, support, and contributor relations. But there are also a few other sites worth mentioning, particularly in regards to fair pay and contributor relations. So these recommendations may be more for stock artists than image buyers, but in either case do check out these other two recommended websites: Cutcaster and Graphic Leftovers.

Both of these companies have a lot going for them, and have two particular things in common that I find admirable. They both pay very fair royalty rates, 40% and 52% respectively, and they both are staffed by some people that are truly passionate about driving their companies towards success. Cutcaster is piloted by John Griffin, one of the most vocal and active members of the microstock community and  a regular fixture in online message boards and blogs (he has even commented in this one). Spend a couple of minutes chatting with John and you will find his enthusiasm to be infectious and you will want to get involved in Cutcaster. On the Graphic Leftovers front, Daniel Errante is an active community member and also a frequent visitor and commentator on message boards and blogs. Daniel is extremely helpful if you have any questions about Graphic Leftovers, and he is often the man behind the keyboard of the Live Chat support function on the website. Most importantly, Daniel is very obviously passionate about Graphic Leftovers and the growth of the company, and was especially enthusiastic about the recent launch of the redesigned website. He was kind enough to email some screenshots of the new design to me during the development process and asked for my opinion of the new look.

Be sure to check out Cutcaster and Graphic Leftovers. These are two sites that have a good structure and tons of potential, and I would predict that both of them become significantly bigger players in the stock industry over the next few years.

With the closing of StockXpert, the stock agency I backed above any other and fully endorsed and supported, I found myself in the difficult position of having to figure out which single stock agency I should now be throwing my support behind. I currently work with 13 agencies, all of which have their pros and cons when it comes to overall appeal. Some offer a great buying experience but pay peanuts. Some feature excellent technologies when it comes to search engine results but their customer service is lacking. I was looking for the agency in the crowd that was the most well-rounded and delivered on both the buying and selling fronts.

In the end, the best of the crowd was pretty easily Dreamstime. The company is known for their artist-friendly atmosphere and good pay rates, two very big pluses in the selling category. And most people view the site as having the best search engine and overall buying experience, making DT the sort of company that I could get behind as a contributing artist and fully recommend to buyers.So if you’re ever wondering what agency I recommend (and also which agency most other stock artists working in the microstock business would recommend), look no further than Dreamstime.

Blogs and forums seem to be alive with the sounds of impending doom in the design business lately. Not sure what is in the air, but I feel like I am reading more and more of these doom-and-gloom scenario theories now than ever before. They usually go something like this: Designers are now cheap whores, we work for any wage or no wage at all, spec work is rampant, outsourcing is taking over, and we are all screwed. Sure there is some logical basis for these notions, and maybe some aren’t entirely false. Spec work has indeed picked up steam in recent years thanks to the growth of contest sites and forums. Clients also do seem more inclined to ask a designer or agency to work on spec given the direction the economy went last year. But is it a sign of the coming apocalypse? I’m not buying into it.

You would think after reading some of these “the end is near” blog posts that the horsemen were knocking at the AIGA’s front door right this moment. The only horseman I see, though, is War, or at least the illusion of War cast on the design industry by all of the hype. He’s stirring the kool-aid and getting everyone all worked up over a dire situation that I just don’t see as any real threat to anyone worth their salt in this business.

Top of the list of signs of the end times is the proliferation of design contests and outsourcing. The idea is that design contests are devaluing the work of professional designers to the point where clients expect to pay very little for any design work at all. Alongside this is the rise in outsourcing overseas, where design work and development can be bought for fractions of what the same tasks cost in the states.

The thing is, I don’t compete with designers working in either of those market segments, nor do I think any of the doomsday profits compete with them either. The work produced in both cases is inferior, it’s rushed, it is a far lesser quality and it almost always disappoints the client.

In my experience, and that of my clients, there is just no substitute for good design work from a real professional designer. Contests are a crap-shoot that usually produce amateur results. If any technically sound work comes out of them, it often still misses the mark in terms of fulfilling the project objectives since it’s design based on flimsy briefs and a serious lack of collaboration and communication. Outsourcing is almost always a disappointment. The outsourcing projects I have been involved with often come back chock full of problems, technical issues, and lots of small fires that I end up putting out myself. They also usually include blown deadlines, missed milestones, and difficult communication since you are dealing with people on the other side of the world who work during different business hours and sometimes communicate best in a language that I don’t speak.

Compared to the sort of business I do, where quality matters and deadlines are meant to be hit and not ignored, it’s no contest. I am not in competition with this segment of the market, and so I just do not see how this all is any threat to my livelihood. My clients are looking for something more than what the bargain alternatives can deliver, and I think that most clients of most good designers out there are looking for the same high-quality results. Is it the four horsemen on the horizon? Only if you think that the bloggers playing with wooden horses and paper swords are the real deal.

Or as Chuck D said, “Don’t believe the hype.”

After a short hiatus, the Open Path Design Store is back up and running, with new items now available. Check it out and take a look at the latest items.

A handful of lucky designers are still enjoying a business model that most graphic design studios have now accepted as a thing of the past. For most of us, gone are the days when studios were relied on for answers to any and all design related questions. As it has happened in most industries, the Internet has leveled the field of information accessibility, and consumers are using the tools of the web to shop around for everything from cars to candles. Design is no exception, and clients are becoming increasingly aware of bargains to be had on the web. The question is no longer whether design studios can compete with an ever-growing population of amateur designers who offer prices far below what the studios must charge. We have known for some time that studios simply cannot lower their rates enough to match the bargain freelancers. The new question is how can design companies leverage these same new technologies of information and production to create a process that is cheaper, faster, and more competitive? Additionally, what can today’s design studio offer clients that the bargain basement solo designers cannot?

If only it were as simple as stating the case to your clients that well-established and experienced design studios offer a superior product and consulting expertise that your less skilled and informed competition cannot match. The fact is, clients are most often swayed in their decisions by price, and they are not so easily convinced that experience is something worth investing in. While the more savvy clients know the value of an experienced design studio, in this economy even the best clients are looking for ways to cut costs, and unfortunately design is becoming a more frequent target of financial scrutiny. Consider these cost concerns, along with the increasing resourcefulness of clients when it comes to the web and finding alternative resources, and you will begin to see the difficult position many studios are finding themselves in.

Today, clients question every expense. While in years past it was easy to get a client to sign off on a dozen Getty images for an annual report, today the more informed client is well aware of the new alternative resources available, and is not so willing to dish out $300 per stock image.

The trick for studios is going to be balancing their need to maintain a high level of quality and expertise, while utilizing some of the lower cost methods that clients have come to expect design studios to use in order to remain competitively priced. This means venturing into territory that some studios had hoped to avoid entirely, sometimes well outside of the comfort zones that they have become accustomed to. However these changes fall well within the realm of the “evolve or die” mantra, and the studios that refuse to adapt will soon find their email inboxes devoid of client contact.

The good news for studios is that the new alternative resources on the web are becoming an increasingly reliable source of good content. Quality design resources can be found at affordable prices, allowing you to cut costs and keep clients happy with both the final product and the final invoice. All while ensuring that you don’t have to sacrifice the quality of your resources or the end result of your designs. The term “stock” no longer applies to just photography, and bargains can be found in stock vector illustrations, Flash animation and actionscripting, video clips, 3D renderings, and audio clips. Even websites can be created using out-of-the box template solutions to develop some site elements and functions. Your client may be looking for a website design and build at a reduced price, and now you just might be able to deliver it with some creative purchasing. Thanks to istockphoto.com, you may be able to find the perfect Flash banner for that website for just a few dollars, instead of tasking your in-house staff with the job and going over budget.

Best of all, most clients are on-board with these new solutions. Some are not only aware of sites like istockphoto, but they actually encourage their design studios to use these resources to find suitable content at a fraction of traditional prices.

It’s a strange new world out there for design studios, one that pits creativity against pressing budgets with increasing ferocity. The studios that are surviving the transition, though, are the ones that are finding ways to use these new resources to stay competitive. Keeping your clients coming back is now a matter of delivering all of the same services you have previously provided, including expert consulting and project management, while doing so at lower costs and in less time. The new design economy is one in which the educated client is demanding more for less, while the thriving design studio is finding more useful and less expensive resources to deliver what the client needs. 

Quite a few months back I designed some icons for the Platial mapping system, some of which are now in use on the site. With the launch of Platial Nearby, those same icons are now seen on iPhones around the world. Seeing my work out in the world is always fun, but there is something special about seeing my work on my iPhone, even if it is in such a small format.  

The icons in use that I created are: Home, Food, Hotel, Wild, Punk, Parks, and Photo. 

After less than a year, Pixish has decided to call it quits. You may recall that when they launched, I was less than impressed with the concept. I also took issue with Pixish creator Derek Powazek’s claim that the site wasn’t about spec work, which it clearly was. No need to rehash all the old issues, though, and I just thought it was appropriate to mention that in his farewell blog post, Powazek pretty much admits to what he denied all along: that Pixish was hardly any different from Crowdspring and SitePoint/99designs. He says quite plainly that any Pixish members looking for a similar site should go to one of those well-known crowdsourcing spec-work marketplaces. He also admits to underestimating the spec issue, and the backlash that Pixish faced from the design community. 

My take was (and still is) that Powazek always knew exactly what Pixish was, and his attempts to paint it differently were quickly seen as the distractions that they were. Most people knew what Pixish was all about, and also to avoid it like the plague. The site had spec written all over it, and it was plainly obvious. Couple that with what seemed like a complete lack of effort from the site’s creators to grow the community or improve the site (how is it still in Beta today?) and it isn’t so difficult to see what brought Pixish down.

John at Cutcaster was kind enough to invite me to submit a guest blog post for the Cutcaster blog. The post focuses on taking your microstock imaging hobby to professional status with a simple change of attitude. Check it out here. 

They aren’t always easy to find, but from time to time I do come across an image or two of mine in use. Today I discovered MSNBC using one of the election campaign badges in their politics section. Hopefully more of these will pop up as the big election draws near this fall. Other graphics from this collection have also been spotted on the NPR and ABC News websites.

 If you happen to find any images from my portfolio out roaming the wild terrain of the web, drop me a note about it.