Shillington College

BARTHOLOT

Check out the website of Bartholot a Berlin-based freelance designer with an emphasis on photographic illustration and art direction. Striking use of colour and unusual composition. www.bartholot.net

Image searches make you moody

When creating moodboards the hardest part is defining your direction. Try to do this before image searches otherwise hours can go by and you end up with a heap of directions. Before you start make sure you have FOCUS. For example, the demographic, competitor design examples, a design style, type style, a word to inspire colour palettes etc.

TRY TO AVOID GOOGLE IMAGE SEARCHES AT ALL COSTS! If you must, Select hi res files to cut down the amount of rubbish you have to wade through. The higher res or larger the file size the more likely is is to be a better shot and quality content.

When using stock libraries try to use advanced search tools made available through the site, this could cut down your hunting time substantially.

Be aware that stock library images may have watermarks on them unless you sign up for an account. It is ok to use lo res images for concepts and moodboards but never for published work.

Here are a few locations that are good places to start when looking for good quality images.

Great quality images with expansive library:

Getty Images

Photolibrary

Geographical, arts, culture, nature and history images:

New York Public Library Image gallery

National Archives of Australia

Everything and anything:

Flickr

Random inspiration:

Visual-inspiration Good collection of images but no search feature, limited to categories of photography, logos, packaging, illustration, graffiti and other which features mostly art

FFFFOUND. Great image bookmarking site but has no search function, but if you are looking for some art, illustration, photography, or design inspiration this is the best.

Happy hunting!