When you’re spending endless hours creating idea’s for your marketing materials, you want to ensure that the imagery you use is of high quality for maximum impact. High quality imagery is especially important when your marketing materials are to be used for large format printing where imagery is expanded to fit across exhibition stands and displays like Pop up Stands, Roller Banners and Fabric Exhibition Stands.
Studies show that our brains process images faster than they can process text so it’s no surprise that the vast majority of marketing material includes some sort of visual content or imagery. The impact that good-quality imagery has on consumers means it is in high demand by designers and marketers alike.
When looking for high-quality images for your marketing campaigns you most likely will have come across large online image libraries like Shutterstock. Sites like these however can often be costly and for SME’s who have smaller budgets, imagery for marketing materials are expenses they would rather not incur.
That’s why we have put together a list of our favourite online websites that offer free images that are royalty free and deemed appropriate for commercial use. But first, what legalities need to be considered when using images found online?
There are 2 types of creative commons licence you need to be aware of:
Creative Commons License Zero – This means you can use the images in any way you like
Creative Commons License Attribution – This means you are free to use the images but need to add a credit on the site to the licence holder or the photographer of the photo.
All of the websites below that we have chosen have pictures which hold a Creative Commons License Zero (CC0) so you are free to use these images in any way you like without needing to give credit to authors or photographers on your site.
StockSnap.io
This is a great website for extremely high quality imagery that can be used freely and without attribution to a license holder or photographer. This website has a wide array of modern photos and imagery, all with warm and contemporary filters.
Pexels
Pexels is another great site whether you are a marketer, a business owner or a designer. This website is easy to use site with a special feature that ranks the top photographers on the site. This is a very active website where by a large community of photographers regularly share their photo’s for you to use.
Picography.co
A contemporary site with the facility to search keywords to find the most appropriate images for you to use. The site has a sophisticated layout and images are beautiful, high-res imagery which are perfect for you to use in your marketing materials.
Pixabay.com
This site is well designed and holds more than 1.3million photos for you to browse and use. There are a wide variety of visuals on this site including photos, illustrations, vector graphics and videos. The images from this site are very dynamic and hold the potential to make a real statement with your marketing materials.
Unsplash.com
This is a great site if you’re looking for fresh and innovative inspiration for your marketing materials. They offer a ‘trending’ section which features the most popular images on the site which are trending amongst other users at the time. The images are high-res and edited in a beautiful way.
Kaboompics.com
Not only does this website offer an extensive range of great images, they also have a blog which details the latest design trends, ideas for content marketing and social media, and the latest news in the photography sector. This is a powerful website with plenty of resources to help you choose the best images for your marketing needs.
Once you have chosen images for your marketing materials and display needs, it’s time to choose which displays you are wanting to display your fresh material on.
At XL Display we are experts in display solutions and exhibition stand design. We offer a wide range of display equipment, from portable displays, such as pop up display stands, to bespoke exhibition stands and everything in between.
For help choosing the best display or for more information on our product range or graphic design service, please contact us or call us on 01733 511030.
Permalink:
https://www.xldisplays.co.uk/news/finding-free-high-quality-images-for-your-marketing-materials.aspx