The iStockphoto Royalties Mess and Links of the Week
- If you’ve got an iStockphoto account—buyer and/or contributor—you may want to browse through the massive, deeply emotional threads on the proposed changes to the iStock royalty model: a new concept called “redeemed credits.” A strong majority of contributors are quite mad and not without reason. The changes constitute a pay cut and, more vaguely, evidence that high revenue targets on iStock are being imposed by Seattle-based Getty Images and their parent company Hellman & Friedman (their web site is more than a bit dated).
- There are quite a few other changes coming to iStockphoto, including the news that Vetta collection images will now be sold on the Getty Images site. And yet another premium collection—Agency—will soon be part of iStock. Artists will be personally selected to contribute to Agency. Add it to Vetta, iStock Exclusive, the regular files and the partnership program/dollar images and the iStock collection has become much more complex than it was just 18 months ago.
- CNET has a very good summary of the iStock kerfuffle and what it might mean for the future of crowd-sourcing.
- Despite of that, microstock life goes on. Cosmonaut’s image of Interstate 5 in Portland at dusk was accepted into Getty’s Photodisc collection. And it’s never too soon to get Christmas-themed stock photography up to iStockphoto for sale.
- Spammers are already finding ways to exploit HTML5.
- Submissions to the Pixel Awards are due by the end of September.
- From Pennsylvania, perhaps the funniest headline ever.
- Personal Life, the latest album from Portland group The Thermals, was released last week.
Stock Photo Featured During Opening Video Montage at Microsoft Directions Conference
A bit of old news. From October 29, 2006:
A stock photography image taken by Daniel Deitschel, “Execute,” was used in the opening 7-minute video of the Directions 2006 conference in Atlanta, an event sponsored by Microsoft. The conference, themed “Riding the Wave,” had over 500 attendees.
Stock Photo Featured in iStockphoto Design Spotlight Submission
Designer Denise Williams used this Cosmonaut stock photo from 2006 in her stylish collateral design for McLane. The fine folks at iStockphoto accepted it into their Design Spotlight.
Here’s her design and the photo:
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Gentle Dental Uses Cosmonaut Stock Photos on Web Site, in Retail Signage
A news item from September 7, 2007:
Several stock photos taken by Daniel Deitschel have been used by Gentle Dental at gentle1.com and part of the company’s window signage.
The photos, including those of Tiffany Turner (bottom right) and Shawnrey Notto (top right), appeared in the windows of Gentle Dental locations in San Francisco, Vancouver (Washington) and several other clinics on the West Coast.
Several stock photos rotate on the current version of the Gentle Dental home page, including this one of Melissa Lee (bottom left).
Gentle Dental (Interdent) is a leading group of affiliated dental providers offering multiple-specialty dental services in the United States. Gentle Dental and its more than 130 sister dental offices provide comprehensive, convenient and high-quality dentistry.
Stock Photo Featured on Popular French Culinary Web Site
From March 1, 2007:
A stock photography image taken by Daniel Deitschel, “Spinach,” was used at Arts-Culinaires.com. The photo accompanied a series of spinach recipes. As of March 1, 2007, Arts Culinaires has a Alexa rating of 2,028 amongst all French web sites. The site is also popular in Canada and Belgium.
Kobbi Site Launches, Receives Recognition from CoolHomePages.com and iStockphoto
The Kobbi web site design might be our most popular and frequently complimented. It’s part of our web design and development portfolio, and we performed all the work on this site including some interactive Flash and eCommerce.
This post is from August 17, 2006:
After a thorough redesign process, the new site for Kobbi launched today. The new Kobbi.com includes eCommerce functionality and several interactive Flash elements for navigation and informational purposes. Upon launch, the site received immediate acceptance to iStockphoto’s Design Spotlight.
Kobbi, with a product line based upon the concept of “The Art of Thankful Living,” is based in Portland, where its products are sold in several retail locations in addition to its online store.
Update: As of January 3, 2007, the Kobbi web site design has earned a near-perfect 98.7% approval rating in peer-reviewed comments.
And from October 13, 2006:
The new Kobbi site was recognized by CoolHomePages.com for general excellence in design and specifically in the categories of Color Schemes, CSS & DHTML, E-Commerce, Flash, Products and Usability.
Update I: As of December 12, 2007, members of the CoolHomePages.com have rated the Kobbi home page design 9 out of 10 stars.
Update II: As of June 19, 2010, the site maintains its 9-star rating. More than 5,000 users have clicked on the thumbnail to visit the site.
IluminaGroup.com Web Site Honored, Featured
We’re transferring some old news items into our blog here. This one is from May 21, 2006:
Since April 25 The Ilumina Group web site design has been featured in the iStockphoto Design Spotlight. Comments have been overwhelmingly positive. On May 13 it was named as a monthly gold medal winner at the World Wide Web Awards. Today it was added to CoolHomePages.com and recognized for excellence in the categories of Flash, Illustration, Rollovers and Services.
The site is part of the web design and development portfolio & still live at the time of this posting: Ilumina Group, LLC.
Three Cosmonaut Stock Photos Used in Political Campaign Commercial
The marketing team/agency for Amanda Fritz, candidate for Portland City Council, selected three of our stock photos to use in their latest TV commercial. Our images appear at :06 (Portland City Hall), :11 (Portland MAX train) and :19 (the OHSU overhead tram).
UPDATE, 11/4/2008: Amanda Fritz won a seat on the Portland City Council.
Two Stock Photos Included in Proposed Ford Flex Campaign
Two Cosmonaut stock images—both U.S. Interstate 75 road signs—were used by designer Shane Morris of Jackson-Dawson Communications for a new Flex ad campaign proposed to the Ford Motor Company.
Morris’s design (click to see full size) helped the firm land the project with the world’s third largest auto manufacturer. The proposed ad campaign theme was “On the Road” with Ford Flex, which is now “Let’s Go Somewhere.”
The interstate sign image on the bottom right was taken at the Burnside Street on-ramp to Interstate 5 in Portland, then altered to its present form. Similarly, the sign on the top right was originally an I-5 highway sign, photographed near the Tacoma Dome in Washington state.
Interstate 75 connects Miami and Detroit, continuing up north to reach Michigan’s border with Ontario.
Print Advertisement for DM2 Software Receives Honor from iStockphoto.com
From September 12, 2006:
A magazine advertisement designed for DM2 was recognized by iStockphoto.com for design excellence, having been added to the site’s Design Spotlight.
Since 1989, DM2 has been developing software and working to help diversified petroleum marketers increase market share and improve profitability through automation. DM2 is based in Vancouver, Washington.
The ad layout was created in Adobe Illustrator, while the composite of the three stock images was made using Adobe Photoshop.
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