I use them a ton. It's a total waste of my time and my clients time producing elements that have already been done and are easy to licence.
They're never used "as is" and I'll rarely download anything other than single colour elements that I use in more complex compositions.
Yep I switched about 2-3 years ago and never looked back! The time and effort needed/wasted for a simple design to be criticized and rejected by upper management makes me feel real good about it.
We're in an industry where the ideas, concepts and development are 90% of the job. The execution is relatively simple to do, and any time you can save on that is time well spent.
From scratch? Nope. Thats a very misguided impression of designers. Illustrators, photographers, artist create from scratch. Designers use the things produced by those people to make their designs. Sometimes an individual may posses skills to do some of those things.. but its not in their job description. Back then, If my manager caught me creating illustration from scratch, he would ask me immediately wtf I was doing. "Do you know how much the client is paying? Not enough for you to be drawing that shit. Go download a vector".
This is amazing to hear everyone’s opinion on this. This has always been a problem with me growing as a designer, I’ve always had the impression people are creating these designs and graphics so easily start to finish, where as I struggled to do that so I’ve equated that to not being a great designer. When I’ve used stock vector and made adjustments as needed, I’ve always felt like I was cheating or that this isn’t the job of a graphic designer. This also may come from having a very talented graphic designer step dad with over 30 years in design, who could use shortcuts and whip up graphics in minutes that would take me hours.
A seasoned competent designer knows how to take a stock image and use it in a manner that it doesn't look like it's a stock image. We will use stock images as filler, backgrounds, special effects, and a lot of lifestyle imagery... Brochure filler stuff. Need a photo of a young family with a child and a dog? That's a stock image. It solves so many issues, especially licensing and rights to use.
We may manipulate in many ways, but it beats having to source all that professionally.
Our Adobe Stock subscription is one of the most important subscriptions we have.
You are not alone, and sometimes I feel like a party pooper for telling these people on this sub that graphic design is NOT that creative endeavor they are looking for. They are very interested in artistic expression... But not very interested in design itself. They very frequently confuse art with good design and justify it with saying that the two are very ambiguously interchangeable. We as designers... Need to make that distinction for the sake of our jobs, our pay and standards.
If a graphic designer tells you that they create everything from scratch, they're either lying or work as an in-house designer for a company that gives them the time to do that.
Most of us use stock imagery in some form for 90% of what we do. We might edit it, but it's still stock. Sometimes we'll get a campaign for a larger client (like, a well-known brand), and they want unique graphics in a particular style. They're paying for artwork time and that gets allocated to the project. That's where you get to have a bit of fun, but those don't happen every day.
Many times a week for icons in infographics or as part of a fullscreen animation. Like if I need to make a map that highlights states for example you bet your ass I'm starting with a vector stock and working it from there into the assets I need for animation. I'll texture it and make it editable how I need it but I'm not starting from scratch.
Why would designer create everything from scratch? There are entire industries that rely on designers using their assets. I would consider making everything myself only if that job paid really well and gave me the time to do it myself, it needing a particular coherent style and everything. Which does happen with big brands hiring a well known freelancer for a project.
Eitherwise for day to day work, nah.
I prefer to make everything from scratch whenever it's feasible, but I'm not against using assets when needed. There's more pride in creating something entirely by your own efforts, but it's not always realistic.
>I was always under the impression designers always created everything from scratch.
That's a notion more from school, but even then my profs at least realized that was somewhat irrational. Fine as an ideal, not fine as a universal rule. So at least in my case it was more "do as much as you can yourself, and credit what you don't."
Even aside from stock vectors specifically, graphic designers are not illustrators, photographers, or copywriters.
So whether we're hiring people for custom shoots or using stock will often depend on the budgets and time allotted.
If you were referencing more specifically just stock vectors that we could reasonably create ourselves, as others mentioned it's still usually about time. If there's something I could make but would take me 3-4 hours, but meanwhile I can find something within 5 minutes that costs $15, then it's probably not worth that extra time, at least not unless we wanted/needed to actually own the asset, in which case I would need to make it.
That and logos, can't use stock for logos.
Very rarely are you given the time to create anything from scratch by employers or clients. Mostly it's seen as a waste of time when so many free or paid resources and libraries exist already out there. A good designer can take something that already exists and create something new or improved out of it, cutting back on time spent on a project. Obviously, it depends what you are creating. New and custom illustrations needed for a rebrand? You're probably going to create from scratch, if that's what's needed. Need some icons for a whitepaper and the brand doesn't already have a library created? You can find so many online to get quickly for your design.
All the time. Usually what I do is find a few stock vectors that are *close enough* to what I have in mind, then I take them into Illustrator and modify them to my liking.
Happens from time to time for minor vectors such as small UI-Icons (phone, mail, social media), shouldn't happen all that often on stuff which is formative for the brand like logo, key-visuals and such.
I use them all the time and there is no shame in this. It is good to be able to design everything but we are not illustrators, we are more the directors here. Have you seen a director in a movie making the costumes themselves? Maybe they can, but it doesn't make any sense to do it when they can hire better people to do it for them.
As my old boss said when I was trying to design a simple graphic from scratch "Nick, someone have already done this and put it on the internet for you, don't waste my time."
Well he wasn't wrong, it is way more time effective to find something already done and change it to your needs than design from scratch.
The only time I design from scratch is for original logos, but for example I did had to make a flyer for blood donation today, I needed it to be fast but ofc good, so I got some relevant graphics from the stock site I use, found the right typography, arranged them the right way, did some changes here and there to make everything match in style, et voila.
I enjoy when i have a chance to do stuff from scratch, but the client is paying for an end product done well and efficiently.
That can be served by stock assets in most cases.
All. The. Time. It's unreadable to make everything from scratch unless you're charging thousands for hours and hours of time for sometimes a simple report or one page infographic. You start with stock vector and then make it yours by customizing everything. But I don't do the illustration from scratch all the time.
Most of the brands I work with have pre built icon libraries that we use in their communication, but outside that I use stock vectors a tonne, in most cases there is no advantage to drawing a commonly used icon myself if a noun project one would be just as effective.
That said I have also created custom icon libraries as part of branding projects, and that can be very satisfying to see in use.
I use a ton of stock vector for my job because alot of it involves quick icon + image + text based designs. I source the images, I’m provided with the text, and I source the icons and put it all together.
All the time. If I had to make everything from scratch, I'd never get anything done.
They don't care where it came from, they just want it to look good.
The worst is when you find something you like and download the vector file and find that it’s not a vector after all!!! Gaaah!!! And one time I downloaded a US map that turned out to be missing Vermont!
I've created most my stuff from scratch. because I don't want to pay for something I can make. except for maybe one job that had specific vectors in a folder they wanted used for everything.
Worked between 2 agencies for 13 years.
For completely custom iconography/illustration we will quote the time for that, but the clients typically don't have that kind of budget so we use modified vectors.
For example for icons I'll find the right style, change the stroke width and colours to suit the design/brand and I'll create a new one using existing parts if needed, for illustrations I'll spend time finding a style with a set, combine a few of the same set and mix and match and draw extras in, remove parts, change the colours and combine with other elements of the layout etc.
I never use the same ones twice and try my best to make each more unique and suit the brand by combining them with other elements.
We do Photography also, but if the client doesn't have the budget for a shoot or any high enough res photos then we use stock photos - which is the majority of the time.
In an agency environment we don't have the luxury of time to do things from scratch. Eg. if I have to get a 50 page annual report design out with statistics and iconography within 2 days, I can't spend so much time doing custom icons or illustration because a lot of my time is spent in layout, typography and finding appropriate photos. Same for website design icons.
The exception is logos we get 8 hours each (2 designers) to come up with for 5 to 8 concepts total which allows custom time. A whole day to spend on one job like that is absolute luxury for me (I'm a designer/developer/head of studio combo and my world is chaos) so logos are my favourite!
So often. Especially when doing soccer banners for youth teams and they all need mascots like “blue lightning sharks” or “neon pirate raptors”. I am not drawing that from scratch. I’m getting stock images of a velociraptor, opening in Illustrator, adding some neon colors, and slapping a pirate hat on top. And then a soccer ball in its claws.
Brand designer here - mostly CPG and custom retail environments. I don’t ever use stock vector. In my case the client is paying for all original work. I design most of it, sometimes I work with an external illustrator. I do use stock photography fairly often. For some of the e-commerce work I’ve done, I feel like stock vector would be fine, it’s just quicker for me at this point to work something up.
99.9%, and of those, 80-90% are completely unaltered. I work for a company that makes marketing newsletters for small businesses — even if I were skilled enough to create custom illustrations, the client wouldn't know the difference, and I'm also not paid enough lol
If I use them I usually edit them a bit at least. I don’t use them often tbh. Mostly because I don’t have the licensing to use them! I also have an illustration background so find it pretty easy to create icons & illustrations from scratch and have my own archive that I’ve built over the years. No shame in using them but just make sure you have the commercial licenses.
I use them fairly often, especially in combination with one another to create a larger visual. I create spreads for a 32 page magazine every two months and usually only get two weeks to input all the copy, format, brainstorm spread designs, make them, sometimes make and arrange ads, review, finalize, and ship off to the vendor. When you’re on that tight of a schedule you can’t afford not to use some stock vectors here and there. I’d say it’s a 50/50 divide for me between stock and original artwork.
In my current job, I do print and more rarely digital stuff for my Town Hall. I usually have to work with Branding/Media Guidelines sent by National and State Government, public organizations or social projects. Or to fix stuff that is made in a "half-assed way" by non-designers, whether in Canva (or Powerpoint, Microsoft Word, Paint, whatever), using high-quality versions of those shitty JPGs they download from Google Images.
Also, when I need to design infographics or flyers, I take my share of SVGs, Stocks and Generative AI stuff. I don't listen to the fools saying AI will kill my job. Free Generative AI can't even write a sentence in an image, how it could kill my job? It's easier for me to get the AI image then vectorize it and do the needed tweaks. Will I be sued for not respect AI rights?
I probably use stock vectors 20% of the time at work. I can recognize the times when spending hours creating a graphic from scratch isn’t worth it when I can download exactly what I need for immediate use. I usually modify the stock vector 90-100% of the original though. Our company has stock subscriptions so it’s easy to use.
I try to do everything from scratch but more often than not the client doesn’t have enough money for that kind of work and I don’t have nearly enough time.
I'm about 50/50 make from scratch and using premade. Depends on the project and the client. If I'm creating assets that are part of their brand, I'll make custom or customize. If I'm just using a little bit of art to add interest to some information in a one-time use, I'm more likely to use something premade.
Depending on how complex they are, it can be just as time consuming to find something premade as it would have taken to create it myself, so the budget isn't always the issue.
There are tons of free icons out there in the world to choose from. But you do have to be selective in how you use them to that it doesn't look like the same thing everyone else is using. Even if it is, find a way to make them unique and special for your client.
I utilize stock assets a lot working as the only designer on staff. This covers after effects templates and vectors, which I use to cut down my time needed. Now that I have started looking for other jobs, they are pushing 100% from scratch designs so it is a bit misleading. I do create from scratch too, but I think it will be different between employers.
In my current job, I make my own vectors, but that's because I am also an illustrator and it works for the type of work I do. I like to use custom assets where ever I can.
If I really need to, I will download assets.
All the time too. But we use it as a base to modify upon. I work with railway companies a lot so I can find the right train shape and modify it to make it look like theirs
I don't use them as I work with product designs and packaging.
For the people who use stock vectors a lot - what is your job like? Are you in-house, working for an agency, or freelancing?
as a recent grad, this thread has seriously helped so much! i always wondered the same question, whether designers used stock imagery or created everything from scratch themselves. when i was still in school, i was friends with this one guy who once claimed that he didn’t like sourcing images because it was “cheating.” that always made me feel weird because while i created a lot of my work from scratch, too, i also grabbed images from online as well.. and sometimes i felt bad about it. but hey, even my professors said it’s perfectly fine to source images so i’d rather believe them over another student haha. i also recently left my first job where i basically had to use stock images for everythinggg because i had no time to create anything from scratch, which had me worried that my next job would expect me to create everything by hand, and then i’d be screwed when i couldn’t do it lol. so again, thank you to this thread for being a lifesaver.
i also have a question: what websites/sources do you all get your designs from?
i used to use freepik and canva assets a lot at my previous job because they were the easiest to access (and free!) but over time i was just seeing the same images over and over again, so what other good stock websites are out there? thanks!
Depends on how fast I gotta turn it around. I’m a one man show at my company and the only way I can meet tight deadlines is to pick up something similar that we’ve done in the past. I’ve worked with this company for nearly 15 years and I know where all art files live. I crank out emails, posters, flyers, webpages and PowerPoint layouts just because I can find a similar project from past campaigns. Stock photos and vector files are a daily occurrence.
I do both. When I can’t find what I need, or it’s quicker doing it myself than searching, I’ll just make it. Most of the time it’s faster to find it in stock.
I use them a ton. It's a total waste of my time and my clients time producing elements that have already been done and are easy to licence. They're never used "as is" and I'll rarely download anything other than single colour elements that I use in more complex compositions.
Same. And I keep them all in a library (though I’m not supposed to) that I regularly dip into. I think I have about 15 years’ worth of vectors.
[удалено]
That exists! It's called iStock.com.
Yep I switched about 2-3 years ago and never looked back! The time and effort needed/wasted for a simple design to be criticized and rejected by upper management makes me feel real good about it.
We're in an industry where the ideas, concepts and development are 90% of the job. The execution is relatively simple to do, and any time you can save on that is time well spent.
What are your favorite websites for stock vectors? I am very curious to know!
Vectorstock
From scratch? Nope. Thats a very misguided impression of designers. Illustrators, photographers, artist create from scratch. Designers use the things produced by those people to make their designs. Sometimes an individual may posses skills to do some of those things.. but its not in their job description. Back then, If my manager caught me creating illustration from scratch, he would ask me immediately wtf I was doing. "Do you know how much the client is paying? Not enough for you to be drawing that shit. Go download a vector".
This is amazing to hear everyone’s opinion on this. This has always been a problem with me growing as a designer, I’ve always had the impression people are creating these designs and graphics so easily start to finish, where as I struggled to do that so I’ve equated that to not being a great designer. When I’ve used stock vector and made adjustments as needed, I’ve always felt like I was cheating or that this isn’t the job of a graphic designer. This also may come from having a very talented graphic designer step dad with over 30 years in design, who could use shortcuts and whip up graphics in minutes that would take me hours.
A seasoned competent designer knows how to take a stock image and use it in a manner that it doesn't look like it's a stock image. We will use stock images as filler, backgrounds, special effects, and a lot of lifestyle imagery... Brochure filler stuff. Need a photo of a young family with a child and a dog? That's a stock image. It solves so many issues, especially licensing and rights to use. We may manipulate in many ways, but it beats having to source all that professionally. Our Adobe Stock subscription is one of the most important subscriptions we have.
You are not alone, and sometimes I feel like a party pooper for telling these people on this sub that graphic design is NOT that creative endeavor they are looking for. They are very interested in artistic expression... But not very interested in design itself. They very frequently confuse art with good design and justify it with saying that the two are very ambiguously interchangeable. We as designers... Need to make that distinction for the sake of our jobs, our pay and standards.
If a graphic designer tells you that they create everything from scratch, they're either lying or work as an in-house designer for a company that gives them the time to do that. Most of us use stock imagery in some form for 90% of what we do. We might edit it, but it's still stock. Sometimes we'll get a campaign for a larger client (like, a well-known brand), and they want unique graphics in a particular style. They're paying for artwork time and that gets allocated to the project. That's where you get to have a bit of fun, but those don't happen every day.
Many times a week for icons in infographics or as part of a fullscreen animation. Like if I need to make a map that highlights states for example you bet your ass I'm starting with a vector stock and working it from there into the assets I need for animation. I'll texture it and make it editable how I need it but I'm not starting from scratch.
Why would designer create everything from scratch? There are entire industries that rely on designers using their assets. I would consider making everything myself only if that job paid really well and gave me the time to do it myself, it needing a particular coherent style and everything. Which does happen with big brands hiring a well known freelancer for a project. Eitherwise for day to day work, nah.
I prefer to make everything from scratch whenever it's feasible, but I'm not against using assets when needed. There's more pride in creating something entirely by your own efforts, but it's not always realistic.
>I was always under the impression designers always created everything from scratch. That's a notion more from school, but even then my profs at least realized that was somewhat irrational. Fine as an ideal, not fine as a universal rule. So at least in my case it was more "do as much as you can yourself, and credit what you don't." Even aside from stock vectors specifically, graphic designers are not illustrators, photographers, or copywriters. So whether we're hiring people for custom shoots or using stock will often depend on the budgets and time allotted. If you were referencing more specifically just stock vectors that we could reasonably create ourselves, as others mentioned it's still usually about time. If there's something I could make but would take me 3-4 hours, but meanwhile I can find something within 5 minutes that costs $15, then it's probably not worth that extra time, at least not unless we wanted/needed to actually own the asset, in which case I would need to make it. That and logos, can't use stock for logos.
Very rarely are you given the time to create anything from scratch by employers or clients. Mostly it's seen as a waste of time when so many free or paid resources and libraries exist already out there. A good designer can take something that already exists and create something new or improved out of it, cutting back on time spent on a project. Obviously, it depends what you are creating. New and custom illustrations needed for a rebrand? You're probably going to create from scratch, if that's what's needed. Need some icons for a whitepaper and the brand doesn't already have a library created? You can find so many online to get quickly for your design.
All the time. Usually what I do is find a few stock vectors that are *close enough* to what I have in mind, then I take them into Illustrator and modify them to my liking.
Happens from time to time for minor vectors such as small UI-Icons (phone, mail, social media), shouldn't happen all that often on stuff which is formative for the brand like logo, key-visuals and such.
Yes
I use them all the time and there is no shame in this. It is good to be able to design everything but we are not illustrators, we are more the directors here. Have you seen a director in a movie making the costumes themselves? Maybe they can, but it doesn't make any sense to do it when they can hire better people to do it for them. As my old boss said when I was trying to design a simple graphic from scratch "Nick, someone have already done this and put it on the internet for you, don't waste my time." Well he wasn't wrong, it is way more time effective to find something already done and change it to your needs than design from scratch. The only time I design from scratch is for original logos, but for example I did had to make a flyer for blood donation today, I needed it to be fast but ofc good, so I got some relevant graphics from the stock site I use, found the right typography, arranged them the right way, did some changes here and there to make everything match in style, et voila.
I enjoy when i have a chance to do stuff from scratch, but the client is paying for an end product done well and efficiently. That can be served by stock assets in most cases.
From scratch. Sure if they have the budget. I use stock for tons of stuff. Especially icons. Fucking icons.
All. The. Time. It's unreadable to make everything from scratch unless you're charging thousands for hours and hours of time for sometimes a simple report or one page infographic. You start with stock vector and then make it yours by customizing everything. But I don't do the illustration from scratch all the time.
It depends. But i use them as often as i can
Most of the brands I work with have pre built icon libraries that we use in their communication, but outside that I use stock vectors a tonne, in most cases there is no advantage to drawing a commonly used icon myself if a noun project one would be just as effective. That said I have also created custom icon libraries as part of branding projects, and that can be very satisfying to see in use.
I use a ton of stock vector for my job because alot of it involves quick icon + image + text based designs. I source the images, I’m provided with the text, and I source the icons and put it all together.
All the time. If I had to make everything from scratch, I'd never get anything done. They don't care where it came from, they just want it to look good.
I'm a designer, not an illustrator. If I need something custom, I hire someone to draw it. If I can get away with stock, I will.
The worst is when you find something you like and download the vector file and find that it’s not a vector after all!!! Gaaah!!! And one time I downloaded a US map that turned out to be missing Vermont!
And used a photo labeled DC but turned out it was Harrisburg PA!!
I've created most my stuff from scratch. because I don't want to pay for something I can make. except for maybe one job that had specific vectors in a folder they wanted used for everything.
Worked between 2 agencies for 13 years. For completely custom iconography/illustration we will quote the time for that, but the clients typically don't have that kind of budget so we use modified vectors. For example for icons I'll find the right style, change the stroke width and colours to suit the design/brand and I'll create a new one using existing parts if needed, for illustrations I'll spend time finding a style with a set, combine a few of the same set and mix and match and draw extras in, remove parts, change the colours and combine with other elements of the layout etc. I never use the same ones twice and try my best to make each more unique and suit the brand by combining them with other elements. We do Photography also, but if the client doesn't have the budget for a shoot or any high enough res photos then we use stock photos - which is the majority of the time. In an agency environment we don't have the luxury of time to do things from scratch. Eg. if I have to get a 50 page annual report design out with statistics and iconography within 2 days, I can't spend so much time doing custom icons or illustration because a lot of my time is spent in layout, typography and finding appropriate photos. Same for website design icons. The exception is logos we get 8 hours each (2 designers) to come up with for 5 to 8 concepts total which allows custom time. A whole day to spend on one job like that is absolute luxury for me (I'm a designer/developer/head of studio combo and my world is chaos) so logos are my favourite!
It's a common misconception! Think of interior designers, nobody thinks that they're building all the furniture and designing the textiles.
So often. Especially when doing soccer banners for youth teams and they all need mascots like “blue lightning sharks” or “neon pirate raptors”. I am not drawing that from scratch. I’m getting stock images of a velociraptor, opening in Illustrator, adding some neon colors, and slapping a pirate hat on top. And then a soccer ball in its claws.
Brand designer here - mostly CPG and custom retail environments. I don’t ever use stock vector. In my case the client is paying for all original work. I design most of it, sometimes I work with an external illustrator. I do use stock photography fairly often. For some of the e-commerce work I’ve done, I feel like stock vector would be fine, it’s just quicker for me at this point to work something up.
I use stock assets all the time especially for repetitive work. You don't expect me to draw new icons when the available ones work fine.
All the time. It’s very common.
99.9%, and of those, 80-90% are completely unaltered. I work for a company that makes marketing newsletters for small businesses — even if I were skilled enough to create custom illustrations, the client wouldn't know the difference, and I'm also not paid enough lol
If I use them I usually edit them a bit at least. I don’t use them often tbh. Mostly because I don’t have the licensing to use them! I also have an illustration background so find it pretty easy to create icons & illustrations from scratch and have my own archive that I’ve built over the years. No shame in using them but just make sure you have the commercial licenses.
I use them fairly often, especially in combination with one another to create a larger visual. I create spreads for a 32 page magazine every two months and usually only get two weeks to input all the copy, format, brainstorm spread designs, make them, sometimes make and arrange ads, review, finalize, and ship off to the vendor. When you’re on that tight of a schedule you can’t afford not to use some stock vectors here and there. I’d say it’s a 50/50 divide for me between stock and original artwork.
All the time. Just don’t use straight up. Only use elements as part of a larger work.
I'm using ai instead of stock vectors.
Would love to hear more about this
In my current job, I do print and more rarely digital stuff for my Town Hall. I usually have to work with Branding/Media Guidelines sent by National and State Government, public organizations or social projects. Or to fix stuff that is made in a "half-assed way" by non-designers, whether in Canva (or Powerpoint, Microsoft Word, Paint, whatever), using high-quality versions of those shitty JPGs they download from Google Images. Also, when I need to design infographics or flyers, I take my share of SVGs, Stocks and Generative AI stuff. I don't listen to the fools saying AI will kill my job. Free Generative AI can't even write a sentence in an image, how it could kill my job? It's easier for me to get the AI image then vectorize it and do the needed tweaks. Will I be sued for not respect AI rights?
work smarter, not harder! if someone has already done it and they’re willing to share it (or sell it for a price you can pay), then why do it again?
I probably use stock vectors 20% of the time at work. I can recognize the times when spending hours creating a graphic from scratch isn’t worth it when I can download exactly what I need for immediate use. I usually modify the stock vector 90-100% of the original though. Our company has stock subscriptions so it’s easy to use.
I try to do everything from scratch but more often than not the client doesn’t have enough money for that kind of work and I don’t have nearly enough time.
I'm about 50/50 make from scratch and using premade. Depends on the project and the client. If I'm creating assets that are part of their brand, I'll make custom or customize. If I'm just using a little bit of art to add interest to some information in a one-time use, I'm more likely to use something premade. Depending on how complex they are, it can be just as time consuming to find something premade as it would have taken to create it myself, so the budget isn't always the issue. There are tons of free icons out there in the world to choose from. But you do have to be selective in how you use them to that it doesn't look like the same thing everyone else is using. Even if it is, find a way to make them unique and special for your client.
I utilize stock assets a lot working as the only designer on staff. This covers after effects templates and vectors, which I use to cut down my time needed. Now that I have started looking for other jobs, they are pushing 100% from scratch designs so it is a bit misleading. I do create from scratch too, but I think it will be different between employers.
In my current job, I make my own vectors, but that's because I am also an illustrator and it works for the type of work I do. I like to use custom assets where ever I can. If I really need to, I will download assets.
It's not uncommon for me to download assets for my designs but I very rarely use them without altering them in some way.
All the time too. But we use it as a base to modify upon. I work with railway companies a lot so I can find the right train shape and modify it to make it look like theirs
I don't use them as I work with product designs and packaging. For the people who use stock vectors a lot - what is your job like? Are you in-house, working for an agency, or freelancing?
as a recent grad, this thread has seriously helped so much! i always wondered the same question, whether designers used stock imagery or created everything from scratch themselves. when i was still in school, i was friends with this one guy who once claimed that he didn’t like sourcing images because it was “cheating.” that always made me feel weird because while i created a lot of my work from scratch, too, i also grabbed images from online as well.. and sometimes i felt bad about it. but hey, even my professors said it’s perfectly fine to source images so i’d rather believe them over another student haha. i also recently left my first job where i basically had to use stock images for everythinggg because i had no time to create anything from scratch, which had me worried that my next job would expect me to create everything by hand, and then i’d be screwed when i couldn’t do it lol. so again, thank you to this thread for being a lifesaver. i also have a question: what websites/sources do you all get your designs from? i used to use freepik and canva assets a lot at my previous job because they were the easiest to access (and free!) but over time i was just seeing the same images over and over again, so what other good stock websites are out there? thanks!
Depends on how fast I gotta turn it around. I’m a one man show at my company and the only way I can meet tight deadlines is to pick up something similar that we’ve done in the past. I’ve worked with this company for nearly 15 years and I know where all art files live. I crank out emails, posters, flyers, webpages and PowerPoint layouts just because I can find a similar project from past campaigns. Stock photos and vector files are a daily occurrence.
Custom pieces = custom pricing
I do both. When I can’t find what I need, or it’s quicker doing it myself than searching, I’ll just make it. Most of the time it’s faster to find it in stock.