One of the reasons why I can't get paid for my graphics design services, and why my "customers" can't use my work commercially, is that I don't use stock images. Instead, since this is for entertainment purposes, I just use Google and Bing to find images. Besides, Figment seems to be cool with this anyway, and I'm not the even first person to do this.
If I were doing this for commercial purposes, of course, I'd most likely buy a membership from a stock photo/clip-art site and pay a large sum of money to download a couple of measly images that I don't even know will make it to the finished product. Inevitably, I'll have to do this one day if/when I go pro, but until then, I'm always looking for more affordable ways to pursue my hobby.
And then my friend Celestine gave me a recommendation for a website called MorgueFile. It's got a pretty weird (possibly morbid) name, but it turns out to be an excellent source for free and legal stock photos for just about any use possible, like for educational purposes and commercial purposes! (YES!!!)
As you can see on these covers, I've incorporated a lot of MorgueFile photos into my covers.
If I were doing this for commercial purposes, of course, I'd most likely buy a membership from a stock photo/clip-art site and pay a large sum of money to download a couple of measly images that I don't even know will make it to the finished product. Inevitably, I'll have to do this one day if/when I go pro, but until then, I'm always looking for more affordable ways to pursue my hobby.
And then my friend Celestine gave me a recommendation for a website called MorgueFile. It's got a pretty weird (possibly morbid) name, but it turns out to be an excellent source for free and legal stock photos for just about any use possible, like for educational purposes and commercial purposes! (YES!!!)
As you can see on these covers, I've incorporated a lot of MorgueFile photos into my covers.
There were so many cat pictures that I was overwhelmed by the choices when I designed those first three covers! I think that for Echoes in the Night, it took me roughly two hours to complete the cover, because I tried out so many different cat pictures to see how they'd fit overall! (But when cat pictures are involved, things always take a long time, right?)
So now, this is great. I've got a wonderful resource for legal images, but I've still got one other hurdle to jump over. What about legal fonts? I'll discuss that next time.
So now, this is great. I've got a wonderful resource for legal images, but I've still got one other hurdle to jump over. What about legal fonts? I'll discuss that next time.