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Illustration Credit: Rob Barge / Hardware Graphic Design + Illustration

Blogsite Images

Images and pictures oftentimes speak louder and more clearly than words. They are essential to providing depth and context to the message and to the allure of a layout. If I do my job well, I’ll pick appealing images for my blogs and piece together attractive page designs.

A great many of the images utilized in my blogs are pictures that I have taken.  The following is a brief list of other sources of images that I have tapped and which I highly recommend.  If you have a question about a specific image in one of my blogs, please reach out to me via my Contact page and I will endeavor to provide more specific information about the image.

Likewise, if you have a suggestion for an image or a blog idea, please also reach out directly to me.

>>> My longtime go-to illustrator is Rob Barge of Opelika, Alabama.  Rob is the founder and proprietor of Hardware Graphic Design + Illustration.  He’s an incredibly talented designer and was the inspiration for my blog about Why Design Matters.  Regardless of what you’re looking to illustrate, visually communicate or brand, do yourself and your company a favor and reach out to Rob at rob@hardwaregraphics.com.  You will thank me later.

>>> Unsplash.com is a website dedicated to proprietary stock photography.  I often tap its more than 265,000 contributing photographers and its growing library of nearly 3.5 million photos.  Unsplash has been cited as one of the world’s leading photography websites by Forbes, Design Hub, CNET, Medium and The Next Web.  It’s easy to use — simply type in the search function the subject or topic for which you wish to find images, and a selection of exclusive, royalty-free images are presented for free download.  Amongst the selections offered are teasers to access additional pictures and images that are available for upgrade to Unsplash+.  Lastly, Unsplash offers images from iStock.com; the latter company offers flexible pricing plans that enable you to secure “x-number” of images.  My recommendation is that you start looking at the free images offered on Unsplash.com and then let that site’s full list of offerings take you to those for which a fee is charged.

>>> Freepik.com (stylized as FREEP!K) is also a terrific image-bank website. Content produced and distributed by this online platform includes photographs, illustrations and vector images. The platform distributes its content under a freemium model, which means that users can access much of the content for free, but it is also possible to purchase a subscription with advantages such as access to more exclusive resources, the option of not attributing the content used or a higher number of daily downloads.

Thanks for your support of these talented photographers and illustrators … and of my blog!

LSomerbyCooke