The 24th annual Graphic Design USA stock survey shows increasing use of microstock by professional graphic designers. They are looking for high-volume low-costs options and are generally satisfied with the range of choices and image quality they are finding at micro-priced outlets.
Designers are being asked to do more with less, and microstock sites are used by 67% of respondents. This number is up from 21% in 2005. In addition, 60% use subscription sites. The volume of use has increased dramatically, with 54% of respondents using stock imagery more than 20 times a year. This is nearly triple the number who used stock imagery that frequently a decade ago. Even more stunning, 20% reported that they used stock more than 100 times in the year.
Almost all (95%) of the 1,139 designers responding to the survey use royalty-free stock in their work, up from 64% in 1990. The difference between online and print uses is marginal: 71% said they use stock images for Internet projects and 83% use stock for print.
Only 41% of respondents use rights-managed images, and 37% use both rights-managed and royalty-free. Sixty-seven percent of designers spend more total dollars on royalty-free images than on rights managed, 20% spend about the same on the two types of imagery, and only 13% spend more for rights-managed.
A major concern is the relatively small selection of images that show the ethnic and lifestyle diversity of our increasingly multi-ethnic, multicultural society in the U.S.
The survey was sponsored by iStockphoto. Designers were asked for their site preferences if they visited multiple sites, and 70% said iStock was their favorite go-to microstock agency.