Nowadays, you not only have to have quality text content but also attractive visual content. Sometimes, the picture is simply googled (searched for on the internet, copied and used). In the worst scenarios, the images can be downloaded (stolen) from competition’s web pages or other pages. People often forget that these images are under copyright laws and without purchasing them or having a permission to use them, you cannot utilize them for neither commercial nor non-commercial purposes. You can be charged hundreds of dollars for using these illegal images.
However, there are many webs that have beautiful images suitable for representing brands and companies and you can use them legally. You can find three tips on the best of these pages down below but remember that the possibility to use them for commercial purposes (without having to buy the image or mention the author) applies only to the image itself.
If the image contains licensed brands and icons (like Louis Vuitton, Facebook, Olympic rings), it is important to find out if you can use the image for free or you have to buy the license to the brand that is displayed.
Unsplash.com
Unsplash is one of the most popular image (photograph) sources with the tint of luxury, quality design and clean execution. It is a selection of quality shots and you can often find thematic pictures, especially ones showing feelings, fun or certain situations. All photographs are at your disposal without having to buy license, mentioning the author or the web pages.
Pixabay.com
Pixabay is also one of the well-known free sources for photographs, images, illustrations and vectors. It is open to everyone, even amateur creators. Thanks to this it has a wide collection of visual content but it isn’t always of high quality. Nevertheless, many of the images and illustrations are very nice and free to use for commercial purposes without having to mention the author or the web page. You can usually choose from four different sizes of the picture.
Gratisography.com
You can also find interesting pictures of people, nature and other on gratisography.com. They don’t look like your classic advertisement images - some are even a bit crazy. However, you can still find an interesting selection of attractive visual content. The photographs are free to use for commercial purposes. You cannot, however, use them as contents of a web similar to gratisography or in connection with immoral purposes..
Good luck!
Veronika Jandová