I just wanted to write a brief note on content, stock illustration and its proper use in professional design. It's unfortunate to me that some people find it necessary to attempt to pick apart your work or find flaws in it, but to that end it's very important that you know what you're doing and read the terms of service very carefully.

For example, to use stock images or illustrations for demonstration and compositional purposes is perfectly acceptable. You pay for the limited usage of those images and illustrations to use as place holders for actual custom artwork - for introductory presentations to potential clients, for example. When used for demonstrative purposes like this, and not as a final commercial (paid) piece of work, you are correctly following the rules of the stock purchase. This also counts for personal art and design that you are not selling - once again, as soon as money changes hands for these, you have broken the rules.

Now if you were to try to sell that work, or claim it as your own, you start to break the rules a bit. Let's look at an example.

If you are advertising on social network sites that you have prints of your artwork for sale, such as you can see here: [link]

Here you have a piece of art offered for $18.20 for a 10x8 print. However, that piece of art contains a stock photo that was taken from here: [link] which is a free to use stock resource from the photography group, Resurgere. If you read the terms of use for the stock, you will note that commercial use of this stock item is strictly forbidden. You can read more about the Resurgere stock license here: [link] - where once again, it specifically states that these stock photos can not be used for commercial prints. So clearly, the commercial print listed above is in violation of the copy write on the stock photo in question, unless the artist can produce proof of consent from the publisher of the stock photo. This is why it's always best to purchase stock resources and be protected by their terms of service.

Now comparatively speaking, let's look at something where I have used a piece of stock illustration.

When courting a new client for design work, it's often required that you are able to show them a visual concept or comp in order to open negotiations for further business. Since you have no contract signed yet, there is no reason at all to waste your time - which as a designer, is your money - you need to put together fast compositions to show your client as a demonstration of what something COULD look like. If your client then agrees to work with you and an official work contract is signed, you can move forward and create original, custom artwork to suit their needs.

In a case like my linked piece for Gissin plumbing, seen on my page here: [link], I was approached by a friend who was considering a new look for the company, but didn't really know what he wanted. So I grabbed up some stock illustration, put together the demonstrations in a few minutes, and let him take a look at them to see if these could get his imagination going on what he wanted. However, due to unfortunate circumstances the company Gissin Plumbing was not able to go ahead with an image make over, as you can clearly see on their website here: [link].

So while stock illustration was used for demonstration purposes to show to them as a potential client, no money ever changed hands, they were not used in any kind of commercial art or design, and the demonstration logos remain just that - noncommercial, personal use demonstrations. You can read the complete stock rules for the illustration in question here: [link], specifically under the Permitted uses section where it states that this illustration can only be used for promotional purposes - which is the case in this instance as outlined in section 3 (c). Conversely, if I had gone ahead and been hired by Gissin Plumbing to redesign their logo and used these stock illustrations in the final commercial work, I would be in violation of the stock terms, as seen in section 4(4) of the stock license.

I hope that you have found this explanation informative and enlightening.