
Ask HN: Where do you get illustrations for your site? - cageypancakes
For those that have created a website for your project&#x2F;startup or created a webapp with graphics, where do you normally get the illustrations? Do you guys hire designers, use free illustration libraries etc? 
Just wondering about the norm.
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muzani
I've had good experience hiring designers. Designers seem very much underpaid
for the amount of expertise they have, so you'll often get some good deals if
you look hard enough. I've had an argument with one designer that I wanted to
pay her X amount _hourly_ , and she wanted that much _daily_.

Still, it's something like $80 for something that takes me a week to do and
tweak, and some experienced dude can get it done in 1-2 hours.

But for photography, I often do it myself. Photographers here are often
overpriced, as in you could end up paying hundreds of dollars for similar
quality as you'd get for half an hour and a good phone camera. The people who
are passionate about it often do it part time, and the people who do it for a
living often focus on improving negotiation skills. YMMV.

If you're doing something with game art, there are places like
[https://itch.io/game-assets](https://itch.io/game-assets)

Envato has some good quality stuff too:
[https://elements.envato.com/](https://elements.envato.com/)

~~~
cageypancakes
I feel like many people underestimate the power of good UX/UI which causes
designers (especially freelancers) to be underpaid. Those resources look
interesting! I notice many of them are fixed graphics which might be a bit
inflexible. For those looking for some more customizable scenes there are
libraries like: [https://www.drawkit.io/](https://www.drawkit.io/)
[https://www.humaaans.com/](https://www.humaaans.com/)

~~~
muzani
Just UI alone is underestimated. I have consulted for years. I find that the
client's budget and deadline depends almost entirely on the design proposed.
One client was 'running low on budget' and after bringing in a designer, he
tripled the original budget.

Sometimes not just illustrations, but things like fonts and whitespace matter
a _lot_ , and it takes experience to see that you're doing it wrong.

------
fludlight
Last few projects of mine:

\- Prototyping: no graphics (text only); drew myself (so bad that I reverted
to text only); free libraries

\- Publicly available: paid a friend of a friend; hired someone on a popular
outsourcing site (after I paid them it turned out that they stole it from a
not-free illustration library); free library; paid for not-free library

\- very limited (<50 users) beta: all of the above plus not-free-library with
watermarks (users actually liked this because it gave the site an authentic,
work-in-progress, exclusive vibe--their words)

Honestly, graphics are overrated and people of all walks of life appreciate
high-information density above all else. Landing pages for marketing campaigns
convert slightly better with fancy graphics, so you ideally want both. Most
companies only have the pretty pictures, which is both a shame and an
opportunity.

~~~
cageypancakes
I think good graphics can create a feeling of authenticity so I'm pretty
surprised to hear that the watermarks gave that same effect.

High information density works better depending on the context for sure, but
in other cases illustrations add to the "human" factor to a brand/site to make
it seem more inviting or personal.

Overall, I think the trend has definitely shifted to more of a focus on visual
design for clearer communication

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OpFour
[https://www.freeimages.com](https://www.freeimages.com)

[https://unsplash.com](https://unsplash.com)

[https://pixabay.com](https://pixabay.com)

[https://www.pexels.com/royalty-free-images/](https://www.pexels.com/royalty-
free-images/)

[https://freephotos.cc](https://freephotos.cc)

[https://www.canva.com](https://www.canva.com)

------
nocubicles
I have used before
[https://undraw.co/illustrations](https://undraw.co/illustrations)

------
digifloat
I found a few here [https://digifloat.io/get-free-illustrations-
images/](https://digifloat.io/get-free-illustrations-images/)

------
ddri
Working on a little side project using GAN AI as a method of illustration
generation.

Especially interested in the context of the current "abstract human" sketch
style. Expecting this will be inevitable within 12 to 24 months, and it's just
a side project to help frame learning GAN, but it's bubbling along.

Designers will resist the first examples of these kinds of services, but it's
really the marketing managers that will see them rise to prominence.

Being able to load a company style guide, and connect a repo of approved
assets/components, and click to generate content in the context of the output
requirements? It's simply going to exist. And designers will do what they (we)
always do, and that is use the available tools to give more controlled nuance
and meaning to the content across.

TL;DR... hiring designers to do this manually for now, and thinking how we
enable everyone at scale (the next step beyond "just use Canva" which doesn't
help the time-poor marketing teams).

