I use iStock if I need to get just the right royalty free picture or image to use for design work. They use a credit system so you can purchase a certain amount of credits for downloading images, audio, or video within a year’s time of when you purchased those credits. Some downloads are worth only 1 credit, while others can be over 30. It depends upon the size and what you want to use it for. You can either buy in bulk at a lower rate, or pay-as-you-go, which I prefer to do. So, for example, I can purchase the lowest option of 18 credits, and use those credits up whenever I feel like it this year.

I was just on their site today purchasing some audio clips to use for someone’s blog. The blog  features children stories which you can read or listen to being read, so I’ve got to do some sound editing over the weekend and see what I can come up with. I still have some credits left with iStock, so I’ll probablly head back over there this weekend to find a few more clips to use. I’ll do a post on the blog I’m working on as soon as the edits are finished.

© 2009, Sarah Roberts – Reflecting the Designer. All rights reserved.