How to market sustainability to designers

Here’s a piece of advice to the webdesign team of Design can change(which I think is a lovely endeavor mind you). If you want to make an idea interesting to designers, don’t use Getty Images stock photography ( and certainly don’t advertise it! ) you’ll get more respect from cranky designers like me : )

By designswarm

Blogging since 2005.

3 comments

  1. Hi Alexandra,

    Thanks for the feedback on Design Can Change–I’m happy to hear that you are keen about the endeavor, and I do hope that you show your support for the effort by taking the pledge.

    At the same time, I find your comments about Getty Images somewhat disparaging. You see, this project was entirely created pro-bono. To date, we have put approximately 1,200 hours in to the effort. When you add that up in billable hours, you see that it’s a pretty substantial investment. (And believe me, there’s no way for us to “cash-in” on this one.)

    Along the way, we tried to enlist the support of a few organizations that could help us. The first were well known environmental groups, and the second were photography agencies that could help us access all of those images it was unrealistic for us to photograph. (i.e. tropical storms, earth from space, et cetera)

    We were met by a lot of closed doors. In fact, of the many environmental groups we contacted, few would even take our calls. It wasn’t that they weren’t “for” what we were doing, it was that they wouldn’t even listen to our idea. I’m sure that these groups receive such calls every day, and likely find them rather tiring. That being said, when you are doing something like this gratis, it can be rather discouraging.

    The call to Getty Images was entirely different. They responded within moments and were very encouraging about the effort. Ricardo and the people at Getty outfitted us with a substantial amount of imagery. Their service was amazing, particularly given that it was without any cost to us. They asked very little of us in exchange, and as such we made a special point of noting their support for the effort.

    There aren’t a lot of sponsors for Design Can Change. In fact, there’s only one. We weren’t looking to make this a corporate exercise, but we did need help, and Getty Images did that. They made our jobs were a lot easier, and they were really nice to boot.

    Cheers,

    Eric

    Personal: http://www.erickarjaluoto.com
    Firm: http://www.smashlab.com
    Blog: http://www.ideasonideas.com
    Now live: http://www.designcanchange.com

  2. Hi Eric,

    I understand your dilemma perfectly, I think however that when dealing with large names, especially in these times of user-generated content, web2.0, etc, Getty Images suffers from corporate PowerPoint fatigue for many designers (your target audience I believe). This is why images from Flickr and creative commons are such a great online asset and refreshing and free!

    Shiny happy office people with great locations around the world, personally, don’t give me any feeling of credibility or authenticity. It’s a question of visual language of course and what you decide to wrap a project in. It’s also a personal opinion based on my experience.

    Designers as you must know are picky creatures and appreciate creative ways to make a message come through, even that of a greener planet.

    I appreciate your involvement in the issue of sustainability and I must say I’m surprised at the closed doors on the environmental front… were they all canadian?

    I wish you luck with this project and your many other endeavors.

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