I is for Images: Has photography and illustration been appropriately used?

Imagery relevant to industry

Great images are what sell designs, so you want them to be relevant and work well with your designs. When you start a new template, it’s a good idea to first look at other images the industry you are design ing for, this will give you a good understanding of what works and what doesn’t.
If you want more than one image on your design, try and get them to be in the same theme as each other. It’s easy to do this when using Fotolia because there will be similar images below the image you are looking at that you can choose from. This makes the design look more professional and makes it more desirable to the end-user.

The other advantage of having industry specific images and illustrations in your designs is that it’s easy for the end-user to visualise how their business will work within the design. However, you might find that about 30% of end-users will actually use the photos that you have provided in the design as these may look more professional than their own, or they may not have any photos at all.

Imagery complimentary to the overall design

Once you have chosen an image for your design you can then start adding colours. If you are struggling with a colour pallet, it’s a good idea to take colour swatches from the images you have to make it match better with the design. The colour pallet of your design and images also needs to be relevant to the industry you are designing for, for example, you don’t want a pink beauty photo with a dark navy colour scheme. Keep the design in the same theme throughout to ensure that your design looks coherent and will sell.