In December 2024 we retired the Stockimo app, but we’re still accepting Smartphone photos. You can read the latest update here. If you’re looking to upload your mobile phone photos to 17³Ô¹ÏÔÚÏß you can sign up here.
This blog article from 2014 has been kept live for archival purposes.
Image trends are constantly changing and sometimes it’s hard to keep up. To help keep you up to date and ‘on trend’ we’ve taken a look at the activity of our advertising and design customers over the last 3 months and put together this short review of the latest image trends in the creative community.
We can see that topical images are always on trend. Editorial and commercial image buyers always want to use images of the latest sporting events, controversial celebrities and extreme weather.
For this article we’ll focus on the top 3 latest trends that have emerged.
1. Travel
The summer months often prove popular for travel images and 2014 was no different. The number of people travelling abroad on holiday is constantly growing so it makes sense that travel images are gaining an increasing presence in advertising too.
When we take a look at a small selection of 10 travel images that ad & design agencies have bought over the past 3 months there are some clear similarities. They’re not classically editorial, they are striking and have wow factor without being heavily edited. One thing we often notice with travel photography is that landscape images tend to sell over portrait ones (a tip for any travel photographers).
See our lightbox of 10 travel images that have sold to ad & design customers.
Ìý2. Business
Business imagery has always been popular with commercial clients but it’s not the classic stock image you might be thinking of. Gone are the days of the smiley business men in pinstripe suits, these images are all about cool and creative young people in realistic offices and casual clothes. Our sample selection of 10 business images our customers have bought in the last 3 months illustrates this.
The majority of images tend to feature people who are not looking directly at the camera and the style of photography is much more realistic and ‘everyday’ than some of the more cliché stock shots we’re used to seeing.
See our lightbox of 10 business images that have sold to ad & design customers.
3. Mobile photography – Stockimo
The rise in the popularity of mobile photography is something we can’t escape, so it’s no surprise that more and more image buyers are seeing it as a resource for candid everyday photography. As mobile cameras deliver increasingly higher resolution photos, the results can provide more and more options for commercial customers. Our mobile app Stockimo is responsible for the growing mobile photography trend at 17³Ô¹ÏÔÚÏß (Stockimo is an iPhone app which accepts images that have been edited or used filters). You can see that filtered images are really popular in our sample of 10 Stockimo images that have sold to ad & design customers.
An credits Instagram as one of the key influences in the rise of mobile imagery. ‘The filters so commonly seen on Instagram are even feeding back into the mainstream. With clients increasingly on the lookout for photos with the authenticity of imperfection, agencies are turning to non-professionals and the 250 million-plus photos uploaded every day to the internet. Some, perhaps ahead of the curve, are also seeking out the heavily processed look typical of mobile apps.’
See our lightbox of 10 Stockimo images that have sold to ad & design customers.
The trends in advertising are constantly changing – a topic discussed by our Head of Content Alan Capel in our blog Everyday imagery – from perfect to imperfect.
Interested in seeing more on trend images? Check out our themed categories.