Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Glaze – Illustrations for Products and Presentations

glazestock.com

11–20 of 24 posts

Re: Show HN: Glaze – Illustrations for Products and Presentations

#12
It looks very cool. I like the "free with attribution" to "premium" model you're using.

As an aside, I really don't understand the other people in this thread linking to competitors. It feels a bit rude on a Show HN.

"Here is all this hard work I did" "Great, I love X competitor"

Re: Show HN: Glaze – Illustrations for Products and Presentations

#13

Don't use this year style trend if you want to make your brand recognizable. Also you'll have a problem next year because it will look dated. I had this issue coming up a lot when I was doing more graphic design projects. Never really understand why small clients really wanted to look like everyone else. I always thought the aproach should be the oposite, the lower the budget the bolder you must be if you want anyone…

I can see why small clients want to look like everyone else. Or I would guess look the same as bigger brands. It looks professional. They don't want to stand out in a bad way, so it's safest to go with the already established.

Re: Show HN: Glaze – Illustrations for Products and Presentations

#14
post #12

It looks very cool. I like the "free with attribution" to "premium" model you're using. As an aside, I really don't understand the other people in this thread linking to competitors. It feels a bit rude on a Show HN. "Here is all this hard work I did" "Great, I love X competitor"

Perhaps they’re just trying to be helpful to other HN users? Before this post I didn’t know any of the sites posted, now I’ve got a few ones I can check out.

Re: Show HN: Glaze – Illustrations for Products and Presentations

#15
post #12

It looks very cool. I like the "free with attribution" to "premium" model you're using. As an aside, I really don't understand the other people in this thread linking to competitors. It feels a bit rude on a Show HN. "Here is all this hard work I did" "Great, I love X competitor"

Perhaps they’re just trying to be helpful to other HN users? Before this post I didn’t know any of the sites posted, now I’ve got a few ones I can check out.

Yeah, that makes sense, it still just make me cringe a little.

Re: Show HN: Glaze – Illustrations for Products and Presentations

#16
post #10

Well done! I like the style and artwork. Can you share how the business model for this sort of site works? I’ve seen a ton of this style (Unsplash, etc.) and always assumes it’s based on AdSense or similar. Is that the case here?

In our case (Glaze), we are using a simple freemium model. The assets are free to use as long as the user attributes the illustrator and Glaze. If the user wants to buy a license so that they can use the image without crediting the artist/glaze, they can pay for that license (they also get a larger file size and the source file).

Unsplash is a bit different, all of the images are completely free. From my knowledge, this was originally used as a marketing funnel for their parent company, Crew. Crew has since been acquired and Unsplash has spun in to it's own entity. Nowadays my hunch is that they are monetizing through calls to their API (Unsplash is integrated into big players like Squarespace, Trello, Medium). Feel free to fact check as I am no expert when it comes to Unsplash's business model.

Re: Show HN: Glaze – Illustrations for Products and Presentations

#17
I'm not sure I understand the demand for stock-anything.

When I need an image, illustration, or icon I need it to be one or more of the following:

1. Accurate

The image or illustration depicts a real thing or process I care about and it needs to show that clearly. It's unlikely that stock photos and illustrations will meet that bar. Unless the rest of my content is about a well known or generic topic my imagery is not going to be widely available or generic.

2. On brand

If I'm adding visual interest, color, flare, whathaveyou to a page and the exact content doesn't matter, then the styling and emotional tone do. More specifically they need to be coherent across my entire site/presentation/product. In addition this content needs to be helpful to a viewer to remember my specific property. My brand can only be diluted by using assets which are common, off-tone, or not fully integrated with a recognizable and memorable look and feel.

3. Repeatable

For any media I create and want to maintain I have to think about how hard it's going to be to change it in the future. If I find a great image or icon or illustration I need to know that if I need the source modified or reproduced with a slight variation I can do that. In practice, that usually means having continued access to the artist who produced the asset. Their style will come through in any project and maintain the coherence over time that allows for iterative rather than drastic change.

Convey information, build a brand, build a repeatable process. Stock feels like a self-defeating trap. Sure it looks nice, and for arts sake it can be desirable, but for any business or professional communication purpose it seems to entirely miss the point of having media in the first place.

Re: Show HN: Glaze – Illustrations for Products and Presentations

#19

I'm not sure I understand the demand for stock-anything. When I need an image, illustration, or icon I need it to be one or more of the following: 1. Accurate The image or illustration depicts a real thing or process I care about and it needs to show that clearly. It's unlikely that stock photos and illustrations will meet that bar. Unless the rest of my content is about a well known or generic topic my imagery is no…

It should be obvious but, limitations, whether they be related to time, budget, or other resources, make stock assets desirable.

For instance, commissioning a custom icon set rather than picking one off-the-shelf is a luxury only some projects will have access to.

Additionally, oftentimes stock assets function as good placeholders until a larger budget comes into play. Suppose you are working on a video game and waiting for environmental assets to be complete; in the meantime, a sample texture may do.

In a perfect world, perhaps every font, icon, illustration, photo, or texture would be bespoke to its exact application. In the mean time, we have stock assets.

Post reply on HN