Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Free and open-source illustrations for your projects

iradesign.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 135 posts

Re: Show HN: Free and open-source illustrations for your projects

#61

Post by inasmuch »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #55
inasmuch wrote: post #43

Sorry to be a Scrooge, but I wish people would stop doing this. It's hard enough to make a living as an illustrator in the age of digital photography and photobashing without having to compete with generic (which I mean both descriptively and—sorry—pejoratively) illustration libraries. This stuff undermines the discipline and suggests that its skills are easily acquired and the work is easily done, so there's no reas…

Solo web design/dev is an industry that appeared out of nowhere, filled a massive void for a while, and that vacuum is collapsing in on itself with Squarespace and efforts like this one as the once-impenetrable field becomes commonplace. But Ikea and custom carpenters coexist. Tailors/seamstresses and Macy's coexist. Programmers and designers will have to learn to live in a world where Squarespace and Wordpress are a…

For sure. It's all the inevitable march toward democratization of tooling, skills, etc.

As with all probably-net-positive-progress, though, some losses are both necessary and worth lamenting.

Re: Show HN: Free and open-source illustrations for your projects

#62

Post by inasmuch »

swyx wrote: post #47
inasmuch wrote: post #43

Sorry to be a Scrooge, but I wish people would stop doing this. It's hard enough to make a living as an illustrator in the age of digital photography and photobashing without having to compete with generic (which I mean both descriptively and—sorry—pejoratively) illustration libraries. This stuff undermines the discipline and suggests that its skills are easily acquired and the work is easily done, so there's no reas…

this comes up every single time someone shares their work for free. look, i have some sympathy for you, and yes it leads to devaluing some work by people who don't value your work, but people are going to keep doing it for exposure, you don't have the power to stop them, so accept that this is a thing and find the people who DO value your work. you have a powerful, awesome skill that I'd kill to have. I hope you real…

You're right—I don't have the power to stop them, and thank goodness for that! I've certainly considered whipping up my own illustration library and selling it in packages. It's just smart business, like selling typeface licenses instead of only offering custom treatments.

I accept that this is how things are, but I also think it's okay to be unhappy about it :].

And like anyone, I do appreciate the appreciation of others who appreciate my skillset and offering. But also like anyone, I can't help but wish more people did!

Re: Show HN: Free and open-source illustrations for your projects

#63

Post by jopsen »

gkoberger wrote: post #59

I never want to criticize something that someone has made, but I do want to offer an alternative! I think you'd be SHOCKED how much amazing, completely custom artwork is available out there on sites like Fiverr and Upwork. For $100, you can get something beautiful and not generic... and best of all, support an artist! (Obviously you can eventually spend significantly more on talented designers, once your project beco…

How do you know you're not being sold something copy/pasted from an image search?

Re: Show HN: Free and open-source illustrations for your projects

#64

Post by inasmuch »

Spivak wrote: post #56
inasmuch wrote: post #43

Sorry to be a Scrooge, but I wish people would stop doing this. It's hard enough to make a living as an illustrator in the age of digital photography and photobashing without having to compete with generic (which I mean both descriptively and—sorry—pejoratively) illustration libraries. This stuff undermines the discipline and suggests that its skills are easily acquired and the work is easily done, so there's no reas…

Or ya know, since all these sites want basically the same look you could start a community illustration library the sources contributions from the body of companies that want this kind of look to everyone involved's mutual benefit. What value are you gaining by having 20 companies pay 20 designers to make the same generic uninspired designs because the clients want it to "look like $every_other_tech_company.?"

Haha, not a bad idea!

> What value are you gaining by having 20 companies pay 20 designers to make the same generic uninspired designs because the clients want it to "look like $every_other_tech_company.?"

You're employing people, which has some value to an ostensibly equitable society (lord knows most jobs are very similar and could be streamlined, consolidated, etc.), but yeah, I'm in agreement that it's a pretty crap situation beyond that.

Which is part of my problem with stuff like this—it encourages and embraces that homogenization. Set aside compensation, value, etc., and I'm just sick of seeing the same shit on every website and want to dissuade people from making more of what we already have in excess.

Re: Show HN: Free and open-source illustrations for your projects

#65

Post by gkoberger »

jopsen wrote: post #63
gkoberger wrote: post #59

I never want to criticize something that someone has made, but I do want to offer an alternative! I think you'd be SHOCKED how much amazing, completely custom artwork is available out there on sites like Fiverr and Upwork. For $100, you can get something beautiful and not generic... and best of all, support an artist! (Obviously you can eventually spend significantly more on talented designers, once your project beco…

How do you know you're not being sold something copy/pasted from an image search?

I'm confident there are people out there running scams, but every single artist I've used has done something so custom that it's 100% definitely made by them specifically for me.

They also tend to send sketches beforehand, and most have a very distinct style.

Re: Show HN: Free and open-source illustrations for your projects

#66

Post by [deleted] »

inasmuch wrote: post #43

Sorry to be a Scrooge, but I wish people would stop doing this. It's hard enough to make a living as an illustrator in the age of digital photography and photobashing without having to compete with generic (which I mean both descriptively and—sorry—pejoratively) illustration libraries. This stuff undermines the discipline and suggests that its skills are easily acquired and the work is easily done, so there's no reas…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Free and open-source illustrations for your projects

#67

Post by [deleted] »

gkoberger wrote: post #59

I never want to criticize something that someone has made, but I do want to offer an alternative! I think you'd be SHOCKED how much amazing, completely custom artwork is available out there on sites like Fiverr and Upwork. For $100, you can get something beautiful and not generic... and best of all, support an artist! (Obviously you can eventually spend significantly more on talented designers, once your project beco…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Free and open-source illustrations for your projects

#68

Post by [deleted] »

FunnyLookinHat wrote: post #33

This is great! Thank you for sharing. But... is anyone else growing tired of the sales-pitch we're all using? And do any of us find it valuable for ourselves when we read them? We've trained ourselves (collectively, as an industry) to expect a specific type of one-page: hero image, call-out-message with CTA, then abstract illustrations combined with text about how great something is. I don't know what I want in it's…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN