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Industry veterans launch ‘ImagePick’ a new royalty free image portal
ImagePick, A new Royalty Free stock photography source has launched in the UK claiming a unique approach. The company was formed by ex-Getty Images CFO Lawrence Gould and former Getty Images Director of E-Commerce, Tom Donnelly who stated in a press release that “ImagePick intends to shift the tectonic plates of the stock industry from Quantity back to Quality.” On the surface the fledgling company appears to offer many of the same Royalty Free brands as other resellers including such brands as Corbis, Jupiterimages, Blend, Rubberball, Westend61, and many others but it’s founders believe they have taken steps to ensure customers can easily find the right image faster. “ Imagepick may appear traditional, but we also know that today's younger creatives are the Google-generation. They expect a simple interface and great results. That's what we've set out to do with ImagePick. So many sites require you to tweak too many dials before you can get meaningful results. Imagepick works right out of the box” states Gould.
ImagePick has launched in what many consider to be uncertain times for the stock photography industry with the average price per image decreasing and many customers defecting to cheaper microstock imagery sources. According to Gould “Microstock is here to stay, but it is very difficult to produce quality imagery at their current prices - so we believe they will increase their prices and quality (as RF started to to do 10 years ago!). We, on the other hand, are already offering exceptional images at prices from $40”.
In addition to its claim to only offer the highest quality images the company has focused much of its resources on launching a site with unique search capabilities According to Gould “We could have launched this site 4 months ago but have spent considerable time and effort isolating the most relevant keywords associated with an image. Some folks supplied images with over 400 keywords ... in no order of relevance. We have a 3-tier relevance structure of keywords that ensures results are relevant to the content of the image”. Gould continues “There's a supplier out there claiming to have 10m images. We think that's a problem, not a creative solution”.
The company currently operates sales offices in Chicago and London with high hopes to become a destination site for all professional image buyers. “With so many great images available, it’s time to ‘raise the bar’ on quality and be very selective about what we show to our clients” said Alison Crabtree-Brophy, ImagePick’s US Director of Sales. “ We know that ‘Good enough’ is no longer good enough”.
Web: www.imagepick.com
Posted in: News, Stock Art Buyers, Stock Photo Companies
