Release Issued by Fotolia:
New digital image library helps creatives get noticed while slashing prices for customers
Fotolia creates library of reasonably priced stock images, and enables photographers and illustrators to market themselves internationally
Photographers and digital artists of all levels will now find promoting and selling their work simpler than ever before, following the launch of Fotolia - the first global 'social marketplace' for digital stock images. Fotolia also gives magazine designers, graphic artists, web designers, and anyone else working in the publishing and creative industries access to a huge global library of royalty free stock images, either for free or starting from as little as £1.
Fotolia, which launched on November 9th, has a revolutionary but elegantly simple business model. Each photograph or illustration submitted to Fotolia is reviewed by Fotolia’s editing team and judged for its commercial potential. The Fotolia editing team includes in-house editors and select contributors with professional expertise in photography, graphic design and illustration. This internal approval process provides quick and constructive feedback within 24 hours. Once approved, the creator can decide on the price of their work, ranging from £1 to £100, within the photographer or designer's rank.
The ranking system allows for increased revenue potential over time, solely determined on the success of an artist’s sales. When images do not meet Fotolia standards, artists have the option of posting their work in the free section of the Fotolia website. This enables the artists to participate in a unique revenue sharing program from advertising and affiliation fees collected by the free section. Unlike competing sites, photographers and designers who use Fotolia will keep all copyrights to their images.
Cutting-edge design
Other collaborative features include: photographer and designer forums, peer feedback through the Academy, the ability to add descriptive concept tags to every image - all accessible at www.fotolia.co.uk/forum PLUS a photography and design news blog at blog.fotolia.com/uk
The Fotolia site is built using cutting edge web technologies, such as RSS, to create real-time buyer and seller alerts to match photographers and illustrators with designers' needs, as well as syndication of forum discussions.
Stock image libraries need to be as easy to search as possible, and again, Fotolia is leading the field here. The site use of AJAX technology allows users to zoom in and get a better view of the images before purchase, while Digimarc™ protects against circumvention of image licensing. An innovative search by color tool developed by Fotolia also detects dominant hues in every image and allows users to identify photos available within a certain palette.
“The Fotolia social marketplace for digital stock images enables artists to create or increase revenues from their original works, get constant feedback of the market needs, and encourage consumers worldwide to access legal images at the lowest price. This new business model is poised to help fight image piracy on the Internet,“ said Oleg Tscheltzoff, Fotolia Co-Founder and President. “Fotolia is designed to be a legal source of inspiration where the creative visual arts community can interact and benefit from a global image library of quality and originality at an affordable price or even for free.”
Fotolia’s digital image marketplace is available in French, English, Spanish and German and has already acquired over 100,000 images in its database. Register today at: www.fotolia.co.uk
