This week, we stopped by the PDN PhotoPlus Expo at the Javits Center in New York City. We got to check out lots of new photo gadgets and gizmos — including the latest from top brands including Nikon and Canon. Take a look at our photos below to see more … Continue reading ‘PhotoPlus Returns to New York City’ »

As AIGA’s official sponsor of Creative Inspiration, Shutterstock will be attending Pivot: AIGA Design Conference 2011. This year, the conference will be held in Phoenix, Arizona, kicking off on Thursday, October 13 and ending Sunday, October 16.

If you’re going, Tweet us using our hashtag #ShutterstockPivot then stop by to see us at booth 25 in Exhibit Hall for free Shutterstock swag. We’ll have some awesome goodies, including notebooks, T-shirts, pins, lip balm and stickers.

In addition, we’ll be hosting the official Closing Partyfor the conference the evening of Saturday, October 16, at Corona Ranch. A shuttle bus between both conference hotels and Corona Ranch will be provided from 7 to 11 p.m. Come party with us and enjoy food, drinks and entertainment as well as the highlight — the Shutterstock photo booth. Get your picture taken with all your new conference buddies and make it a night to remember. And be sure to share your photos with Shutterstock on Facebook or @Shutterstock on Twitter. We hope to see you there!

When Shutterstock decided to do a Hackathon a few months ago, the idea was to break down normal day-to-day restrictions and give employees 24 hours to create freely without any approvals or red tape. In addition to creating a fun, exciting work environment, we hoped to end the event with a host of new ideas that could be put into action throughout the coming months.

One team however, pushed the challenge to the limit and presented something particularly exciting. Team “4:3″ – aptly named for the aspect ratio of 20th Century film – created a short mixed-media film, designed to inspire footage subscribers and contributors.

Keep reading below to see behind-the-scenes images from the set.
Continue reading ‘Where Your Imagination Comes to Life: Hackathon Teaser No. 4!’ »

We’re excited to announce that Shutterstock is sponsoring ’Photo Hack Day,’ this weekend, August 20 and 21, at General Assembly in New York City. The event is all about building cool new tools for photographers, artists and consumers who love pictures. We’ll be joined by several image-centric technology companies, including Instagram, Tumblr, Etsy, yfrog, and Face.com, and it’s already garnering lots of media attention (see TechCrunch article).

Much like the recent Shutterstock Hackathon, this event encourages developers to build creative new apps during a 24-hour period. The winners will collect cool prizes and have their work displayed on the massive NASDAQ screen in Times Square. If you’re in the New York City area and are interested in participating, visit Photo Hack Day’s website. We’ll also be tweeting live from the event, and recapping the highlights here on the blog.

There are nerf wars, and there are NERF WARS. Knowing we were in for an extra-long day/night during last month’s company hackathon, we armed ourselves for a battle of epic proportions. Here are some of the most memorable moments…

OK, so we’re the first to admit that there’s some pretty weird stuff going on here at Shutterstock HQ. As a global, creative company, we attract all kinds of interesting and eclectic personalities. Our Dutch research manager, for example, has a thing for lychees and often keeps whole branches on her desk to snack from. And one of our developers has a massive, color-coded collection of Hot Wheels on his desk. Then there’s the product manager who likes to wear a giant mouse icon glove when pointing out things on the screen…

But, for the most part, we remain safely in our towering high rise (even if this particular high rise happens to sway and creak when the wind blows). Then on the evening of July 21, during our 24-hour hackathon, all of that changed when this strange and extremely determined “model” hacked into our office and took to our confessional. So with that, I bring you our Teaser No.2: Bag Head.

Stay tuned for Teaser No. 3 early next week!

As you might have seen on our Facebook page or Twitter feed, Team Shutterstock survived our first company-wide hackathon! For those wondering what exactly is a hackathon, Wikipedia defines it as “an event when programmers meet to do collaborative computer programming.” In our case, it wasn’t just programmers, but all Shutterstock employees – from Marketing to Human Resources (and everything in between), who formed 36 teams and worked around the clock for 24-hours straight from July 21-22. The only requirement was that we had to create something that would improve the company or site experience for either designers or contributors. In other words, no boundaries or boss approvals – just passionate employees working on their own passion projects. Check out our first video teaser, showing the thinking that led to the event, and check our facebook page and blog for more teasers and a final timelapse recap in the coming weeks.

Hack to the Future – Timelapse Teaser No. 1 from Shutterstock on Vimeo.

Our founder and CEO, Jon Oringer, kicked off the event with a nod to the early days of Shutterstock, when, one night in 2003, an all night “hack” gave birth to Shutterstock. That same thinking – that one person or a few people can make a big difference – is what was behind this modern-day hackathon.

Continue reading ‘Recapping Shutterstock’s Hackathon’ »

On July 21, history will be made at Shutterstock.

For the first time ever, we’ve set aside an entire day for the staff to work on their own creative projects. The only criteria is that the work should “make our company’s products or services better.” The office will be open all night, from noon Thursday to noon Friday, for 24 hours of sleepless, manic brainstorming and building.

We’re calling it Hack to the Future, and rest-assured we will be hunkered down, plugged in, buzzed on strong black coffee, and deploying code at 88 miles per hour. (And we’ll still be serving our customers like any other business day.)

Come Friday afternoon, every team will get a chance to demo their projects in front of their peers (and yes, this is after working for 24-hours straight). The best part is, we’ll be sharing clips and pics from the festivities here on the blog, on twitter and on our facebook page. Think of it as your little sneak peak into what goes on behind the scenes here at Shutterstock – and see just how passionate we are about creating the best site and the best experience for our users and contributors.

Stay tuned and check back often for live updates!

We’ve just returned from another fantastic HOW Design Live Conference and meeting hundreds of talented young designers. This year’s event was held in the beautiful Windy City of Chicago and included 3 jam-packed days of design panels, parties and a tradeshow. From the moment the conference kicked off, we knew it was going to be an EPIC weekend – and it didn’t disappoint.

Highlights included meeting a forensic designer (how cool would that job be?!), attending breakout sessions (our favorites were “Turning Creative Obsessions into Opportunities” and another on design thinking and influence by Matthew Loyd), and last but not least, our AWESOME (if we do say so ourselves) party @ theMID on Saturday night. A special thank you to all 500 of you who turned out for that and for making it so much fun!

If you want to re-live the weekend or see what you missed, check out our facebook page. We’ve included the photos from the super-fun digital photobooth we had at the party, and just love seeing how creative everyone got with their poses! Looking forward to next year…

Join Shutterstock at the HOW Design Conference in Chicago, June 24 to 26, 2011! We’ll be holding special giveaways at booth 615 throughout the show, and hosting a fabulous, free party for all designers and fans on Saturday night, June 25. Details:

Continue reading ‘Join Shutterstock at HOW in Chicago, June 24 to 26’ »