After 8 years, 17 million images and over 200 million downloads, Shutterstock has become one of the world’s leading marketplaces for visual media. We have artists and photographers from more than 100 countries, and customers in more than 150. But perhaps most significant about these milestones is that it has led to tens of thousands of image searches each day – giving us valuable insight into design trends around the world.

From vintage-themed photographs, to vibrant vector graphics, here’s an infographic detailing what visual stories were told over the last year.

To view the infographic without a plug-in, click here.  To see a lightbox with all of the images featured in the infographic, click here.

Now it’s your turn. What do you think the biggest trends of 2011 were, and what do you think 2012 will bring? Was there anything surprising in the infographic? Share your thoughts in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.

Meagan Kirkpatrick
Director, Public Relations & Social Media

Here’s your chance to see cool Shutterstock features first and take part in an ongoing creative dialogue about making stock imagery better.

If you’re a qualified Shutterstock customer, you can join a select group that gets to see the latest innovations before anybody else. Our research team will contact you by e-mail and listen to your suggestions and ideas. You’ll be invited to take part in surveys, interviews, and video studies, often with nice incentives. You’ll be free to participate as little or as much as you want.

It’s easy! Take a quick survey and see if you qualify for Shutterstock’s Customer Panel.

To get started, please complete this quick, four-question survey.

You can also write to us at research@shutterstock.com, with “Customer Panel” in the subject line. If you qualify, we’ll be in touch. We hope you’ll take part of this exciting project!

Image © Cienpies Design/Shutterstock

Here at Shutterstock HQ, we just put a fresh coat of paint on our monthly e-mail newsletters. These newsletters are the most popular way we communicate with our users, and we’re going to spend 2011 making them bolder, better and more useful. Starting this month, the Shutterstock newsletter sports a new look and a new name: The Shutterstock Insider.

We publish two editions: one that goes to everyone with a Shutterstock paid or browse account, and another that goes to all contributors. The first edition is on its way; if you’re reading this, it’s likely you’ve already opened it. You’ll notice the redesigned newsletter gives greater prominence to images, which, after all, is what we do. We’ll also be bringing you more news about image trends—actionable information you can use for upcoming design projects. We will continue with many of the features that our readers have enjoyed in the past, including tutorials.

Another new feature will be including content from our popular blogs, The Shutterstock Blog (for customers) and Shutterbuzz (for contributors), to make sure our stories are easy to link to, share, and comment on. Even if you don’t get the newsletter, you can always check the blogs for the latest news.

We’ll be making further refinements throughout the year as we learn what you enjoy reading about most. Have some bright ideas? Take a quick, 5-question survey and tell us your opinion.

© Amy Walters /Shutterstock

If you’re one of those people who read photo credits (and hey, if you’re on the Shutterstock Blog, you probably are), you might notice more and more online publications using Shutterstock images. We’re always pleased to see a blog post, news story or feature article run with an image that has a Shutterstock credit. Here are a few of the many posts we’ve spotted lately with Shutterstock images.
Continue reading ‘How Internet Media Customers Are Using Shutterstock’ »

We are so pleased to announce that the graphic design magazine GD USA has awarded Shutterstock with a 2010 American Inhouse Design Award in the “Sales Promotion” category. The award is for Shutterstock’s Designer Pins, a collection of attention-getting and oh-so-fashionable pins designed by our very own Angela Cho. Below are a few of the designs.

You can see all of the GD USA winners right here, where find us by scrolling through the Sales Promotion winners list.

These fun pins have been a huge hit at every conference we have taken them to.  It is an honor for Shutterstock to receive this award, and a pleasure to create something that you all love. We hope to see you at Photoshop World West from Sept 1-3, 2010, where you’ll be able to get your paws on some more!

We have some exciting news! This week we launched Shutterbuzz, a new blog for Shutterstock contributors! This is a companion to the Shutterstock Blog, which you’re reading now and which will remain focused on highlighting the best of Shutterstock for our customers.

To learn more, click over to buzz.shutterstock.com and read our Shutterbuzz welcome post. Enjoy!

Today we issued a press release announcing our proud support of Stockphotorights.com, a new resource to help image buyers learn about licensing. Read on:

Continue reading ‘Shutterstock Supports Launch of Stockphotorights.com’ »

Media, marketing and public relations guru Adam Singer has posted a Q&A with Shutterstock CEO Jon Oringer on his blog, The Future Buzz. The interview focuses on Shutterstock’s social media strategy, including our marketing efforts on Twitter, Facebook and blogs.

Read the interview here.

Here’s some great news: Shutterstock was just named the Best Stock Photo Site for Bloggers by the Online Marketing Blog (on Twitter: @TopRank).

Blogger Lee Odden explains the poll:

“A great photo can really add a lot of flavor to a blog post and in our own analysis at Online Marketing Blog as well as with clients, including quality images with a blog post can boost traffic and referrals 30-50%… This is an area of significant impact for blogs as effective communication and marketing tools so last week we ran a Reader Poll on the best site for royalty free, stock photos for bloggers.”

Shutterstock beat out all the other choices in the poll, with 38% of the votes. See the results.

A big thanks to our customers for voting us #1!

Hello from Austin! The Shutterstock Blog is here in the beautiful state capital of Texas for the SxSW Interactive conference. We’ve been to some compelling events already and will bring you more posts about the show over the next several days. (If you’re here too, please come visit us at the trade show; we’re at booth 605-607!) Until then, we’d like to share a press release announcing the official launch of this very blog:

Continue reading ‘Shutterstock Launches New Blog at SxSW’ »