Chris Wild of Retronaut helps us look at history through new eyes, using imagery to paint a picture not only of what was, but also of what might have been. This is his first guest post for Shutterstock.

Beyond general aesthetics and functionality, we may not give much thought to the shapes of our cars. If we do, we may assume that our vehicles look the way they do simply as a result of testing and optimization throughout the decades. But there are alternative roads that our cars might have driven down, and those roads are still there to be explored.

Carriage image by Everett Collection

The first cars were carriages and horses, minus the horses. From our vantage point, we look back at early cars as impossibly antiquated machines. But to their owners, they were just as impossibly advanced.

Continue reading ‘A Retronaut’s Brief History of Car Design’ »

This Sunday, Mother’s Day will be celebrated in dozens of countries around the world, offering millions of people the chance to remind Mom just how loved she is. Of course, motherly love isn’t limited to humans alone — the maternal bond is obvious across just about every species on Earth.

That’s why we’re filling our hearts in advance of the holiday with this celebration of moms and their babies from throughout the animal kingdom. Get your fix of extreme cuteness, then don’t forget to drop that card in the mail or plan something special for the weekend. Happy Mother’s Day!

Mother and Baby Orangutan by Xiebiyun

Continue reading ‘14 Amazing Animal Moms with Their Adorable Offspring’ »

We’ve partnered with our friends at HDVideoPro to bring you some features and reviews on the best HD Video tools available. This is the second installment in this new series. Check out the previous post here.

At a small press gathering a few months back, Sony executives introduced their latest CineAlta camera system. For the past few years, Sony has been killing it in the digital video camera space by releasing an army of HD cameras in multiple categories, including the consumer VX900, the first full-frame-sensor camcorder. And with the F65 and 4K cameras from RED (EPIC and SCARLET), Canon (EOS C500 and EOS 1D C) and even GoPro (HERO3 Black Edition) all now available, it was inevitable that Sony would go long with 4K. After all, it’s already the leader in 4K digital cinema with its SXRD 4K projectors, and its XBR 4K Ultra HDTVs will see to it that even your living room will soon be 4K-ready.

The F5 and F55: Filling a Niche

Continue reading ‘HDVideoPro Review: The Sony PMW-F5 and PMW-F55’ »

The buzz around Baz Luhrmann’s blockbuster Great Gatsby adaptation is reaching fever pitch, with the latest take on the quintessential Jazz Age tale hitting theaters in North America this Friday and kicking off next week’s 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

In honor of the film’s big French festival screening, we gave designer Dimitri Simakis free reign of the Shutterstock library to use our images in dreaming up some Roaring 20s-inspired movie posters for Gatsby and other iconic Cannes classics.

Check out the stunning collection of Art Nouveau posters that resulted, featuring former festival favorites from Taxi Driver to Apocalypse Now, along with commentary from Simakis on the designs. We like them so much, we’re thinking about printing them all up to hang in our studio. Which one is your favorite?

Continue reading ‘Cannes Goes Gatsby: An Art Nouveau Take On Festival Favorites’ »

Whether it’s The Brave Little Toaster or WALL-E, we’re willing to bet there’s an animated film out there that always brings a smile to your face. The curse of being a motion designer is that everything you see on screen becomes something you want to be able to create. The key, of course, is starting small. With this tutorial, you can get your feet wet with a little animated walking sequence. Keep it up, and you could be working at Pixar one of these days.

If you’re a character illustrator, you can always make your own assets, but for this tutorial, I chose this adorable vector set by contributor artenot.

Continue reading ‘After Effects Tutorial: Animating Characters with the Puppet Tool’ »

Here in New York we are gearing up for Spring and dusting off our bicycles. Not just for weekenders, bikes are more and more becoming a preferred method for commuting to and from work. This week’s free images showcase a variety of bike gear and biking activities from around the world.

Click on the images above and download them now, then pedal your way around in our latest Featured Lightbox, “Bikers.”

These images are available for free download until Sunday, 5/12 at 11:59 pm.

With Spring blooming and Mother’s Day on the way, this week we’re turning our focus on contributors who make us think of family, fun, and fresh air. B. and E. Dudzinscy take some of the most fabulous food photos we’ve seen in a while, and Nenilkime‘s verdant vector art has us heading straight for the garden.

Check out a sample of both artists’ work below, along with notes on why we chose them from Shutterstock Curator Liz Lapp, then click through to view their full portfolios and start Following them yourself.

B. and E. Dudzinscy

Continue reading ‘Follow Favorites: This Week’s Artists to Follow on Shutterstock’ »

Sure, you could hire a DJ for your wedding, but why go to all the trouble when you can grab the soundtrack to your special day right here? Okay, perhaps our tastes are a bit eclectic, but with our newest Songs to Design By mixtape, we’ve got wedded bliss on the brain — not least because we’ve been feasting our eyes on all the fantastic imagery in our “Wedding Party” Lightbox.

And even if you won’t be playing this at your party, it’s a great bet for inspiration while you’re designing the invitations. Listen to the full mix below (note: you need Spotify installed for it to play properly), explore the “Wedding Party” Lightbox, and check out previous volumes of Songs to Design By for even more great music and images.

Continue reading ‘Songs to Design By, Vol. 6: Wedding Party’ »

This Sunday is Cinco de Mayo, a celebration of Mexican heritage that provides the perfect excuse for indulging in some delicious South-of-the-Border style food and drinks. (Especially with it falling on a weekend this year!) If you want to avoid the crowds at your favorite local Mexican spot, why not whip up some spicy delights on your own? This special Cinco de Mayo edition of our Designer Drinks series has everything you need, including our classic Comic Sangria and our not-so-secret recipe for the tastiest guac outside of Puebla.

Continue reading ‘Designer Drinks: Cinco de Mayo Edition’ »

Used correctly, Facebook can be a great tool for promoting your creative business. There’s a lot to consider — whether to launch advertisements, if you should watermark your work, even choosing the right resolutions and sizes for uploading. But today we’re going to look at something more fundamental: the distinction between profiles and pages on the social network.

Let’s zoom out and look at Facebook’s network broadly. It consists of two things: profiles, meant for people, and pages, meant for businesses. You, as an individual on Facebook, have a profile — it consists of your personal information, your friend connections, and anything you’ve elected to like and share. Brands like Coca-Cola (or Shutterstock) have a Facebook page.

Though the presentation is similar, Facebook pages don’t have friends. Instead, they accumulate likes from Facebook users. Once people like a page on Facebook, updates from that page will start to show up in their news feeds. Businesses can also advertise to reach the friends of people who have liked the page, or to get more distribution within the news feed.

For the majority of businesses, marketing on Facebook is straightforward: create a page, get people to like it, and start posting updates. But for photographers or other creative types, things aren’t so simple, particularly if you’re running your business as an individual. If I want to sell my services as a photographer, do I use my Dan Fletcher profile, or do I need to create a Dan Fletcher Facebook page? Let’s look at the benefits of each individually.

Continue reading ‘Pages vs. Profiles: An Inside Look at Facebook Marketing’ »