I'm sick of catching bad stock being used poorly.  I can't deal--it's like adding insult to injury (I'll plan a future rant about cliches).
In a recent hunt round the Web I came across a very familiar bit of stock--I think we all know the multi-colored hands reaching into the circle. Well, AARP did some minor tweaking and gave that vector back some of its pride:



The stylized human form--that we all default to at some point in our career--is the domain of the Noun Project.  This designer used the semantic vector art to create a clever narrative in 3 characters:



Finally, this stock photo is one I've seen before but chose not to touch with a t 10-foot pole. The daring designer grabbed this heinous pic and used it to his advantage; making a poster that cleverly spoke  to his audience :

This is step 3--after reading a dozen donor stories and balling up terrible sketches.

I love Envato!  They just launched PhoteDune Beta, another online resource for stock photography.



If you're unfamiliar with Envato they're an international community of designers and developers that provide stock for graphic, game, and Web designers. Plus a couple blogs for networking and general freelance design.The prices on Envato stock designs are relatively cheap and the products are always high quality.

Browse the sites, then bookmark these pages:

• Tutorials Tuts+ Network
• Freelancer Blog FreelanceSwitch 
• Web design themes themeforest
• Royalty-free stock music AudioJungle
• Web Developers  Code Canyon
• 3D graphics for game design 3DOcean
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