
Adobe Stock has announced two new developments to help creatives produce the visual content that best resonates with their audiences in this challenging year.
On the one hand, they created the Artist Development Fund to commission artists to create fresh images with diversity and inclusion as the core concepts.
On the other, they are releasing a pool of over 70,000 free assets from their library, including diversity-focused content in the hope of assisting with the production of socially relevant visuals.
These announcements come after Adobe’s Creativity News Survey last month raised some points about the importance of diversity-fueled and socially-driven images for today’s marketers and creatives.
Catch a glimpse of the new free assets below!
Adobe Stock’s Artist Development Fund: $500K to Fund Diverse Stock Media
The newly announced Artist Development Fund intends to stimulate diversity and inclusion in stock media, by commissioning work from minority artists.
Adobe Stock is committing $500,000 to commission images, videos, and more media assets from 40 handpicked artists around the world. They will be using these funds to create inspired and current content in underrepresented communities in 2021.
So you can expect to see a lot more high-quality stock photos with great diversity, and formerly hard-to-find concepts more readily available in their catalog next year.
Adobe Stock’s Free Assets: 70K+ Free Diverse Visuals for Everyone
What’s even more relevant for our readers, Adobe Stock is also releasing a big collection with over 70,000 free assets. Images, vector illustrations, stock videos, icons, 3D assets, and more are included.
The free assets come with the same Royalty-Free license from paid downloads, and thus are suitable for commercial use. You can search, filter and even reverse image search content here like you would on Adobe Stock’s regular, paid collections.
Furthermore, some content created through the Artists Development Fund will also be available in this free selection, which is already curated to include people and cultures from everywhere.
Adobe Stock does this as a way to democratize stock imagery and ensuring everyone can access high-quality and diversely-relevant photos regardless of budget strains and other obstacles they might be facing.
You can check Adobe Stock’s Free Assets here.
Acting Upon 2020 Creative Struggles
Like we mentioned, these Adobe Stock initiatives are a response to some of the most salient points from both their 2020 Creativity Survey and their more recent Digital Creativity Insight report.
From these sources, it’s known that:
- Creators are uploading 180% more socially relevant content to their social media channels
- 89% of creatives are into diverse and inclusive stock media collections
- 74% of them find it challenging to find stock content that resonates with today’s audiences.
- Searches for terms like “diversity” and “BLM” have peaked between January and June 2020
From these pointers, Adobe drew the conclusion that diverse stock imagery that is inclusive and authentic is more critical than ever, and that keeping up with the fast-paced social issues and the new normal of this year’s pandemic-ruled world is a considerable challenge for visual creatives everywhere.
With the free assets collection and the funding of new, spot-on content for the coming months, they are trying to give marketers and creatives the tools they need to produce visuals that drive their points home.
Ready to try it yourself?