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Show HN: Glaze – Illustrations for Products and Presentations

120 points by chamza 7y ago

somada141 7y ago
Personally I find these gorgeous but I’ve seen some scrutiny on HN for apps that use such illustrations. I’ve considered using them for my app, still in alpha release so I haven’t felt confident to post here yet, but I worry usage of stock material may bias people to feel the app isn’t original cause the illustrations aren’t. That being said I expect that people outside the tech-space wouldn’t be exposed to such designs often and would find then as lovely as I am :). Have I misread the sentiment?
- guptaneil 7y ago
  You’re right that people outside of HN are far less likely to recognize these are clip art. Also for an alpha release, your priority should be making sure people want your app, not the landing page. Early adopters will look past stock art if you’re filling a need.
pixelmonkey 7y ago
I prefer to source mine from @HumansOfFlat on Twitter :) https://twitter.com/humansofflat https://twitter.com/humansofflat Here's my favorite recent offender: https://twitter.com/HumansOfFlat/status/1184867036679327744?s=09 https://twitter.com/HumansOfFlat/status/1184867036679327744?...
- pengstrom 7y ago
  I honestly can't decide if it's making fun of flat design or promoting it. Poe's law and all that.
  - ciex 7y ago
    It’s being angry at a design trend in a very twitteresque way that leaves little room for explanation
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  Nice. So I guess I'm not the only one who absolutely hates the "humaaans" ilustration set and other sets with similar uncanny deformations.
verdverm 7y ago
Some of these look super similar to content on https://ui8.net/ https://ui8.net/ (another source for images like these)
fredley 7y ago
Clip art for the 2010s (2020s?). I love it!
fimdomeio 7y ago
Don't use this year style trend if you want to make your brand recognizable. Also you'll have a problem next year because it will look dated. I had this issue coming up a lot when I was doing more graphic design projects. Never really understand why small clients really wanted to look like everyone else. I always thought the aproach should be the oposite, the lower the budget the bolder you must be if you want anyone to remember you.
- vertis 7y ago
  I can see why small clients want to look like everyone else. Or I would guess look the same as bigger brands. It looks professional. They don't want to stand out in a bad way, so it's safest to go with the already established.
sunasra 7y ago
Nice! https://undraw.co https://undraw.co has good collection as well
nlh 7y ago
Well done! I like the style and artwork. Can you share how the business model for this sort of site works? I’ve seen a ton of this style (Unsplash, etc.) and always assumes it’s based on AdSense or similar. Is that the case here?
- chamza 7y ago
  In our case (Glaze), we are using a simple freemium model. The assets are free to use as long as the user attributes the illustrator and Glaze. If the user wants to buy a license so that they can use the image without crediting the artist/glaze, they can pay for that license (they also get a larger file size and the source file). Unsplash is a bit different, all of the images are completely free. From my knowledge, this was originally used as a marketing funnel for their parent company, Crew. Crew has since been acquired and Unsplash has spun in to it's own entity. Nowadays my hunch is that they are monetizing through calls to their API (Unsplash is integrated into big players like Squarespace, Trello, Medium). Feel free to fact check as I am no expert when it comes to Unsplash's business model.
vertis 7y ago
It looks very cool. I like the "free with attribution" to "premium" model you're using. As an aside, I really don't understand the other people in this thread linking to competitors. It feels a bit rude on a Show HN. "Here is all this hard work I did" "Great, I love X competitor"
- NKosmatos 7y ago
  Perhaps they’re just trying to be helpful to other HN users? Before this post I didn’t know any of the sites posted, now I’ve got a few ones I can check out.
  - vertis 7y ago
    Yeah, that makes sense, it still just make me cringe a little.
iandanforth 7y ago
I'm not sure I understand the demand for stock-anything. When I need an image, illustration, or icon I need it to be one or more of the following: 1. Accurate The image or illustration depicts a real thing or process I care about and it needs to show that clearly. It's unlikely that stock photos and illustrations will meet that bar. Unless the rest of my content is about a well known or generic topic my imagery is not going to be widely available or generic. 2. On brand If I'm adding visual interest, color, flare, whathaveyou to a page and the exact content doesn't matter, then the styling and emotional tone do. More specifically they need to be coherent across my entire site/presentation/product. In addition this content needs to be helpful to a viewer to remember my specific property. My brand can only be diluted by using assets which are common, off-tone, or not fully integrated with a recognizable and memorable look and feel. 3. Repeatable For any media I create and want to maintain I have to think about how hard it's going to be to change it in the future. If I find a great image or icon or illustration I need to know that if I need the source modified or reproduced with a slight variation I can do that. In practice, that usually means having continued access to the artist who produced the asset. Their style will come through in any project and maintain the coherence over time that allows for iterative rather than drastic change. Convey information, build a brand, build a repeatable process. Stock feels like a self-defeating trap. Sure it looks nice, and for arts sake it can be desirable, but for any business or professional communication purpose it seems to entirely miss the point of having media in the first place.
- devilshaircut 7y ago
  It should be obvious but, limitations, whether they be related to time, budget, or other resources, make stock assets desirable. For instance, commissioning a custom icon set rather than picking one off-the-shelf is a luxury only some projects will have access to. Additionally, oftentimes stock assets function as good placeholders until a larger budget comes into play. Suppose you are working on a video game and waiting for environmental assets to be complete; in the meantime, a sample texture may do. In a perfect world, perhaps every font, icon, illustration, photo, or texture would be bespoke to its exact application. In the mean time, we have stock assets.
egypturnash 7y ago
Huzzah! Another company asking me to work for exposure! Yay!
Zaheer 7y ago
This style of illustration (pastel colors, abstract shapes, etc) has been quite popular lately. Anyone know which designer originally came up with this? Also is there a term for this style of illustration?
Hoasi 7y ago
What if you don't need generic images? If you want illustrations that add value to your business, how can you hire the illustrator or designer to do a custom job? It is not clear if the site lets you do this—which would be great.
thesheikh 7y ago
Wow. This was super clutch for a mockup I am doing at work. Thanks to whoever did compiled this resource!
gitgud 7y ago
Nice site, the only problem I have with the content is the Flat-Humaans style, which seems to becoming extremely popular with start-ups and is pretty over-used. I'm not sure I particularly like the style anymore either... It reminds me of Ikea instructions, which are meant to purely convey the procedure of assembling furniture with no emotion. But when you're describing your business you want to evoke emotion right? Ironically, these cartoonish Flat-Humaans convey no human emotions at all. They feel like a wall of propaganda of what the company is telling you how the product/service will function (much like war propaganda)...

120 points by chamza 7y ago

Personally I find these gorgeous but I’ve seen some scrutiny on HN for apps that use such illustrations. I’ve considered using them for my app, still in alpha release so I haven’t felt confident to post here yet, but I worry usage of stock material may bias people to feel the app isn’t original cause the illustrations aren’t. That being said I expect that people outside the tech-space wouldn’t be exposed to such designs often and would find then as lovely as I am :). Have I misread the sentiment?

guptaneil 7y ago
You’re right that people outside of HN are far less likely to recognize these are clip art. Also for an alpha release, your priority should be making sure people want your app, not the landing page. Early adopters will look past stock art if you’re filling a need.

pixelmonkey 7y ago

I prefer to source mine from @HumansOfFlat on Twitter :) https://twitter.com/humansofflat https://twitter.com/humansofflat Here's my favorite recent offender: https://twitter.com/HumansOfFlat/status/1184867036679327744?s=09 https://twitter.com/HumansOfFlat/status/1184867036679327744?...

pengstrom 7y ago
I honestly can't decide if it's making fun of flat design or promoting it. Poe's law and all that.
- ciex 7y ago
  It’s being angry at a design trend in a very twitteresque way that leaves little room for explanation
TeMPOraL 7y ago
Nice. So I guess I'm not the only one who absolutely hates the "humaaans" ilustration set and other sets with similar uncanny deformations.

verdverm 7y ago

Some of these look super similar to content on https://ui8.net/ https://ui8.net/ (another source for images like these)

fredley 7y ago

Clip art for the 2010s (2020s?). I love it!

fimdomeio 7y ago

Don't use this year style trend if you want to make your brand recognizable. Also you'll have a problem next year because it will look dated. I had this issue coming up a lot when I was doing more graphic design projects. Never really understand why small clients really wanted to look like everyone else. I always thought the aproach should be the oposite, the lower the budget the bolder you must be if you want anyone to remember you.

vertis 7y ago
I can see why small clients want to look like everyone else. Or I would guess look the same as bigger brands. It looks professional. They don't want to stand out in a bad way, so it's safest to go with the already established.

sunasra 7y ago

Nice! https://undraw.co https://undraw.co has good collection as well

nlh 7y ago

Well done! I like the style and artwork. Can you share how the business model for this sort of site works? I’ve seen a ton of this style (Unsplash, etc.) and always assumes it’s based on AdSense or similar. Is that the case here?

chamza 7y ago
In our case (Glaze), we are using a simple freemium model. The assets are free to use as long as the user attributes the illustrator and Glaze. If the user wants to buy a license so that they can use the image without crediting the artist/glaze, they can pay for that license (they also get a larger file size and the source file). Unsplash is a bit different, all of the images are completely free. From my knowledge, this was originally used as a marketing funnel for their parent company, Crew. Crew has since been acquired and Unsplash has spun in to it's own entity. Nowadays my hunch is that they are monetizing through calls to their API (Unsplash is integrated into big players like Squarespace, Trello, Medium). Feel free to fact check as I am no expert when it comes to Unsplash's business model.

vertis 7y ago

It looks very cool. I like the "free with attribution" to "premium" model you're using. As an aside, I really don't understand the other people in this thread linking to competitors. It feels a bit rude on a Show HN. "Here is all this hard work I did" "Great, I love X competitor"

NKosmatos 7y ago
Perhaps they’re just trying to be helpful to other HN users? Before this post I didn’t know any of the sites posted, now I’ve got a few ones I can check out.
- vertis 7y ago
  Yeah, that makes sense, it still just make me cringe a little.

iandanforth 7y ago

I'm not sure I understand the demand for stock-anything. When I need an image, illustration, or icon I need it to be one or more of the following: 1. Accurate The image or illustration depicts a real thing or process I care about and it needs to show that clearly. It's unlikely that stock photos and illustrations will meet that bar. Unless the rest of my content is about a well known or generic topic my imagery is not going to be widely available or generic. 2. On brand If I'm adding visual interest, color, flare, whathaveyou to a page and the exact content doesn't matter, then the styling and emotional tone do. More specifically they need to be coherent across my entire site/presentation/product. In addition this content needs to be helpful to a viewer to remember my specific property. My brand can only be diluted by using assets which are common, off-tone, or not fully integrated with a recognizable and memorable look and feel. 3. Repeatable For any media I create and want to maintain I have to think about how hard it's going to be to change it in the future. If I find a great image or icon or illustration I need to know that if I need the source modified or reproduced with a slight variation I can do that. In practice, that usually means having continued access to the artist who produced the asset. Their style will come through in any project and maintain the coherence over time that allows for iterative rather than drastic change. Convey information, build a brand, build a repeatable process. Stock feels like a self-defeating trap. Sure it looks nice, and for arts sake it can be desirable, but for any business or professional communication purpose it seems to entirely miss the point of having media in the first place.

devilshaircut 7y ago
It should be obvious but, limitations, whether they be related to time, budget, or other resources, make stock assets desirable. For instance, commissioning a custom icon set rather than picking one off-the-shelf is a luxury only some projects will have access to. Additionally, oftentimes stock assets function as good placeholders until a larger budget comes into play. Suppose you are working on a video game and waiting for environmental assets to be complete; in the meantime, a sample texture may do. In a perfect world, perhaps every font, icon, illustration, photo, or texture would be bespoke to its exact application. In the mean time, we have stock assets.

egypturnash 7y ago

Huzzah! Another company asking me to work for exposure! Yay!

Zaheer 7y ago

This style of illustration (pastel colors, abstract shapes, etc) has been quite popular lately. Anyone know which designer originally came up with this? Also is there a term for this style of illustration?

Hoasi 7y ago

What if you don't need generic images? If you want illustrations that add value to your business, how can you hire the illustrator or designer to do a custom job? It is not clear if the site lets you do this—which would be great.

thesheikh 7y ago

Wow. This was super clutch for a mockup I am doing at work. Thanks to whoever did compiled this resource!

gitgud 7y ago

Nice site, the only problem I have with the content is the Flat-Humaans style, which seems to becoming extremely popular with start-ups and is pretty over-used. I'm not sure I particularly like the style anymore either... It reminds me of Ikea instructions, which are meant to purely convey the procedure of assembling furniture with no emotion. But when you're describing your business you want to evoke emotion right? Ironically, these cartoonish Flat-Humaans convey no human emotions at all. They feel like a wall of propaganda of what the company is telling you how the product/service will function (much like war propaganda)...