Adobe, known for its image editing and design software, is branching into the fashion industry.
The Adobe Stock Apparel campaign promotes a royalty-free image service called Adobe Stock. There, you’ll find “smiling seniors using laptops” gracing the front of a tee-shirt or a “firm handshake between business associates” taking place over the front of a sweatshirt. Yes, they’ve even included “laughing woman eating healthy vegetable salad” in the line, modeled exclusively by hip, nonchalant creative types.
Though the apparel isn’t for sale to the public, it’s a great example of how stock photos are ushering in a new era of tongue-in-cheek humor for both businesses and consumers. The campaign originally targeted current Adobe users frustrated with finding the same stock images in search after search result. In this way, Adobe is also breathing new life into the stagnant stock imagery industry.
Adobe Stock offers integration with all of Adobe’s Creative Cloud apps.
This integration allows designers to choose from the high-quality images on the platform and place them into designs immediately in a try-before-you-buy purchase process. For many designers and content creators, this will contribute to increased productivity and a streamlined workflow.
Most stock photos are overused and cliché, a fact that the Adobe Stock Apparel campaign plays on. However, non-standard usage is breathing new life into these images. While a picture of a handshake or group of employees may seem sterile and uninteresting on a website, it’s captivating when transferred to another medium.
Many up-and-coming designers, copywriters and editors are turning these old stock photos on their heads.
Blogs have seen the rise of memes revolving around stock photos, while others have taken to developing entire stories behind those cliché images. Why is the woman so happy to eat a salad? Will those employees have to hold those charts forever? And finally, what led these two businessmen to a boxing match? Adobe is bringing to market a new creative take on such cliché stock photos.
Adobe’s new Creative Stock Apparel line
The human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text. The majority of a person’s sensory receptors are in their eyes, and most of the brain is active when processing visuals. Designers and consumers alike crave fresh visual content, including photos, videos, images and graphics. It’s not always possible for companies to acquire new photos at the same rate, and stock images provide a cost-efficient and quick alternative.
Each day, there are more and more pieces of content competing for attention. The creative revolution behind these stock photos will only hold for so long. As in the past, consumers will crave authentic content that is representative of a brand’s personality. A new era of stock images is about to begin, one that focuses more on tone and eliciting feelings and engagement with an audience, rather than simply representing a task.
In the meantime, designers are delighted by Adobe’s nod to their daily struggles, and pine for a piece of the Adobe Stock Apparel pie.
