With budgets shrinking everywhere, marketing and design teams are forced to be even more creative when it comes to sourcing low-cost photography. For conference marketing collateral, there are a number of great sources ranging from free to just a few dollars.

Convention and Visitor’s Bureaus — Most cities have a convention and visitor’s bureau and many, especially larger cities, have a fantastic media library with city themed images. Generally, the usage rights on these photos allow use by meeting planners and those hosting an event in the city. Some sites do require approval of registration and/or approval of the use of the photography, so make sure that is factored into your production timeline.

New Orleans CVB

Microstock Sites — Unlike a traditional stock photography site, microstock sites source their photography online, and are willing to accept photography from amateurs or hobbyists. These sites, including www.dreamstime.com or www.istockphoto.com, sell images from between $1 (for a web-quality image) to up to $20 (for a large, high-resolution image).

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Traditional Stock Photography Sites — In order to compete with the microstock sites, some traditional stock photography sources, including veer.com and punchstock.com, have opened up a microstock option on their sites. Like a traditional microstock site, the images range from $1 to $20. Unlike a traditional microstock site, however, these images are not necessarily from amateur photographers; often these images are from their traditional photographers, but are a slightly older shot, or a shot that is an alternative to a higher priced image.

Image 1342957

Subscription Photography — If your organization uses a significant amount of images every year, a subscription plan may be the right choice for you. Subscriptions are usually available by the month, with lower pricing for full-year subscriptions. The images tend to be microstock, but cost the same whether you download a low- or high-resolution image, and regardless of the number of images downloaded. In addition to images, some of these sites have fonts and videos included in their subscription costs. Shutterstock.com and Photospin.com are both good options for subscription photography.

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Flickr — Many photographers choose to make their photography available under a “Creative Commons” license, a customizable alternative to a copyright. Users choose the rights which they want to protect. For example, attribution means: others can copy, distribute, display, copyrighted work — and derivative works based upon it — but only if they give credit. Since there is no cost to use or download images from the site, these images are free. But, you should make sure you give credit appropriately, and honor the creative commons license.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/the-o/ / CC BY 2.0

Before using and printing any image downloaded from these sites you should read the licensing agreements, and consult your in-house counsel if you are unclear about the proper uses.

A colleague of mine recently turned me on to a great new(?) resource from Fast Company — Expert Design Blogs. The authors include Joe Duffy of Duffy & Partners, Tom Dair of Smart Design, Ken Musgrave of Dell, Ellen Lupton of Cooper-Hewitt and Paula Wallace of SCAD.

Fast Company is always a great source of reference and inspiration and this section of their site is no exception. Below are just a few great articles which are relevant to anyone in the design or marketing industry.

How Designers Can Deliver Service With a Smile

Why Design Still Has Such Limited Corporate Impact–and What to Do About It

A Plea to All Creatives: Stop Going to Work

How to Put Design in the Driver’s Seat

Embrace Your Small Ideas for Big Impacts

Why Ugly Sells

Designers have a language all their own, and it’s not always obvious what the most commonly used design terms mean. The list below should help you communicate with and better understand your designer. Download a copy of this list here. And, if we’ve missed any terms, feel free to post them in the comments section.

Bleed: any image or element on a page touches the edge of the page, leaving no margin it is said to bleed.
Crop marks: lines that indicate the edge of the printed piece.
DPI (dots per inch): the unit of measurement used to describe the resolution of printed output.
Facing pages: in a double-sided document, the two pages that appear as a spread when the publication is opened.
Gutter: In double-sided documents, the combination of the inside margins of facing pages; the gutter should be wide enough to accommodate binding.
Landscape (orientation): a page or layout that is wider than it is tall.
Leading: (pronounced “led-ding”) the space between lines of type.
Orphan: the first line of a paragraph ending on a new column or page.
PMS (Pantone Matching System): a standard color-matching system used for inks, papers, and other materials.
Point: a measurement used in typography for type size, leading, and other space specifications in a page layout.
Resolution: the number of pixels per square inch; the greater the resolution, the better the picture.
Rivers: spaces between words that create irregular lines of white space in body type.
Rule: a line used as a graphic enhancement.
Sans serif typeface: a typeface that has no serifs, such as Helvetica or Arial.
Serif: a counterstroke on letterforms, projecting from the ends of the main strokes. For example, Times or Garamond is a serifed typeface.
Spread: in a double-sided document, the combination of two facing pages, which are designed as a unit. Also, the adjacent inside panels of a brochure when opened.
Tabloid-sized page: a page that measures 11″ x 17″
Tracking: the space between characters in a line.
Trim size: the final or finished size of the publication.
White space: areas where there is no text or graphics — essentially, the negative space of the page design.
Widow: a short line (one or two words) ending a paragraph at the top of a page.

Dowload a copy.

There are iPhone apps for every interest and every need, and sifting through them can be a daunting task. As we’ve played more and more in the iPhone app space, we’ve found some apps that we can’t live without. Here’s our list of favorites:

RemotePad – With RemotePad on your iPhone (or iPod Touch) and RemotePad server on your computer, your iPhone becomes an air mouse instantly. Control PowerPoint presentations from across the room, or navigate through a tutorial from the comfort of your conference chair.

Facebook – The latest Facebook app update is a significant improvement over the old version. With the new version, Public Pages can be updated from the app, making updates one touch. The Favorites screen allows you to quickly bookmark your most visited people and pages.

Flickr – Just released this week, the Flickr app integrates seamlessly with the iPhone camera, allowing instant posting to the user’s Flickr account. With the iPhone as the most popular camera among Flickr users (yes, we were suprised by this too), this app was a longtime coming.

TweetDeck – Much like the desktop version of this app, TweetDeck allows users to create columns with custom searches, “tweet” from multiple accounts and follow and unfollow users.

Where – A one-stop reference portal, this program is great for travelers and those on the road. The customizable screens can be set-up to show Yelp! ratings, gas prices, weather forecasts, news headlines and movie listings.

FourSquare – A Yelp meets Facebook status meets Twitter game, users are rewarded with badges as they visit different places in the city. The application allows you to connect with friends, offer tips, and make to-do lists of places to go.

We’d love to hear about your favorite apps! Post them in the comments below.