Stills is shaking up the design industry with quality imagery from some of the best photographers in the business

You're working on a design project, and ideally, you'd like to commission your own bespoke photography. But the budget isn't there, or there simply isn't time to arrange a shoot. You scour all the usual stock libraries to find an alternative. But you can't find anything that meets the brief, or the images you see just aren't good enough.

So what do you do?

That's where Stills comes in. This brilliant new platform was created specifically to help designers, art directors and creative directors find the kind of high-quality, relevant and on-trend images they need, which, typically, stock libraries can't provide.

They do this by partnering with only highly professional, in-demand commercial photographers, paying them above-average rates, and curating their work with care and finesse. As a result, the quality of images available to designers is simply unparalleled.

Read on to learn more about this new platform, how it can help you deliver design work you can be proud of, even when challenged by tight budgets and crazy deadlines, and how to get guaranteed access via Creative Boom.

What is Stills?

Stills is a new platform, but it has an impeccable pedigree. That's because it comes from the same people who brought you Filmsupply, the global leader in cinematic footage licensing, representing filmmakers from Stink, PrettyBird, Anonymous Content, and more. They're also the folks behind Musicbed, which licenses high-quality music to filmmakers, TV studios, brands, and agencies around the world.

They're now bringing the same highly curated approach to licensing photography for designers. And they're partnering with top designers to ensure every photo is curated with the design industry in mind.

This user-friendly platform fits into designers' workflow perfectly, making it easy to do everyday tasks like organising your images, pitching a vision to clients, and collaborating with other creatives within the interface. Finding what you're looking for is a cinch, too, thanks to sophisticated filters allowing you to search for things like a specific colour, mood or specific photographer.

Most importantly, images on the site come from well-known, respected photographers such as Samuel Elkins, Jake Wangner, Nirav Patel, Omar Salah, and Liz Bretz. And note that members get exclusive access to the work of these in-demand artists.

All killer, no filler

As you can see from our selection of images below, Stills only features the best of the very best. (And we're not the only ones to think this: check out the massive followings of these photographers on socials!). So while Stills may sound like a traditional stock library, you quickly realise it's something quite different.

The former is normally populated by stock shooters who purposely create generic images. And we have no problem with that: such images can be useful, say, in the early stages of the creative process, such as for brainstorming, mockups, prototypes and mood boards.

But ultimately, that kind of traditional stock content is usually quite different from the final, polished images you end up using for the market-ready version. So when you think about it, its value is limited, much like the difference between mocking up a website with lorem ipsum and using real copy.

With Stills, in contrast, you'll never have to settle for filler content because every image is unique, artfully shot, professionally lit and production-ready. This instantly raises your energy and inspiration levels while you concept your designs and helps give you the edge when pitching to clients. So if you think about, for example, the time and money lost to failed pitches, Stills will more than pay for itself over time.

Layer of exclusivity

And that's not all. The problem with traditional stock images is that the better they are, the more likely they'll appear all over the internet and print media, making your design work look generic too. But membership in the Vault at Stills adds a layer of exclusivity. Specific images will have a limited supply for licensing, and you can even put a market freeze on specific images to reserve them completely for your project.

One final reason to use Stills is that you'll be supporting your fellow creatives. While stock libraries typically pay pennies, Stills treats its contributors with respect, with artist-friendly splits that are well above the industry average.

That's not just because they're on the side of the angels: it also makes business sense. Because by paying above the norm, Stills can attract the best talent. And these are not stock shooters but well-established photographers who are hired commercially, are highly successful, and work with major clients and brands.

When the right image meets excellent design, something powerful happens. So if you're looking for premium, design-led photography for your design project, Stills should be your first port of call.

Exclusive to Stills: Nine world-class photographers

Stills stands apart by partnering with some of the coolest and most unique, globally renowned photographers the profession has to offer. To give you a taster, read on to discover a few of the famous names who've entered into exclusive photo licensing deals with the platform.

1. Lindsey Swedick

Based in Brooklyn, Lindsey Swedick is a commercial product and food photographer in New York City. She specialises in helping brands bring concepts to life through eye-catching still-life images and stop-motion animations. With clients including FENTY Beauty, Harry's, Olipop, Intelligentsia, and Caraway, her bold and colourful compositions are very much more than the sum of their parts.

2. Max Wanger

Max Wanger spent a childhood growing up in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Hawaii. With a keen eye for finding beauty in the unexpected, his work is often described as colourful, whimsical and off-beat. He is particularly fond of less is more, and his photographs have been exhibited and recognised all over the world. Max currently lives in Southern California with his wife and business partner, Margaux, and their two kids.

3. Nirav Patel

Born in India and raised in the United States, Nirav Patel is a portrait and editorial photographer who's drawn to quiet moments and specialises in a documentary-style approach to his work. Based in San Francisco, he's an expert in bringing natural and artificial light sources together to create dramatic moments that tell a cinematic story. His intentional use of colour further draws the viewer into the feeling and mood of each photograph he takes.

4. Anne Holiday

Anne Holiday is an award-winning director based in New York City whose style is expressive, cinematic and often conceptual. She has shot in more than 20 countries, from the world's biggest slum in India to remote villages in the Amazon rainforest, with everyone from Hollywood actors, pro athletes and CEOs to nurses and doctors on the frontlines. Commercial clients include Porsche, Google, Uber and Nokia, and Anne recently published two photo books of her work.

5. Zane Priede

Zane Priede is a photographer based in Riga, Latvia, who's known for her captivating still-lifes. In her work, she draws on her background in set design to curate scenes that are filled with colour and life yet present ambiguous narratives. These pictures play with our perceptions by melding the imaginary and surreal with the existing and recognisable in ways that cross the paths of science, biology, and psychology.

6. Bret Curry

Not many people excel in both film-making and stills, but Bret Curry, a cinematographer and photographer based in Nashville and LA, is one of them. Influenced by his background in skateboarding and inspired by the diversity of the American landscape, and the freedom of the road trip, his images set out to capture the memory of a moment and convey a heightened sense of reality.

7. Liz Bretz

Liz Bretz is an art and commercial photographer specialising in conceptual portraiture and music visuals. She was raised both in the woods of a 300-year-old Pennsylvania farm and on the beaches of Hawaii, and the contrast between the two has coloured the conceptual nature of her work. Now based in LA, Liz strives to capture authentic feelings, create with the palette of the rainbow, and uphold the infinite strength of the feminine. Having won international recognition as a fine art photographer, her work has been showcased at Rencontres D'Arles in France.

8. Anton Hangschlitt

Anton Hangschlitt is a Berlin-based photographer who finds beauty and resonance in spaces that are typically overlooked. He is best known for his intimate and atmospheric photographs of the city's underground locales, which he captures using analogue film. His pictures have been exhibited in solo and group shows, and he also shares them in the form of limited-edition zines.

9. Louis Dazy

A conceptual photographer and director based in Paris, Louis Dazy combines portraiture, street photography and light work to create evocative, cinematic images. Working predominantly on film, Dazy's images feel nostalgic and emotional, dripping in a style often associated with music videos and the Film Noir genre. He also likes to incorporate text, often in the form of neon sign writing, adding an additional layer of meaning. Dazy's work aims to epitomise the glamour of the 1950s, the sexuality of the 1970s and the high pressure of the 1980s, blending French film styling with illuminated Asian supercities and American diner aesthetics.