Commercial artists have always had it tough, and photographers are no exception. Magazines are folding. Advertising is down. And to make things worse, this week large companies like Omnicom and GM shifted the financial burden to the artist. Some say production insurance, commonly used in film, is the answer. Others recommend fighting the already bad contracts by demanding payment before usage rights are released. Of course, if things go wrong you can always file for bankruptcy.
posted by infinitefloatingbrains on Mar 19, 2009 - 56 comments

The Branding of Polaroid 1957-1977: How we beat Eastman Kodak and its little yellow boxes at point of purchase despite a clunky product and an irrelevant corporate name. Graphic designer Paul Giambarba blogs about his experience creating Polaroid's iconic corporate identity, product packaging and print advertising while freelancing for Polaroid through the company's rise and fall.
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot on May 22, 2008 - 7 comments

Tips for getting ahead in the increasingly competitive low cost small laptop market: When you go to Getty Images, grab some stock photography of smiling kids in a classroom and photoshop in your product, you better make sure your competitor hasn't used the exact same image.
posted by Artw on May 18, 2008 - 49 comments

The photography of Dutch photographer Arthur Mebius includes personal and commercial work, and is often rather funny. [more inside]
posted by whir on Jan 21, 2008 - 6 comments

Powerful photo ads for the Cape Times.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Apr 22, 2007 - 65 comments

Images of Atlantic City Boardwalk from R.C. Maxwell. Photographs taken to give client's an idea of the traffic that would see their billboards, provide a record of the people who have thronged to the boardwalk since the early 1900's.
posted by tellurian on Sep 13, 2006 - 8 comments

Many images (large pageload) from platinumfmd [via]
posted by peacay on May 19, 2006 - 25 comments

Step-by-step magazine cover photo retouching. (Flash)
posted by fandango_matt on Dec 18, 2005 - 53 comments

The world's most expensive photocopy. An untitled cowboy photograph by Richard Prince set a record last night for the most expensive photograph sold at auction, with a price of $1,248,000. The catch? It's a re-photograph of pre-existing Marlboro ad.
posted by Robot Johnny on Nov 10, 2005 - 62 comments

Post No Bills. At the intersection of life and advertising one may unexpectedly find art, or at least humor. Henry Ho shines a light on it. (42 pages. Or view all thumbnails together)
posted by taz on Jul 29, 2005 - 15 comments

PDN Photo Annual 2004 presents the year's most outstanding images from photographers, magazines, and agencies in 8 separate categories. The commercial work is great, but don't miss the personal and student categories. (Flash intro. Note to sponsors: larger online images next year, please!)
posted by madamjujujive on Jul 17, 2004 - 8 comments

Palmer Cox created the famous Brownie characters in 1883, and a successful series of children's books detailing their adventures. These are the characters that George Eastman chose for promoting the Brownie line of Kodak cameras.
posted by hama7 on Apr 29, 2003 - 3 comments

any movement you can dish out. if you look underground, chances are cool hunters will stop you in your tracks and ask to take your picture and learn about your ways. it sure feels good to be recognized. where do they go with your picture, you'd wonder, i mean you never hear from them again. turns out these guys turn around and sell your image to corporations who turn around and mass market it. so much for cool.
posted by elle on May 2, 2001 - 15 comments