5 resources to find diverse stock images for your website (or project)

TBD Conference
3 min readJun 8, 2023

Your website needs an image upgrade — here are five amazing new resources to make that easy.

The saying goes “If you can’t see it, you can’t be it” and whether you agree with the statement or not, the underrepresentation of minorities and people of colour when it comes to stock photography is as undeniable as it is easily fixed.

https://amritpaldesign.com/toy-faces — AMRIT PAL DESIGN

Below are five resources that are freely available to use to improve your websites and blog posts, help you better represent your workforce and generally inspire a new generation. Be the change you want to see in the world today and send IT and design this post.

Blush design is a diverse collection of artists and clever technology that enables you to create a bespoke image that’s right for you. Creator, Pablo Stanley, has allowed the site to be free, although there is also a paid tier with more options. Artists like Bonnie Kate Wolf can showcase their work and get exposure for bespoke work and commissions. Wolf believes sites like Blush are needed: “Illustration doesn’t have the same open-source approach that UX design or engineering does. I believe there are people out there who need these kinds of resources but don’t have access to them. Overall, I think there is a shift in the illustration world that is making it more collaborative and systematic, at least in tech illustration. But we still have a long way to go.”

Amrit Pal Singh has gone one step further and created a 3D avatar library to represent individuals of all walks of life (see main picture). Eight are available for free, there is a $10 bundle, or for $20 you can even get your own created. Great for corporate team shots.

diVRse, created by Virtual Umbrella, is a fix for the technology community who are looking to show that virtual reality and augmented reality can indeed be used by those who aren’t “white, 20–30s, often male”. The team are collating the database now, and you can sign up here.

Vice’s Broadly, curated a slew of gender-fluid and non-binary imagery with ‘The Genders Spectrum Collection’ that work for inside and outside the office and features people of colour and LGBTQ-presenting individuals and couples.

Other tools available include ‘Inclusiveness’ and ‘Diversity Avatars’; logosets that offer icons with different skintones for different professions that can be used offline as well as online, Tonl.co and Nappy.co which feature black and brown people in every walk of life, including exercise and creator-led settings. Picnoi offers a great collection of images that includes nightlife scenarios from different geographical regions.

Having a website and using imagery that isn’t representative is a choice and something your next batch of employees is considering. Update your sites as much as you update your hiring practices and we’ll start to see some real change and proper representation. Best of all, it doesn’t just make you a good person, it makes you a smart one — the case for diversity is a well documented one.

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