Graphic Design: Visual Research

Increasing your visual "vocabulary" will help you develop design ideas.  Any sort of image can provide inspiration; sources of images are limited only by your imagination.

Any illustrated book can build your visual vocabulary - refer to the Find Books & Audio Visual Materials tab for more information. 

•  Artstor (click the Artstor Digital Library link at the top of the web page)

♦  Contains more than 2.5 million searchable images

♦  Set up an account to save images, create folders, etc.  You must use your student e-mail address to set up an account

♦  See the Artstor research guide for more information on using this database

♦  Images in this database can be used for educational purposes only; any other use is prohibited

•  Oxford Art Online (this database allows for just one user at a time)

•  Credo Reference

♦  Has an Image Search function

•  New York Times - Historical

♦  Photographs

♦  Graphics (maps, line drawings, etc.)

♦  Ads

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has instituted an open access policy for images of works it believes to be in the public domain.  You can use these images without

requesting permission or paying a fee.  Look for this symbol: 

•  Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Smithsonian Institution has made more than 3 million images available for the public to download and use at no charge.

• Smithsonian Open Access