Want more free time to spend on a side project, or just out having fun? There are many ways that Adobe Stock can save you hours, maybe even days, spent in front of your computer. So why not take advantage?
Read on, as we outline five ways that Adobe Stock can help you get more work done in less time.
01. Find the right image in seconds
Searching for the perfect pic? Adobe Stock has millions of royalty-free images on virtually every subject you could ever imagine. And thanks to its clever machine-learning software, you can use keywords and filters to find the exact image you’re looking for, in seconds.
Alternatively, you can simply upload an image to find visually similar results, which will match the colour, tone, and composition of your original image.
This intelligent and responsive search technology really comes in handy when you’re on deadline and your art ed is breathing down your neck, as the video above demonstrates in humorous fashion. (If you’d like to know how the image featured in it was created, there’s a more serious tutorial about it here).
02. Try out images within Creative Cloud apps
Did we mention you don’t even have to open a separate tab to search for Adobe Stock images? Whether you’re working in Illustrator, Photoshop or any other Creative Cloud app, you can search for the right image directly within the app and import it with a single click.
You’re then free to preview the image in your mockups, move it around and manipulate it to your heart’s content, and - only when you’re happy with your choice and how it’s working within your design, and have got signoff from your art ed or client - choose to licence it.
This seamless integration into the Creative Cloud makes Adobe Stock the perfect tool for getting professional work completed quickly and to everyone’s satisfaction.
And you don’t have to take our word for it: in the video above, freelance graphic designer Oliver Goodard explains exactly how Adobe Stock fits into his practice and makes his life a heck of a lot easier.
03. Save reinventing the wheel with Adobe Stock templates
So far we’ve talked about images, but there’s another great way in which Adobe Stock can help speed up your design work: its Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign templates.
These provide a professional looking ‘skeleton’ to common design types such as posters, templates and websites, saving you from reinventing the wheel, over and over again. And because they’re fully customisable, they allow you to spend more of your time being creative, choosing fonts, images, colours and so on, to create unique designs in less time.
Again, because Adobe Stock is fully integrated into the CC apps, it’s super-easy and quick to use its templates directly within Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign.
To get a flavour of how Adobe Stock templates can save you time, check out the video above, and for a more detailed walkthrough, read our tutorial Design a poster in Photoshop CC with Adobe Stock templates.
04. Create video faster using motion templates
Adobe Stock templates are not just for static design work. There are also a ton of excellent motion graphics templates available, many of which are free.
Whether you’re using pro-level CC software like After Effects or Premiere Pro, or the new Premiere Rush, which is super-easy to use, Adobe Stock lets you add titles, credits, animations and more to bring your projects to life.
In the video above, Amber and Stone from Stellar Image Studios explain how you can take a lower third from the Adobe Stock library and personalise it to the needs of a client. It’s a task that would normally take them around two to five hours, but with Adobe Stock takes around five minutes.
Just think about that for a moment. If you can save that much time on just one task, think how much you could save over the course of year....
05. Animate quickly using 3D assets
3D animation is probably the most time consuming of all tasks in the design world. So it’s an obvious place to look for ways that Adobe Stock can save you serious time. And yes, here too, Adobe Stock has you nicely covered.
In the video above - the first of a three-part series - David Brodeur shows you how to quickly create an animation using a 3D asset from Adobe Stock, and how such assets can dramatically speed up your workflow.
“We’re not going to waste a whole lot of time modelling a coffee mug," he explains. "Because today’s culture is all about: how do you keep pumping out a lot of work; how do you keep producing? We’re all short of time, and Adobe Stock can help us do that quickly and efficiently.”
Conclusion
You only have one life to life, so why spend it on mundane, time-consuming and repetitive tasks when Adobe Stock can help you get things done more quickly?
Enabling you to find the right assets quickly and easily, and then work with them, seamlessly, within the Creative Cloud, Adobe Stock is perfectly positioned to help your design practice achieve its goals in the shortest time possible.
So what are you waiting for? Get started with Adobe Stock today!
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Tom May is an award-winning journalist and editor specialising in design, photography and technology. Author of the Amazon #1 bestseller Great TED Talks: Creativity, published by Pavilion Books, Tom was previously editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine. Today, he is a regular contributor to Creative Bloq and its sister sites Digital Camera World, T3.com and Tech Radar. He also writes for Creative Boom and works on content marketing projects.