Public Domain Assets at Your Fingertips

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At the risk of stating the obvious, the internet is a big place. And that fact often becomes glaringly apparent when you go looking for assets for your next creative endeavor. The task can be even more overwhelming when you’re looking to use low- or no-cost media. I’ve always been partial to the Creative Commons search engine to find this type of media and others with relaxed user licenses. But I usually end up trying to interpret and translate “license speak” and figure out if attribution is required, where it must be placed, et cetera. Frustrating!

That frustration illustrates why I’m excited to be checking out Pond5’s Public Domain Project. The creative online marketplace has been busy curating photos, illustrations, video footage, effects, and 3D models that are in the public domain for easy search and acquisition. Instead of searching the archives of NASA, The Library of Congress, The US Army, and countless university collections, The Public Domain Project brings it all under one virtual roof. You can even search by collections, sorted into neatly categorized topics such as military, space, classic sports, and fashion and style. And, of course, the assets are my favorite price: free!

WARNING: You may end up spending too much time exploring and excessive hard drive space downloading everything from audio clips of speeches by Amelia Earhart and Winston Churchill to newsreels of World Wars and classical music clips. My first day on the site—yes, I’ve gone back many days since—I must have downloaded 15GB of video. Since I don’t currently have a project-based need, it’s been pure entertainment for me. I’ve also enjoyed checking out some of the sample videos into which people (far more creative than I) have incorporated these free gems. To get started, you just need to set up a free account, and soon you’ll be downloading historical photos and videos and gawking at history for days on end. Or, so I hear.

Erica Gamet has been involved in the graphics industry for over 35 years. She is a speaker, writer, trainer, and content creator focusing on Adobe InDesign, Apple Keynote, and varied production topics. She is a regular presenter at CreativePro Week, regular contributor to CreativePro Magazine, and has spoken at Canada’s ebookcraft, Adobe MAX, and Making Design in Oslo, Norway. Find Erica online at the CreativePro YouTube channel, CreativeLive.com and through her own YouTube channel. When she isn’t at her computer she’s probably daydreaming about travel or living in a Nordic noir landscape.

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  • Robert63 says:

    Bogus article. Sure, you can grab some free images, but only after exhaustive digging through pay to use content. What a waste of time.

    • Erica Gamet says:

      Robert-The site has a search box for searching just within the Public Domain Project. Also, you can check “Public Domain Only” in the search criteria in the left-hand column. Either approach will only show you the no-cost, public domain results. Hope that helps.

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