David MacMahan, CEO of Fairsplit.com, always excited to tackle a problem, found an artist that was creative and fast at creating illustrations he needed for various topics. Some images had been created for blog posts, videos, presentation decks, etc. that would have relevance for many others. He commissioned him to create additional illustrations others may want to use. Providing this collection of royalty free art to the industry lined up well with FairSplit’s business model of providing online estate listing and sharing tools, also free to the industry and public.
Over the years, David had subscribed to some of the large photo and illustration libraries to have access to images needed. One got him hooked into an unsuspecting long-term contract that kicked in after ninety days of free use. For an entrepreneur on a tight budget, that was simply wasted money, and felt deceptive.
The bigger issue was that one could search for hours on those sights and still only find marginally suitable images or illustrations, and most were dated looking. If usable art was found, it was hard to ascertain what constituted full unlimited use for one’s website, marketing materials, videos, etc.