People respond to images. Imagery can move us, encourage us to act, amaze us and evoke strong emotions. In business, using images in the right way can positively impact a message, build trust, improve credibility and influence how people interact with the business. However, some images are so overused, so cliché, that they’ve lost their meaning. They’re dull. Too literal. People tend to block them out. In web design, these images serve little purpose except to fill up white space on a page.

With services like iStockPhoto and Veer, website designers have enough beautiful and unique stock images to last an entire career. Yet we all will find ourselves falling into a stock photography rut from time to time.

If you find yourself using these and similar images, maybe it’s time to get out of the box and look for new and more inspiring ways to incorporate visuals into your designs.

The Handshake		Happy Business People
Seedlings		Globe
Eye Closeup		Lightbulbs
Superhero Kids

More on this topic:  3 Ways to Spice Up your Web Design Imagery: Discusses ways to move away from the expected and add more spark to your designs.

What’s missing from this list? Please share other cliché images often used in website design.