Kineo Australia

CompFight – Creative Commons friendly Flickr search

Compfight is a photo search tool that lets you quickly search through Flickr photos for “comps, inspiration or research”.

Compfight was developed by advertising art directors, looking for a quick, easy way to quickly search for images to use for comps.

Compfight results can be used to make fake advertisements, storyboards, idea templates etc. that an agency uses to demonstrate visual concepts, or add to internal presentations. If the comp is approved, the agency traditionally purchases similar stock photography or commissions a shoot.

Creative Commons licensing allows for different types of non-commercial and commercial usage, typically in exchange for a credit and link back to the photographer. More details on Creative Commons licenses here.

Kineo use Compfight to source photos to use in client presentations, and to illustrate concepts on this blog.

Idea: I’d like to see a micropayment/licensing system rolled into Compfight, to facilitate tip-style payments for comp stock or even purchase high-quality originals.
iStockphoto.com really perfected this concept, and integrating crowdsourced content with micropayments on a network as diverse as Flickr would be an exciting addition for photo-lovers, users and abusers everywhere.