/ Project Handbook

Purchasing Things for Partner Projects

General

  • As always, if there are special circumstances, these guidelines are flexible. Start a discussion with your Team Lead in Slack, then loop in the Division Lead for spend approval.
  • We use Ramp (███████████████) for team or client expenses. Please work with Ops or your Team Lead to submit a request for a virtual Ramp card under our team spend program (███████████████). The request will go to Accounting for approval. Once approved, you will receive a notification via e-mail, along with the card details. After a successful transaction, please upload the invoice to Ramp.
  • When you purchase something with Ramp or through any other means, make sure you post an “About our use of…” post (███████████████) and add the purchase to the team’s expenses spreadsheet (███████████████).

Plugins

  • We prefer Automattic-owned or free plugins wherever possible.
  • We can comp any Automattic-owned plugin (like Sensei pro plugins, WooCommerce plugins, etc). ███████████████.
  • If we use a free plugin, we need to have a TAM and developer review it and approve it for security. We also have a list of pre-approved plugins (███████████████). Things we typically inspect:
    • Cost, including yearly recurring cost
    • Security
    • Annoyingness factor – How much does the plugin spam wp-admin for upsells, etc?
  • Does it make sense to create a custom solution instead? (Timeline, team availability, etc).
  • If there is a third party plugin that our team recommends, we could pay for it. Post a summary of the above steps in a P2 comment on the project and tag your team lead for approval.
  • If the partner requests a paid third-party plugin, we should still review it for security, suitability, and other factors that might impact their WordPress experience.

Third Party Services

Third party services (Google APIs, Algolia search, AWS, etc.) are typically covered by partners. If a feature the partner requests depends upon an external API or service, make sure you discuss this with them before proceeding with development, and add it to the project brief.

Photography

Sometimes we need stock photography for partner sites.

We definitely prefer free photos if they have what we need, but if you need something specific that is becoming prohibitively time consuming to find and there is a paid version that will work well, post your findings (needs + cost) in a P2 comment on the project and tag your team lead for approval.

Photo, Video, Audio, Vector, Icon, and Illustration Resources

There are a variety of websites that can provide quality photos, illustrations, vector art, audio, video, and more for internal use and for our partners. All have excellent search that yields great results. 

Some are free to use, and are also royalty-free. Others are at affordable price points. Many have different Terms of Service (TOS), attribution requirements, and pricing structures that center around non-profit organizations usage, personal usage, and commercial usage, so it’s important to read the TOS documentation on each site.

Items that are for the WordPress Special Project Team exclusively vs. Partner use are at the end of the listing.

No Fee/Royalty-Free Platforms

General Sites with a Broad Focus
  • Openverse by WordPress
    • Photos and Audio
  • Pexels
    • Photos and Videos
  • Pixabay
    • Photos, Illustrations, Vectors, Videos, Music
  • Unsplash
    • Photos
  • Bryan M. Mather’s Visual Thinkery Images
    • Graphics with a Cartoon/Hand Drawn on a variety of topics
  • Wikimedia Commons: Photos, Audio Video 
    • “Wikimedia Commons is a media file repository making available public domain and freely licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips) to everyone…Everyone is allowed to copy, use and modify any files here freely as long as they follow the terms specified by the author; this often means crediting the source and author(s) appropriately and releasing copies/improvements under the same freedom to others. The license conditions of each individual media file can be found on their description page. The Wikimedia Commons database itself and the texts in it are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License”
Genre-Specific Sites that Have a Unique Focus

We Animals Media* Photos and Videos focused on the animal rights, animal conservation, natural preservation, and related industries. The media is free for non-commercial and editorial, with specific attribution required. Be sure to read the licensing page. Paid licenses are required for other types.

*CONTENT WARNING: Please be cautious when searching, as some photos/videos surrounding the meat, fur, and other related activism/industries are quite graphic.  

  • Disability.In 
    • Photos and Illustrations focused on featuring those with a variety of disabilities leading their lives everyday live. The media is available for commercial and non-commercial purposes. Note the attribution requirements when using.
  • Affect the Verb 
    • Photos and Illustrations focused on communities of color and LGBTQ+ community where their membership bisects the disability community. These assets are available for commercial and non-commercial purposes. Note the attribution requirements when using.
  • The Gender Spectrum Collection (sponsored by Vice.com) 
    • Photos that feature “images of trans and non-binary models that go beyond the clichés. This collection aims to help media better represent members of these communities as people not necessarily defined by their gender identities—people with careers, relationships, talents, passions, and home lives.”
  • Queer in Tech (Mapbox)
    • Photos from the staff of Mapbox featuring staff members from Mapbox. Mapbox states, “We’re releasing “Queer in Tech,” a free collection of stock photos created by our employee resources program. We created this photo set to promote the visibility of queer and gender-nonconforming (GNC) people in technology, who are often under-represented as workers powering the creative, technical, and business leadership of groundbreaking tech companies and products.”

Both Free and Paid Plans

General Sites with a Broad Focus
  • Raw Pixel
    • Photos and Illustrations
  • Free Pik
    • Photos, Vectors, PSD 
  • Humaaans 
    • Illustrations with mix and match capability.
  • The Noun Project 
    • Icons and Photos
  • Icons8 
    • Icons, Illustrations, Photos, Music, and Design Tools
  • Canva: Photos, Illustrations, Videos
    • Canva also has drop and drop templates with up-to-date sizing for every form of social media. It is a very user friendly site, ideal for folks without access to photoshop, or who do not have a design background but want to create attractive images. Images can be saved in a variety of formats and quality from high grade print quality to low resolution intended for online.
  • Creative Bloq: Stock Art Listing
    • A master list of  of high-quality graphics, vector, icons and full blown illustrations – all created by talented artists from around the globe
  • AI Face Generator
    • Unique real-time face generator, you can create a unique person with your parameters in one click.

By Subscription Only

General sites with a broad focus
  • 123.rf 
    • Photos, Graphics, Vectors, Audio, Video
  • iStock 
    • Photos, Graphics, Vectors,  Video
  • Getty Images 
    • Editorial Photos, Video, Music, Creative Stock

Many images from public events, red carpets and such, that can be used for editorial purposes only. Note usage requirements.

Genre Specific Sites that have a unique focus
  • Tonal Photos
    • Photos featuring culturally diverse photos of members of the BIOPIC community in their daily lives.

Team Only Photo/Graphics account

The items below are sites where the Special Projects Team has an account, but if a Partner wishes to create their own account that option is available.

  • Flat Icon
    • Vector icons and stickers for your projects. Resources made by and for designers. PNG, SVG, EPS, PSD and BASE 64 formats.

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