In a double whammy for the Australian creative industry, iStockphoto announced back in August that Australian designer, Anthony McGovern won the design of the year in its second annual international Punctum Day awards competition and that Australian photographer, Amanda Rohde, was inducted into the iStockphoto Hall of Fame. Rohde is one of the leading iStock photographers, whose images have been downloaded more than 400.000 times.

The 50 finalists for five of the categories were selected from over one million international photos, vectors, videos, Flash files and design submissions newly uploaded in the last year. Anthony is one of ten winners of the Punctum Day awards.

The finalists were short listed by the three and a half million-strong global iStock community and a panel of guest judges selected the winners, who hail from seven different countries.

"It is a great honour to be nominated in the top 10 designs for the year and very humbling to be chosen as the best," said Anthony McGovern, Atomic Designs. I was blown away as there are hundreds of entries.

"Having a royalty free creative community like iStock, where design, photography, illustration and video artists, and flash programmers, can go to show their work, is a vital resource to everyone," said McGoverrn.

Each of the Punctum Day awards category winners will each receive $5,000 USD, with the exception of the winner of 'Most Deserving of a New Camera' award, who receives a Canon EOS 5D with lenses valued at $5,000.

'Punctum' refers to a profound reaction an excellent image creates. The moment an image arrests your attention, triggering a strong emotional reaction — that's punctum, says the late philosopher Roland Barthes.

Punctum Day, August 19, was declared in 2007 by iStockphoto as a special day to celebrate creative excellence. The day holds dual significance for iStock because it was August 19, 1839, that Louis Daguerre first introduced an early type of photograph, the Daguerreotype, to the world.

The winning contributors included:

• Photo of the Year: Trent Bell (TrentBell) of the US with Late Trash
• Design of the Year: Anthony McGovern (Atomic77) of Australia with Adobe Online eSeminars.
• Vector of the Year: Bekir Gürgen (begur) of Turkey with cat and child.
• Video of the Year: Tomasz Dega (creativeballs) of Poland with party teddys.
• Flash File of the Year: Alexandra Mikhnevich (Mahno) of Russia with Miracle of makeup.
• Most Deserving of a New Camera: Danish Khan (danishkhan) of Pakistan.
• Most Improved Contributor of the Year: Ronnie Sampson (viridian1) of US.

Hall of Fame:

August 25th also marked a significant day for Australian iStockphoto contributor, Amanda Rohde – screen name Hidesy – as she was inducted into the iStockphoto Hall of Fame.

The reason 'Hidesy' has been included in the iStock Hall of Fame is all around people. No matter what city or country they live in, Amanda's images are probably on one of their favourite restaurant menus or on their local bus shelter's billboard. Amanda captures the essence of the Australian sunshine perfectly.

'Hidesy' is the blueprint of iStock success. A self-taught photographer who, through trial and error changed the way the world looks. She made it brighter, crisper and sexier. She’s an inspiration to tens of thousands of photographers.

iStockphoto's Hall of Fame was introduced in 2007 and Lise Gagné was the first inductee for her loyalty and amazing feat of securing 500,000 downloads. Hall of Famers are members who have left an indelible stamp on the history of iStock.