Build Illustration Systems.
I had seen the concept of illustration systems from Pablo Stanley I think. And we quickly adopted it. Since that day almost every illustration project we've done has been built on some type of system. These illustration systems enabled us and our client's internal teams to quickly spin up new compositions and graphics without having to do any new work.
Illustrations are popular nowadays and for the same reason I mentioned above. In addition to that, they are versatile and accessible. There are a ton of free ones that you can easily download online. One of the most popular ones is openpeeps. If you're building for the African audience we also developed an open-source collection primarily for the African audience called Famili
With that said, if you're ever going to create something custom for your brand, there are a few things you should consider.
Context and audience; Similar to icons illustrations are abstract. They draw their meaning from real-life objects. For this reason, you need to ensure that you draw inspiration from the environment of your audience. This will make it easier for them to understand the illustration.
Style; The point about style is also tied to the first point on context and reference. But I wanted to call it out specifically because this is where most illustration projects drop the ball. They seem to want to look cool. Whiles, there's nothing wrong with that, you have to ensure that the style you settle on is relevant to the industry and your audience. A new brand targeting a younger audience may be able to understand exaggerated styles and abstract forms (Bezo money example). A more mature business targeting an older audience may need to use a more serious, close to real-life, human form style.
Versatility; There's no point in creating illustrations if you can't grow and scale with your business. Unless you have a dedicated illustrator on your team or you have an illustration agency on retainer, you need to consider building a system. This will enable you and your team quickly spin up new illustrations.
Illustrations can be a powerful component of a brand's communication arsenal. But they need to be done properly.
I may do a part two taking a deep dive into the different types of illustrations and doing a breakdown of what your system should include. Let me know in the comment section if you'd like to see more of that.
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