Illustrations aren’t just for children’s books and cereal boxes anymore. Businesses all across the web are realizing the power of illustration and putting it to work for their own brands. Successful web illustrator, and influencer of the modern brand illustration movement, Alice Lee observes: The landscape of tech illustration has gone through exciting changes in the last few years. We think that’s a bit of an understatement. Well-known businesses like Slack, MailChimp, Headspace, Airbnb, Basecamp, Dropbox, Salesforce and more have embraced custom illustrations throughout their marketing and branding – and not just for logo design. As a result, their brands have become more visually unique and distinct from their competition. But, brand illustrations aren’t just for big tech businesses. They’re a great way for any business to develop a unique, flexible, affordable, and scalable visual brand. And agencies – as experts in marketing, design, and branding – should be on the front line of this growing movement. Do you know why illustrations are such powerful branding tools? Do you know how illustrations can be best put to use to help your clients? You should. What’s So Great About Illustrations? Illustrations are experiencing a resurgence in popularity for good reason. The most basic explanation is that humans are visual creatures who respond well to interesting visual stimuli. There are oodles of statistics showing how popular visual content is online. People like pictures more than words. But, now let’s focus on what makes illustrations such an effective visual medium… Illustrations can depict whatever content, and in whatever artistic style, you can imagine. Though Photoshop has freed photos from the limited realm of reality, they still can’t match illustrations for the sheer variety of distinctive visual styles that can be achieved. Custom illustrations can communicate hard-to-understand concepts very quickly. This is incredibly useful for businesses introducing new products or complex services (which may be why tech businesses have jumped onto the illustration train so wholeheartedly). Illustrations can capture and communicate emotion very effectively. Considering 95% of purchases are driven by emotion, that makes illustrations a very powerful sales tool. When used consistently throughout a visual brand, custom illustrations (or a brand illustration system) establish a unique, memorable, and easily-recognized visual identity for a business. Where Do Illustrations Fit Into Your Agency? Illustrations are infinitely flexible branding and communications tools. They can serve your clients in a variety of ways. It’s up to your team to recognize the opportunities in each individual client’s unique needs. But, here are a few scenarios to get you started… Illustrations can remove roadblocks When your clients are struggling with a weak brand or brand identity, poorly articulated value, or a failure to clearly communicate what their product or service actually does, that makes it harder for you to help them thrive. Your clients are expecting you to help them increase sales. But, the issues described above are obstacles preventing your agency from accomplishing its maximum impact. Smartly designed illustrations can solve each of those problems – while helping clients..
↧