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What is brand illustration?

When you think of all the things that bring your visual brand together to form a cohesive and consistent way to communicate what you do, who you are and what you stand for – there’s a lot to consider.

Your visual brand is not just your logo and is communicated through colour, style and sometimes even illustrative elements that help tell your story or speak further about your business offering and provides a unique opportunity to express brand value.

Brand illustrations are a suite of drawings that share a cohesive style that clarifies your visual brand’s promise. They allow for ideas or concepts to be viewed and understood, when they may be otherwise difficult to explain in words. It’s a powerful way to enrich a brand’s visual language, humanise a brand and say more than a logo, colour palette, typeface or words. Illustration is an increasingly effective approach to bring life, energy, and emotion to your overall brand message, while educating your customer about what it is you do or can offer to them.

If you’re considering the inclusion of illustration in your brand strategy, here are some points to consider when brainstorming your ideas and working with your illustrator and graphic designer:

What is your brand promise?

It’s not enough to know what you offer your customers and what kind of customers you want to attract to your business. To know your promise, is to know what sets you apart from your competitors. Ask yourself how you would like people to feel when they interact with your product or service. How do you want to be perceived? What is the one key benefit that you offer to your clients (time or money saved, peace of mind, connection with others?). Is there a system or process in your business that your audience could better understand?

Tell your story

Before any illustration can start, you need to have a strong idea of what you want your illustrations to say or highlight to your audience. If you don’t know what you want to say, chances are that your audience won’t know either. Discuss your ideas with your illustrator/graphic designer and work together on your message and what you want your audience to understand about your business.

Where will your illustrations be used?

It’s important to thinking about where you would like your brand illustrations to feature. Are you considering using illustrations in place of photography on your website? Will the illustrations feature on printed collateral. Do you need illustrations to act as icons or full width page images? Your brand illustrations should aim to have a style that makes them memorable and be flexible for use alongside text, photography, and other graphic elements without overpowering or confusing the message being presented.

Lead time

Your illustrator/graphic designer will need time to research and sketch out ideas that reflect an in-depth creative briefing discussion. Try to give your illustrator/graphic designer between 4-6 weeks to really sink their teeth into your project. You will not regret it.

If you are considering the development of brand illustrations for your business, you are welcome to get in touch to chat about how your business could better tell its brand story through well-crafted, unique illustrations.