How to Create Your Own Illustration System: Step 1 Getting Inspired
I have been devoting my visual design expertise to the UX field for almost a year and a half now. The funny thing is, I have never considered myself as someone who creates something that is “as creative as it gets” so to speak. Although I love avant-garde art, photography, filming and also fashion, I do not consider myself a visual professional, since I never received formal education or training. In fact, I stumbled into visual design during my first internship out of college. However, now that I have accidentally become a Visual Designer (with the future goal of becoming a Product Designer), I have started to seriously evaluate the importance of visual elements in products and branding in creating an illustration system.
What I’ve discovered works well for me in creating an illustration system or illustration language, is to break down the process into two parts: 1) getting inspired and 2) creating the framework. I’ve broken down this article into a 2-part series where I will first discuss how to get inspired in this article. Then in a second article (part 2), I will talk about how to create a strong visual system for your illustrations so they all look like they are part of the same visual family.
Step 1: Getting inspired
Some people may remember the illustration of the Japanese juice brand Qoo:
I was so mesmerized by this illustration when I was a kid. The water drop elf and usually overheated environment were images I could always relate to. I thought about it when I woke up in a summer morning, thought about it when I was swimming and thought about it when I was doing chores. It reminded me of cool, ice and sweet juice after sweating — — Qoo juice. The style and delight were unmistakable and essential in Qoo’s brand message. In many ways, those goofy advertisements are the precursors for today’s rapidly growing world of branding.
Why is illustration important to a brand?
Micah Bowers answers this question well in his article on visualizing brand narratives. Below is an excerpt from one of his articles that really rings true for me as an illustrator.
Illustration has the ability to reimagine reality in a way that is familiar yet delightfully uncommon, which makes it particularly useful when an idea is difficult to explain. It’s a powerful way to cut through distractions and relate complex emotions quickly. But why design a system of brand illustrations? Why not create individual images as needed, each with its own distinct style?
The first answer is language. An illustration system is a way to enrich a brand’s visual language and say more nuanced things that a logo, color scheme, typeface, or even words cannot convey alone.
The second answer is consistency. Consistent branding (i.e., promise making) creates expectations for a business to meet, and people reward met expectations with loyalty.
A brand illustration system gives a business the ability to unfold its brand story with consistency on multiple platforms (web, print, social, etc).
— Brand Illustration 101: Visualizing the Narrative, Micah Bowers, Designer
How do I get inspired?
It’s nice to have your team trust you with a white canvas, but it is also freaking hard at first! At first, I was not always sure about every decision. Almost every choice I made at first felt imperfect and uneasy, but you have to start somewhere. One good way to become inspired, so you can understand which choices to make in your illustrations, is by taking a look at how other people are doing it.
SLACK
Slack is an online “platform that connects teams with the apps, services, and resources they need to get work done.” Alice Lee is a super talented illustrator, who is responsible for all of Slack’s iconic onboarding illustrations that are informational and propagandistic. These illustrations not only lighten the mood of first time users by catching their eyes, but also cleverly highlights how Slack works— showing people holding information of what the app does. In her portfolio, she explained how to create style and voice behind the illustration system.
ATLASSIAN
Atlassian is an Australian enterprise software company that “develops products for software developers, project managers, and content management.” Illustrators at Atlassian have been really busy. Everywhere there is a page, there is illustration, not necessarily hero shots. Just like the written word, illustrations exist to tell stories and thoughtfully convey ideas — they should not be used as decoration or without consideration. They have principles of what they want to convey to their users: “Be bold”, “Be optimistic”, “Be practical but with a wink”. Illustration system can really help to keep consistent of these concepts.
DROPBOX
Dropbox is a file hosting service that provides: cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and client software. They have my most favorite illustrations. I like the abstract idea they’ve included in their illustrations, almost like we can be those goofy figures that never have trouble accessing or managing our files.
It is important to create the whole impression through building a system from the ground up.
Above are examples of three companies I admire and look to for inspiration because they all have different approaches to their visual language. But they are also all consistent systems within their own visual language and branding.
The devil is in the details
In the second part of this series, I will go into detail on how to build your own illustration system. However, before you move on to part 2, start paying attention to which types of illustrations grab your attention and catch your eye. Then, start taking mental notes of which details stand out for you. Perhaps even keep a journal of which illustrations inspire you and why. This will help you when you read part 2 of this series.
That’s it for now, have fun!
