How to strengthen your brand with an illustration language

Because illustrations are a powerful tool to deliver messages of all kinds, they are widely used. But many brands face the same problem: they don’t have a defined illustrations style, and the resulting design inconsistency belittles the brand experience. The solution? An illustration language. This is how it works.

The power of illustrations

Most of the brands and companies of today could not communicate effectively if it weren’t with Illustrations. They are a key part of brand identity and represent its values. They find their ways into people’s hearts and connect minds with products. Especially tech companies use illustrations as a major brand identification tool. One reason: you can’t shoot nice photos of non-materialistic products like software, strategy or services. So major brands like Youtube, Dropbox, AirBnB or Mailchimp show, how illustrations act as the emotional connection between users, product and brand.

Why a systematic approach is vital

Illustrations need to meet the same criteria as text, photos and design: The need to consistently represent the brand. So what’s the tone of voice for a brands’ copywriter is the illustration language for illustrations. Without this language, there will be one kind of illustration in that presentation and another one in this product leaflet. This inconsistency confuses customers.

An illustration language systematically follows a certain set of rules that represent the idea of the brand. The result is a toolkit on how to create and use brand illustrations in general. It could be a whole asset library with different objects, scenes and formats, to use it in any medium. Or it’s just a set of rules that guides in-house designers or external agencies in the creation process.

The benefits of such systemized creativity are:

• Modularity within the visual assets allow for flexibility and overall efficiency
• The consistent language strengthens the brand
• You can visualize almost everything in an emotionally accessible manner

But the best illustration language is a waste of time if the implementation goes wrong. How to do it right? Read our full article on sapera.com.