How to boost your brand or product using illustration
Is your brand looking bland or are you guilty of relying on lacklustre stock imagery to showcase your product?
Illustration could be the missing factor that is preventing you from getting noticed by potential customers.
Stop wasting time on confusing text and uninspiring imagery! It’s time to explore the impact great illustration can have on your audience acquisition, customer engagement and future profits.
The three super powers of illustration
Images can communicate a lot of information in just a few seconds. Here’s how illustration can showcase your brand, product or mission to potential customers quickly.
Pictures say a thousand words - Illustration can visually explain complex concepts and make them easier to understand.
Help capture memories - Anytime we try and bear something in mind, our brain creates a picture. It’s a lot easier to recollect illustrations than plain text, so if you want potential customers to remember you, try targeting them with imagery.
Tie together brand and design - Illustration can express your brand values as well as tone of voice in a single cohesive visual language.
However, it is easy to fall into the trap of having images purely for decoration, so before you start using illustration for your business or product, you must first define its purpose.
This guide will help you see how illustration can enhance your marketing assets and where your product can use illustration to help your messaging or brand get noticed.
Product vs Marketing illustration
What’s the difference?
The main goal of product illustration is to make the user’s journey as smooth as possible. It is used to signpost, ease pain points and, depending on the brand, it can be used to spark joy.
Illustrations can also make users understand your product and mitigate frustration, keeping their attention and increasing usability.
Product illustration is handy…
When the accompanying text is hard to read and understand
When users need to know what to do next
When onboarding users
When a user has reached a goal and you want to congratulate them
When a user is confused or frustrated
How to use illustration to market your product or service
In marketing illustration, the aim is to tell the story of the brand and of the product in a consistent language.
You can bridge the gap between for example, screenshots of a dashboard and what value that dashboard serves to the customer.
Illustration is useful when attention spans are short and you want key messaging to be delivered and remembered, it’s easier to have a visual aid.
Your marketing illustrations may have some overlap with your product because they are solving similar problems.
Marketing illustration is perfect when…
When the accompanying text is harder to read and understand
When customers need to know what to do
When you want to highlight key information
When you’re explaining or selling services/features that are abstract
Different types of illustration
There are three main categories of illustration: icons, spot and scene illustrations.
Each category serves different purposes. It’s best to consider the goal of using illustration in any particular instance and choose the right category to achieve optimal storytelling.
Icons
Illustrated icons are not to be confused with UI icons but should be designed with the UI icons in mind.
Illustrated icons can be used to highlight certain features in product like creating a new group to make it easier to navigate, and celebrating when the user completes an action. In marketing it can be to emphasise a point or benefit.
Spot illustrations
Spot illustrations can be straightforward or use a simple visual metaphor to highlight and emphasise a particular point or benefit.
They should be one level higher in detail to icons but not as complex as a scene illustration.
Scene illustrations
Scene illustrations are more complex and can be used to tell a more detailed story. For example, scene illustrations are very handy for landing pages or for marketing campaigns as they lend themselves to creating an atmosphere and compelling narrative.
Want to enhance your brand or product with illustration? Let’s chat!
