Illustration

Dave Clark Services Illustrating for a digital environment

Illustrating for a digital environment

The digital environment provides new opportunities and considerations for brands and businesses when using illustration. In today's competitive digital age, if you're not using illustration to engage your audience, you're missing out.

This page will provide an overview of the best practices and strategies to keep in mind when incorporating illustrations into a digital campaign or product.

Some important things to consider are:

  • What is the purpose of the illustration?
  • How will it be used?
  • Who is the target audience?
  • What message are you trying to communicate?
  • What tone do you want to set?

Once you have answers to these questions, you can start to develop a style that will resonate with your audience. If you're not sure where to start, our team of experts can help guide you in the right direction.

Contents

Best practices for approaching digital-based illustration

Digital-based illustration involves creating vector-based illustrations that can be resized without losing quality. This type of illustration is perfect for use on websites, social media, and other digital platforms.

When creating digital-based illustrations, there are a few best practices to keep in mind:

1. Keep it simple - complex illustrations can be difficult to resize and can often lose detail when scaled down.

2. Use bright and bold colours - these will help your illustrations stand out on screen.

3. Use clean lines and shapes - again, this will help with resizing and ensure that your illustrations look sharp on all devices.

4. Think about animation - adding animation to your illustrations can help bring them to life and make them more engaging for your audience.

5. Consider interactivity - making your illustrations interactive can add an extra layer of engagement for your audience.

6. Think about the user experience - how will your illustrations be used? Will they be clickable? Will they be part of a larger interaction? Make sure to keep the user experience in mind when creating your illustrations.

7. Test, test, test - it's always important to test your illustrations before you launch them. Make sure to view them on all devices and in all browsers to ensure that they look and function as intended.

Crafting illustrations consistent with your brand language

Your brand's language is the overall tone, style, and voice that you use to communicate with your audience.

When creating illustrations for a digital environment, it's key that they are consistent with your brand's language. This means using similar colours, styles, and fonts that are already being used in your other marketing materials.

It's also important to make sure that your illustrations are on brand in terms of the message you're trying to communicate. If your brand is known for being fun and quirky, make sure that your illustrations reflect that. Conversely, if your brand is more serious or traditional, make sure that your illustrations are in line with that.

The bottom line is that your illustrations should be an extension of your brand and should be consistent with the overall tone and style that you've established.

Z Coffee

We helped Z with illustration

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Why planning and design systems are critical before getting started

Design systems like Sketch or Figma are critical for creating digital illustrations because they allow you to create vector-based illustrations that can be resized without losing quality.

Additionally, design systems provide a variety of templates and tools that can help simplify the illustration process. For example, Sketch comes with a number of built-in templates that can be used for common illustrations, such as website headers or social media posts.

It's vital that you incorporate planning into your pre-illustration process in order to ensure that your illustrations are on brand and consistent with your overall marketing strategy.

By taking the time to develop a style guide and establish a clear set of guidelines, you can avoid potential problems down the road and ensure that your illustrations are aligned with your brand's goals.

Examples of digital illustrations that can help the user experience

You can use digital illustrations in a number of ways to improve the user experience.

Here are a few examples:

1. As part of an instructional diagram or flowchart

2. To add visual interest to an otherwise bland page

3. To explain a complex concept in a simple and visually appealing way

4. To guide the user's eye to important information, like a call-to-action

5. To add personality to a website or app

6. To increase the overall engagement of a website or app

Digital illustrations can be a great way to improve the user experience on your website or app. When used properly, they can help guide users through complex concepts, add visual interest to plain pages, and increase engagement.

When creating digital illustrations, it's important to keep the user experience in mind and design accordingly. By taking the time to plan and design with the user experience in mind, you can create illustrations that will have a positive impact on your customer's experience.

Communicating complex ideas through smart illustration strategies

Complex ideas can be difficult to communicate, but smart illustration strategies can help make them more understandable. When illustrating complex ideas, it's important to use clear and concise visuals that are easy to understand.

Additionally, you can use different styles of illustrations to communicate different aspects of the same concept. For example, you could use a more realistic style to depict the physical aspects of the concept, and a more abstract style to depict the more intangible aspects.

Finally, it's important to remember that not everyone will understand the concept in the same way. As such, it's important to provide different levels of detail in your illustrations so that people can take away what they need from them.

By using clear and concise visuals, you can communicate complex ideas in a way that is easy for people to understand. Additionally, by providing different levels of detail, you can make sure that everyone who sees your illustrations can take away something from them.

When creating digital illustrations, keep these tips in mind to ensure that your illustrations are effective in communicating your message.

Ready to get started with digital illustration asset design? Dave Clark is here to help. We offer a wide range of design services, including digital illustration, to help businesses create high-quality visuals that communicate their message clearly and effectively.

 

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