Last updated on February 2nd, 2023
Illustration has suddenly emerged up everywhere across online and offline platforms. Right from websites to advertising to a variety of designs, illustration is today dominating the marketing art forms. This has brought illustrators to the center stage and brands are hiring them as part of the marketing team. In this post, find out why brands are desperately looking for illustrators to run their marketing campaigns.
Visual marketing is becoming useful and popular by each passing day. This is because brands have resorted to storytelling as a tool to convince the target audience and win their trust. People remember visuals more than lengthy text messages such as blogs.
Another reason for the popularity of visuals for marketing is that everyone today wants the content to go viral. They want to grab people’s attention quickly and then keep the audience.
Many growth hacks have emerged up based on visuals. It is now an established fact that visuals such as infographics, videos, and content featuring images perform consistently well as compared to plain text-only content.
Therefore, smart businesses are exploring custom illustrations to catch the attention of their audience.
In fact, big brands across all industries have made illustrations as part of their branding strategy. Illustration has helped them rediscover their brand image. They look for an illustrator who can assist in giving a boost to their brand personality.
Various studies have pointed out that people do not respond much to the information that marketers usually show. Only 10% of them remember the information. But, when the information comes with visuals, the engagement jumps up to 65%.
Big Brands Using Illustration
Do you remember those old Red Bull advertisements that gave wings to the energy drinks consumers?
Those were perhaps the first serious and successful attempts in using illustration as a tool to build brand image and convey a message. These days, almost all big companies use illustrations to enhance and redefine their brand.
Amongst big companies using illustrations are Google, whose Doodles we see frequently. It has made illustrations part of its many other products.
Facebook also explores a combination of animation and illustration. Oracle’s home page uses an illustration that has links to its blogs, which also has illustrations.
Microsoft uses illustrations on their startup’s page, account page, and support site.
Shopify has it on their Twitter page and blogs. Facebook has illustrations used in their recruiting portal. LinkedIn’s front page is loaded with illustrations, and even its 404 page has it. Other major brands using illustrations include Sumo Logic, Gusto, and Huawei.
So, what is Illustration?
We can define illustration as a way to visually interpret a process, text, or concept. The main idea behind the illustration is to give information in an engaging and entertaining way. Mostly, the information is from other sources. Viewers can understand the issue or imagine it when they see those illustration figures.
For this reason, illustration has found its place in newspapers, magazines, books, flyers, posters, and educational materials. Now, it also is prominently being used in video production and cartoons. Thanks to the new technologies that illustrations are now increasingly seen across all digital platforms.
What are the different types of illustrations?
There are many types of illustrations in circulation today and businesses can pick them as per their brand identities and other requirements.
Here Are The Main Categories Of Illustrations
1. Traditional Illustration Types
- Pencil illustration
- Pen and Ink illustrations
- Collage illustrations
- Watercolor illustrations
- Woodcutting
- Metal Etching
- Charcoal illustrations
- Lithography
- Gouache illustrations
- Acrylics illustrations
2. Modern Illustration Types
- Freehand digital illustrations
- Vector graphics
How Businesses Use Illustrations?
Businesses are using illustrations in so many different ways these days. They have found illustrations as useful tools of engagement and building a relationship with customers.
01. Websites
Most companies extensively incorporate illustrations on their websites. Companies are making icons and different graphics in illustrations throughout their websites.
02. Presentations
Illustrations and presentations today go hand in hand. Companies are finding illustration as a great way to entertain the audience while presenting their concepts through boring slides. Their goal is to explain or project a serious concept in an entertaining manner.
03. Email Messages
They even use illustrations in their email messages. When recipients of emails see those beautiful and engaging illustrations, they are instantly drawn toward the message.
Most of them are excited enough to know more about the business. An expert illustrator can surely help you convey your message with an impact.
04. Graphic Design
Brands are also exploring illustrations to make them part of their graphic design visuals. Illustrations can explain an abstract concept to the customers through designs. It can help visualize data. Most importantly, graphic designers use illustration also to tell the story of a brand.
A recent trend is to use illustration as part of the packaging design. That is a great way to attract costumes right when they see a product in its package in a shopping mall.
05. Advertising
Advertisers also are aggressively exploring the benefits of illustrations. Uniquely illustrated figures help grab potential customers’ attention. It also is helpful in communicating otherwise a big idea or complex concepts easily when advertising.
06. Books and Publications
Books and publications are other businesses that are exploring the potential of illustration. Children’s books already had illustrations but now many books with a variety of topics such as geography have illustration figures printed on their covers.
An experienced illustrator creates eye-catching book covers that can tell a story to the buyers. Such book cover illustrations give a hint of what is there in the inner pages of a book. An illustrator can choose a specific style to depict the story.
Why are brands hiring Illustrators?
An increasing number of businesses now think that an illustrator can help them rebuild their marketing strategy.
Here Are Some Of The Major Reasons For Brands Hiring Illustrators
01. Drive Attention To Your Brand
One of the chief features of illustration is that it catches attention instantly. A professional illustrator knows that a unique illustration can emotionally connect a brand with its audience. This is because of the humor quality of illustrations.
As compared to the static and moving conventional photos, illustration has a lot of sense of humor that keeps viewers engaged and interested. So, a professional illustrator can hook your current customers and perspective.
02. Tell A Story
An Illustrator knows how to tell a brand story. They can create engaging figures that make your narrative clear. In case you do a web page design, the illustrator can showcase your brand in an entertaining manner in front of the target audience. Such an informative narrative is essential to communicating with customers.
03. Stand Out From Competitors
Businesses have a lot of competitors these days with the expansion of markets. So, they must stand out to get customers’ attention. This is where a professional illustrator can help.
Since illustration is an art that everyone loves to watch without being stressed out, brands can use it to convey a message. An Illustrator can create unique visuals that help stand apart from competitors. They can create custom illustrations especially to highlight a brand personality.
04. Showcase Your Brand Personality
Illustrators are dependable professional artists when it comes to projecting your brand personality in the way you want. They can depict your brand keeping its values and identity in mind. So, if you deal with children’s toys or other products, illustrators can create characters matching your brand.
If you are in a formal business, they can do some serious illustration as well. Every industry and business has its own unique brand identity, value, and character, which can be represented in illustration figures.
05. Helps Create Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is one thing that most companies are most concerned about. They think of effective tools and ways to spread the word about what they do, and their products or services. Illustrations can help businesses to generate awareness about their brands.
Since illustrations are amongst the most engaging visuals, it encourages people to share these visuals on social media. The impact of such visuals is felt more than other types of visuals.
06. Ensure A Better Response
Your business can also rely on illustrators for better response to brands. A user response matters a lot for business growth.
Such a response is the best way to know if your marketing strategy is working or not. Illustrators know how to create visually impactful illustrations that evoke user response.
07. Educate Your Consumers
Sometimes, companies should educate their customers about the perfect way to use their products or services. Companies are also hiring illustrators to create and insert pieces of educative illustrations in their blogs and news sites. Such illustrations also engage visitors with the content and text body of the blogs.
Illustrations are the most used images that brands are exploring to educate customers. They can learn about the products in a relaxed, comic, and informal manner. This helps brands in establishing a rapport as well with the consumers.
08. Offers Customization
Another reason why brands look for a professional illustrator is that they can help customize illustration as per their brand image. They can create unique illustration styles with a brand’s color scheme.
With such an illustration, a company can confidently go to potential customers with its products or services. This helps a lot in effectively launching a promotional campaign.
09. Affordable Costs
Small businesses need marketing solutions that fall within their limited budgetary reach. An Illustrator can help them create effective branding promotional solutions at a smaller cost.
Illustrations do not require a big marketing budget as a small team of illustrators can create these unique visuals. There is no big infrastructure is required
So, these are the key points to consider about the value of illustrations and why brands are hiring illustrators more. Your business also should pay heed to ways of using illustration to project a trustworthy image amongst the audience.
If you need to create illustrations to rebuild your brand identity, you can outsource the work to Designhill by launching a design contest. This leading creative marketplace has many talented designers and illustrators who will create illustrations and designs as per your brief.
Wrapping Up
The illustration is today as an impactful marketing strategy to promote brands. In this new marketing scenario, illustrators are playing a major role in terms of projecting brand awareness and personality. Business owners now think that an illustrator can help in telling a story effectively. This cost-effective medium is a way to engage your customers without putting them under any stress.