5 minute read | Looking at some practical ways illustration could be a more flexible asset for you

The second in a series of follow up posts themed around ‘The Trouble With Illustration…’ aimed at tackling some of the key barriers that might prevent you from taking a bespoke illustration approach for your organisation’s marketing or communications materials. Read the initial article here.

So, you like the idea of illustration, but the possible lack of flexibility is a concern.

You can imagine that IF you were to commission an illustration for your organisation, it would be just one (or a series) of images that you could share on your website, social media and communications. It would be exciting to share once or for a short time, but it’s really just another item of content and soon you’d want something new, right?

OR perhaps for you it’s more about wanting flexibility in the way you use illustrations across your various documents, materials, presentations etc

“...the difficulty in changing or adapting things at pace is an issue. For key visuals I like them in all colour ways, available in layers for animation, able to change text easily, etc. Often this needs doing for a proposal within hours. Illustration is often frustrating within these constraints.”
- Bryony Thomas, Founder, Watertight Marketing

Now, I can’t make an illustration be something that you commission once and then it magically morphs to be the solution for multiple problems - Flexibility in that way is unrealistic - and the same for other visual mediums, a photo for example - it is what it is…

BUT I can suggest some ways that an illustration can become more usable and adaptive for different purposes (*assuming that’s within the agreed usage/licence agreement you have with your illustrator)

5 Practical Ways Illustration Can Be Made More Flexible...

1. Plan flexibility in from the start

Consider how and where you want to be able to use any commissioned illustrations and discuss this with your illustrator, at the initial briefing stage. If they’re aware of ALL the required outputs this can be kept in mind when creating the illustrations, to ensure the artwork is adaptable (or that there’s a plan for working up different sizes/shapes/variations)

2. A kit of parts

Creating a set of illustrations is often better than having just one or two, and means that you have flexibility in what can be applied where, adding variety to what you can share. A kit of parts can originate from different types of illustrations…

• A large, overarching illustration or scene?
Having 1 key illustration may be a great way to showcase your organisation or process as a whole, but it can sometimes feel a bit unwieldy - There might be lots of interesting details, or aspects that relate to specific ideas/parts of your process - in which case there could easily be a series of details/crops derived from that - offering the possibility of a variety of images, rather than just one

• A small set of illustrations, which work together as a nice group?
To convey different ideas/messages ...all with a coherent visual voice

• An inter-changeable set of illustrative icons which denote your brand or specific aspects of it
It may be appropriate to create some kind of modular system..?

• Variations of the same illustration, to fit with different products/services?
Different colour-ways, for example

KIT OF PARTS EXAMPLE: 1 Main illustration, with key elements extracted and made into a set of standalone badges/icons to be used independently

3. A master illustration, from which to create all other versions

This is more of a technical one, and probably more than you need to know, but I thought useful to help you understand how different versions of the same illustration are created.

An illustrator’s consideration of how to create artwork in the first place can sometimes save themselves work when it comes to saving out different artwork versions, and therefore the potential of additional artwork costs for you later...

Some key artwork points:
• The master version of an illustration should be created wide enough to accommodate all the required crops and image sizes (this is why it’s important the illustrator knows all the versions you’ll need)

• Generally it’s wise to avoid close-cropped elements (an object cut in half, for example) as the key illustration from which to generate other formats - this can be a big limitation if you need to create wider format images, or want to position the illustration in different contexts.

• Where illustrations are single, stand alone concepts, often it makes sense to keep the main illustration content centrally, so that the edges of the image can be cropped or extended more easily

• If an illustration is created as vector artwork, this means it is infinitely scalable, without loss of resolution. This makes for great flexibility if you’re not sure how you might want to use the illustration in the future. (Large scale exhibition panels perhaps…?)

(It’s not usual that you would be supplied with a master illustration, this is simply what the illustrator would use to create the final artwork you need.)

A simple example to show what I mean about creating artwork which will accommodate the different sizes/crops required.
In this instance it was fairly straight forward as only 2 sizes needed.

4. Freedom to use the illustration on different backgrounds?

Depending on the illustration, sometimes it’s possible to supply the artwork with a transparent background - PNG’s are great for this.

A transparent background makes it easy for you to be able to drop illustration elements/icons etc on different colour backgrounds, and for there not to be an issue with visible edges when you want to be able to extend the background to cover a bigger area - ideal for presentations/proposals etc

NOTE: Consideration should be given to any guidance given by the illustrator on advised background colours, or your brand guidelines. ( Just because the illustration can go on any colour background, doesn’t necessarily mean it should..!)

5. Managing Flexibility

The downside of flexibility is that it can often equate to confusion, through being supplied with LOADS of different files/versions! ….What on earth do you use where?

It’s important that any supplied artwork is applied and appears as intended, otherwise it could reflect badly on your brand, and to be perfectly honest, just look a mess!

No disrespect meant here, but I’m specifically thinking of presentations and proposal documents…

The classic Spiderman quote comes to mind…(!)

‘With great power comes great responsibility ‘
- Uncle Ben, to Peter Parker

If you’d like to be able to use the illustrations in a variety of ways your illustrator should offer some guidance on this. I would suggest that if you’re not sure, it’s best to ask...

Depending on the project, it could be as simple as them signposting different folders of images for different purposes, OR it could be that specific instructions or ‘rules’ would be useful for you - an ‘Illustration Guide’, outlining how the supplied illustrations should be incorporated into layouts and documents etc

Such a guide would likely be an additional option, akin to brand guidelines, but relating specifically to the use of your illustrations.

Round Up

Flexibility is a difficult one, and to a certain extent depends on the project. The nature of an illustration is that it is a physical thing (even if digital), created for a specific purpose - HOWEVER, although there may be limitations, there is often scope to build in some flexibility.

If planned in from the start, flexibility can be achieved, and the bottom line is that a set of bespoke, illustrative assets that is unique to your organisation can be a highly effective way to engage and communicate with your audience… whilst at the same time becoming instantly recognisable and synonymous with your brand.

These are the takeaways:

Be clear on all the ways you’d like to use the illustrations - website, social media platforms, presentations ..etc, and discuss these with your illustrator
Consider how a kit of parts could work for you - are there a range of different ideas you’d like to convey, or perhaps one key message in a number of different ways? Any other specifics in terms of different variations?
Feel confident in knowing how and where to use the relevant supplied artwork, or ask for guidance from whoever created the illustrations.

As always, I’d be interested to hear if you have any thoughts or questions relating to this post, so do feel free to email me if you’d like to get in touch.

NEXT UP…

I’ll be looking at the problem of commissioning an illustrator and then possibly ‘Feeling trapped and reliant on one illustration, or that one illustrator’

…. If this sounds of interest, keep an eye on my website or sign up to my newsletter to be kept in the loop.

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