The Trouble With Illustration #03: The ‘Illustration Trap' - How to avoid feeling reliant on one illustrator or one illustration

About a 7 min read | Chock full of insights and some visual examples of brands successfully using the work of different illustrators

The third 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.

If you’re worried about becoming tied in to using one particular illustrator or being limited by the illustration/s you have, I hope the insights listed below might put you at ease and help you look at things a little differently. I believe that mindset is key here.

Firstly the problem…

Before commissioning an illustrator, would any of these be a worry for you..?

1. What if you decide to use an illustrator for something relating to your brand or communications, but it doesn’t go that well? You like their work but they were a nightmare to work with (for whatever reason)... and now you’re tied in with them if you want to maintain a consistent style.
   

2. You have a limited budget and commission an illustrator to do some work for you, with the intention of them possibly creating more in the future. After the first few illustrations are done, the illustrator suddenly puts their prices up, meaning any future work is more expensive than you could have anticipated.

3. You like the idea of illustration, but worry it might start to feel a bit boring if you have a limited number of assets to use. It’s likely you’d end up having to commission more illustrations and in reality you don’t have the budget for that.

4. You like the illustrator and the work they do, but you don’t necessarily want to have to get them involved every time you want to communicate something new.

These are all valid concerns, and obviously you won’t know exactly how a collaboration with an illustrator is going to go, until you’ve worked with them.

Initial thoughts

I can’t speak for all illustrators, but I would always hope to build a good working relationship with my clients - one where there is a mutual understanding and it feels like you’re on the same wavelength - I personally believe that this is a good basis for producing the best work together.

I certainly wouldn’t want a client to feel like they always had to come back to me if they weren’t happy with the work or service I offer - I’m sure most other illustrators would agree with me on this.

I would suggest that any issues should simply be discussed, in the first instance. Illustrators are generally pretty friendly, approachable people, and not out to ‘get one over on you’. Most are sole traders, working hard and delivering a service in order to make a living. Many of their challenges will likely be similar to yours in terms of running a business.

Also, illustration should be the fun part of your brand and communications, right? I would hope that the benefits of taking a bespoke illustration route - enabling you to connect and communicate with your audience effectively in a fresh, engaging and characterful way - should outweigh any nervousness or negatives.

8 points to consider
(...& reasons for you not to feel trapped by an illustrator )

1. Illustration isn’t the only way to go. Often it can add character and personality to your brand or communicate ideas/processes that may be difficult to show otherwise, but just because you might use illustration for 1 aspect of your communications, doesn’t mean you have to approach everything the same way. Photography or a more graphic/typographic style could also work well, and potentially in combination with illustration.

2. If you think you may want to commission more illustrations over time, but don’t want to feel like the illustrator can effectively ‘hold you to ransom’ once you’ve started along the path with them, why not broach this at the initial quote stage. You could agree some sort of retainer, or a set fee for any additional future work/usage which would help you to budget and avoid unforeseen additional costs.

3. Just because you use one illustrator for a particular project doesn’t necessarily mean you have to stick with them for other things too.

   If, for whatever reason, you feel like the illustrator you worked with last time wasn’t the best fit for you, there’s absolutely no reason you should be tied in to using them again. There are so many illustrators out there, and whilst it’s never a good idea to ask one illustrator to replicate the style of another, it would generally be possible to find an alternative illustrator who works in a similar or complementary style.

4. Illustration, by it’s very nature, can be quite playful (not always though, obviously...) but switching things up and possibly using different illustrators with contrasting styles for different communications or content can sometimes help to keep your brand feeling fresh and innovative. (See below for some examples of this)

5. If you are using different illustrators, it could be that there is something that links the styles together, even though they may look different - a consistent use of your brand colour palette for example, or different takes on a hand drawn style? Alternatively, there could be rules set to ensure there is consistency in the way illustrations sit alongside other brand elements - always filling the same space in relation to your logo or brand mark perhaps?

6. Rather than seeing being tied in with an illustrator as a bad thing, you could look at it the opposite way. I would say that some of the best work I’ve created has been for clients where we have built a good understanding of each other over time and developed a mutually respectful working relationship. This could be a massive positive for you - having an illustrator who knows you and your organisation really well, helping to communicate messages you’d like to convey in a way that is perfect for your audience - that’s something to cultivate!

7. Another benefit of building a relationship with an illustrator, is that this can sometimes offer scope for negotiation. Illustrators are just people, operating as a business… probably much like yourself. Repeat business and returning clients are always much appreciated (assuming you’re nice to work with and don’t expect 36 rounds of amends or anything like that…?!), but once an illustrator has worked with you and has a good handle on the sort of work and how the projects tend to run, they may be open to some discussion around fees.

8. Often potential clients will turn to stock illustration as a way to avoid getting tied in to using one illustrator. This is a perfectly understandable way to go, and will likely be a more affordable option. The obvious downside is that stock illustrations wouldn’t have the exclusivity of bespoke illustration, with the potential for them being used elsewhere. There’s no reason you couldn’t mix things up though, as mentioned above - possibly using stock illustrations for more generic content, and commissioning bespoke illustration for communicating key information relating to your brand.

Some examples of brands consciously using the work of different illustrators effectively

I’ve mentioned above the idea of not limiting yourself to one illustrator… here are a few examples of brands who actively embrace that…

Mailchimp

A brand campaign originally created back in 2018 but still going strong, Mailchimp uses 6 different illustrators whose styles complement each other nicely, to create illustrations for their brand materials and website.

There’s a great post on the AOI website here (also where I got the image above), which discusses the whole approach with Lucia Orlandi, a Creative Director at R/GA, the advertising agency involved in commissioning the project - a really interesting read!

Bristol Water

The work of local artists and illustrators is integral to the visual language used as part of the new Bristol Water brand, developed by psLondon

Featured artists (clockwise from top left): Bex Glover, Mary Price, Zoë Power, Loch Ness & there’s a nice feature on all of them on the Bristol Water website here

Paynter

Paynter make jackets, in limited edition batches just three times a year. Each batch of jackets has a different illustrated label, created by a different artist/illustrator/designer which tells the story of that batch.

I love this idea, and the different artworks all add to the exclusivity/individuality of each jacket.

Featured label designs (Clockwise for top left): Connor Campbell, Tess Roberts-Smith, Evan Cohen, Chris DeLorenzo . There’s often a post about the latest newly designed label in the Stories section of the Paynter website, such as this one: The Batch No.7 Label by Connor Campbell

Canopy Beer Co

Canopy are brewers of craft beer. They work with a range of artists who have each created bright, fun animal-themed designs, with colours from an overarching brand palette. Parts of the various creatures appear in combination with others on Canopy’s beer can designs, in a ‘mix ‘n match’ style akin to the old game of Consequences.

A very playful approach which gains from multiple creative styles being used together, all held together with a strong and vibrant colour palette.

There’s a showcase of the individual artists here and an interesting feature about the story behind the Canopy brand on beer by design

Conclusion: There is no ‘illustration trap’ !

There is undoubtedly a value in creating a consistent and recognisable approach in terms of the way you use illustration, so that the visual style and language becomes synonymous with your brand.

I think it’s fair to say that the simplest way to achieve consistency is to work with one illustrator, whose style is a good fit for what you’re trying to achieve. And if this becomes an ongoing arrangement, where the illustrator continues to create work for you over time, I would imagine this to be a good thing.

But it’s not the ONLY way.

I hope to have provided some reassurance that should you decide to take a particular illustration route with one illustrator, this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a direction you have to commit to for the long term.

There’s nothing to tie you in, nothing to trap you. If you feel it’s not working, for whatever reason, you should absolutely feel free to change direction and take a different route.

Any thoughts?

Has the possibility of feeling trapped by a particular illustration style been an issue for you in the past? If so, I’d be really interested to hear if any of the points I’ve mentioned above have encouraged you to perhaps think differently.

And as usual, I’m keen to hear if you have any thoughts or questions relating to this post - feel free to email me if you’d like to get in touch.

Next up…

The possible issue of turnaround times… Can illustration be reactive enough, and to be able to create materials quickly enough for your needs?

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

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