An illustration is what brings innovation to a brand’s digital or physical presence, and because innovation is what enables startup businesses to surpass entrenched brands – we believe that you should use illustrations for your business.
However, there are times when finding the right digital asset to showcase your brand’s core values, mission, or vision can be challenging. In this case, you can leverage illustrations to simplify but engage your audience.
In this article, we’re going to show you when you can use illustrations for your brand, starting with finding the right kind of visual representation that you want to use.
Finding The Right Visual Representation
There are certain questions that you should ask yourself when you’re selecting an illustration for your business.
For example, does the type of visual representation that you’re selecting is capable enough to fully represent your brand?
Do you want to use realistic images, or will your brand be better off with something more inclined towards abstract and creative (Illustrative)?
After you’ve done your research, by which I mean seen what your competitors are doing, you can determine which approach will best suit you. Let’s say you decided to go for the illustrative approach. Know that the illustrative approach entails different forms and styles.
Every illustration has the power to display your brand differently. You can use illustrations to reflect a wide array of elements of your website so that your customers can see how diverse your presentation is.
Furthermore, you’re not the only one who is thinking of leveraging illustrations to define your brand; there are thousands of websites there that have learned the alchemy of creativity. Hence, they’re using illustrations to stand out from the crowd.
Also, many website builders and WordPress themes are using illustrations frequently to help web designers create new fresh looking websites.
The reason? Well, our brain tends to process images faster than text; therefore, having illustrations on your website means that your message will be delivered more efficiently to your customers.
With the details out of the way, let’s explore the five reasons why you should use illustrations in your web design.
1. When Realistic Photos Can’t Fully Represent The Concept
There are times when reflecting on your business’s true nature or how you do things internally to satisfy your customers can seem more like a struggle. In such cases, mere pictures are unable to define what you’re trying to do. Hence, you need the help of illustrations.
Either the subject is too difficult to be explained through images, or there’s a limitation to what you can do to explain it through pictures. Therefore, leveraging illustrations become super-essential here.
A great example of this scenario would be graphic designers. Although they could get someone to take their photo while they’re designing, nothing is exciting about this.
A simple photograph would just define what, as a graphic designer, you do when you’re in the office, which by the way, is not something that your customer is interested in.
So, what can you do now? Well, by leveraging illustrations – you can implement a way better approach towards making your customers engaged and excited.
An illustration can touch various key points of your customers, the design itself can be made more striking, and the overall look of your illustration can be fine-tuned to foster more conversions.
So, the #1 reason why you should use illustrations is the fact that they’re capable of taking your web design beyond the conventional level while increasing engagement and deliverance of meaningful messages.
2. Illustrations Help Your Web Design Stand out
There are millions and millions of businesses out there in the digital world, and some of them are rocking an intuitive and inspirational web design. Their design has been crafter to play an essential role in converting the audience.
Reflecting the true nature, style, personality, and core values of a brand, web design have the power to make your brand stand out. However, if you’re missing such a unique design, you’re missing a whole lot of potential that your brand could achieve through it.
Also, if you have a similar design that matches the industry you’re in, it would become hard for your customers to understand why you’re different from your competitors.
That said, some brands have their style, their representation, and some USPs that help them stand out. Most of the brands outlined in this article are using a blend of realistic photos and illustrations to help their company to stand out.
Leveraging both images and illustration gives your brand a traditional look while taking things up a notch. For example, in the confectionery industry, a realistic image of a cupcake on a brand’s site would not be enough to make a brand stand out.
However, a mixture of both photos and illustrations would grab the attention of the viewers to the product, ensuring positive results. The best-designed websites know of their importance.
To make this work you’ll need to be reasonably good at using a graphic design platform, or you’ll need to have the funds to hire an expert to help.
3. Customizing Your Digital Presence
Let’s focus more on operating in a specific industry gives you a similar look to your competitors. Take, for example, the food industry. Since their prime objective is to arouse the taste buds of their customers by delivering mouth-watering delicacies, all of them are doing the same thing on their websites.
Their web designs are mostly similar and cluttered with photos of their products, i.e., burgers, fries, and whatnot. Some of them are also focusing on the fact that eating with family, friends, or relatives is an in-person experience. So, they’re telling stories about them on their websites, but this is not the answer to what they’re expecting from their website.
The audience will always search for a brand that is innovative, different, and quality-oriented. Therefore, there’s very little chance that traditional practices will work here.
In this case, utilizing illustrations would help your brand stand apart. The illustrations can easily convey your brand’s message to your audience while ensuring that your web design differs from your competitors.
4. Trying To Copy The Style Of A Brand That Customer Trust
Countless companies enter the digital world every day, and some of them try to compete with big names in the industry by copying the style, tone, branding, and website of a well-established company that customers already trust.
If you’ve got a standout style and presence in the digital world – it’s no surprise that people will try to follow your brand.
One company that set the standard for other software companies was Stripe, and over the years, thousands of people have tried to copy their style.
Stipe’s illustrative style is super compelling and engaging, which is also the reason for its immense success in the digital world. The site’s design reflects a symbolic status of stability.
By leveraging illustrations and putting your creativity to work, you can also create something inspirational that has the power to take the competition bar up a notch.
5. You Want To Tell Stories About Your Brand
Over the years, we’ve seen several brands that have used pictures of themselves, their organization, or their team on their websites. However, other creative websites that used illustrations instead of photos.
The best reason perhaps to spark the urge in your audience to get them to know more about your brand is by showcasing to them what you can do. With mere images, you’ll be going nowhere because the audience is interested in learning about your work, not your team.
If you want to flex your creative muscle, showcase to your audience what you’re capable of, then you can leverage illustrations to do that.
When you’re using illustrations on your web design, you’re not only giving your web design the touch of innovation but also, you’re making your website aesthetically pleasing, dynamic, and intriguing.
Conclusion
These are the top five reasons why we believe that you should include illustration for your web design. Note that the world is full of businesses that are following each other or some other conventional approaches to stand out; however, to be the innovator, you need to adapt to the latest web design trends and mediums to convey your message to the clients.
For this reason, when you’re leveraging illustration, you’re adding more value to your customer experience, and this translates into conversions and even new customers.
