Illustrations have always played an important role in marketing, attracting customers and visually aiding and enhancing the core aspects of the content it advertises. They are perfect to promote your brand, services, and products in an artistically valuable way. And in some circumstances, they are more efficient to use than photos or videos, due to their ability to depict ideas in creative and unique ways that are fast and easy to process. But let us first take a look at what illustrations are.
What is an illustration?
Illustrations are visualizations created by an artist to tell a piece of a story. They serve to give visual interpretations of a service, process, action, environment etc. and add more depth to the media it is applied to. Be it in magazines, app store visuals, as infographics or in advertisement, illustrations are made to explain or interpret a text, a process, a product, anything. They are informative and can educate people.
In short: illustrations are designed for a purpose and incorporated into the diversity of published media, both printed and digital.
If an illustration does not serve to explain something, then it would just be considered art. However, there is another distinction to be made: illustration and graphic design. While these two fields often intertwine, there are still some key differences to point out.
Graphic design vs. illustration
Illustrations are usually drawn by hand, be it on paper or digitally, and aim to explain a complex idea in a simple manner, tell a story, or to interpret textual elements in an artistic way. Illustrators nowadays mostly rely on software like Procreate, Adobe Photoshop, and similar programs – or on traditional materials that they digitalize and edit later on. They heed special attention to details, such as expressions on characters’ faces to evoke emotions.
Graphic design, on the other hand, aims to visualize concepts and ideas for fast and efficient communication. Further, graphic designers rather use vector programs like Adobe Illustrator or Sketch to edit, combine, and create designs through vector-based illustration, collages, typography, photos and more.
In short, you could say that illustrations are used to explain and interpret something artistically, while graphic designs communicate something efficiently.
But, as we said before, both of these professions may blend into each other. So, you may also approach minimalistic and communicative illustrations or artistically valuable graphic designs. Especially in marketing, illustrators and graphic designers tend to work together to create unique and engaging designs that catch the eye of the consumer.
The benefits of illustrations
Let us continue with the benefits that come with including illustrations in your brand, product, or marketing campaign.
As we already said earlier, illustrations aim to make complex ideas and concepts more accessible to the customer. If the content is quicker and easier to understand, it is more likely to get recognized.
On top of that, a good illustration will help to represent your brand or product, e.g. by implementing your brand colours, or by visualizing your product in an artistic way. They can also affect tone and speak directly to the user’s emotions, which helps a lot when you try to invoke certain emotions in the consumer.
Illustrations are almost always used to support text, as they help to tell a cohesive story from start to finish. That way, the key takeaways are more likely to stay in the consumers’ minds because they have a visual aid to remember the written content.
They play an important role in marketing and are used in a wide range of contexts, such as print, websites, landing pages, demand generation assets (e.g. banner ads), emails, infographics, and social media. In each and every context, illustrations provide more depth, interpretational aid, and aesthetic value.
Final thoughts
There are many reasons why you should incorporate illustrations in your content. People are easily attracted to stunning and creative illustrations and therefore, are more likely to remember the content you want to promote. That is why the proper placement of illustrations is key to drawing attention to your brand or product and receiving reactions.
If you are unsure, how you should incorporate illustrations in your adverts, landing page, or your social media creatives to maximize their effects – feel free to get in touch with us. We at Fintory are more than happy to support you in designing the perfect layout for your needs.
