Why Illustration Will Be Great For Your Business

Illustration is often thought of as something that’s reserved for solely creative pursuits like book covers, graphic novels, and album art. But in reality, it can be fantastic for your business too. Here’s why you shouldn’t overlook it.

Illustration is not graphic design

“But I’ve already got a graphic designer!” I hear you cry. 

Well, sorry to break it to you, but graphic design and illustration aren’t the same things.

Graphic design is often considered more commercial. It’s about visual communication and bringing together page layout, fonts, and color to formulate a brand identity and convey a particular message. It might sound weird, but this means graphic designers aren’t always great at drawing because they don’t need to be.

Illustrators, on the other hand, do have to be good at drawing – they’re focusing on bringing particular elements of your brand to life, rather than the overall design structure. In fact, graphic designers will often commission illustrations (along with other elements, such as photography) to complete their vision. This means if your graphic designer’s ideas incorporate illustration you’ll need to get an illustrator on board!

Illustration is unique

Illustrations can do wonders for your branding because they can add a personal and unique edge.

That misconception that illustration is for graphic novels, not businesses, will actually help you. Original illustrations suggest a brand that’s creative and visually aware.

While photography can be a wonderful asset, often you simply cannot get the same results. You’re either stuck with stock images, which will rarely match what you want and will probably also be being used by your competitors.

Or you could hire a photographer, who can save you from the wrath of repetitive stock imagery.

However, you’ve got more scope for creativity with illustration – if you want a fire-breathing dragon, it’s much easier (and affordable) to draw one than get a convincing one put in a photo. The unlimited possibilities of illustration mean you can do whatever you want with your brand. The unique touches of illustration will make you more memorable to those all-important customers or clients.

People are visually wired

You know that old saying “a picture’s worth a thousand words“?

Well, turns out it’s more like 60,000 words! People love infographics because the brain apparently processes images 60,000 times faster than text. You can pack a lot of information into an image – way more than you can into plain text. What’s more, that information will be way more engaging in picture form.

But, the images you use actually have to look good; a hastily constructed flowchart isn’t quite going to cut it.

Putting an illustrator to work on your content – whether it’s an infographic, a blog post, or your help pages – will make it far more appealing and will help you generate those much-needed conversions! Investing in illustration will be well worth the money you spend.

What are you waiting for? Find the best illustrators to work with on Twine. Or, post your project to get pitches from our amazing community of creatives.