Why is a custom illustration more than just a pretty drawing for my brand?

Why does a custom illustration give your brand more than a pretty drawing?

A custom illustration gives visible form to what your brand wants to communicate. The subject comes first. In my practice, I build brand identities through observation and drawing. Before choosing a style, clarify what the drawing should convey about your business.

“I’d like a pretty drawing” expresses a perfectly legitimate wish. Working on brand identity gives that wish a direction. In this work, the pleasure of the image and the sensitivity of the line retain their place. Ask the illustrator to explain what her proposal expresses about your brand.

What should you observe about your work before drawing?

Before drawing, observe the gestures of your craft, particularly how you handle a material or use a tool. Does your work involve shaping clay, for example? The pressure of fingers against a wall can guide the choice of a curve and the placement of hands in the illustration. To assess this proposal, ask a first question: does the drawing show a gesture you actually use?

Does a beautiful image necessarily help people understand your message?

No, an image’s beauty is not enough to make your message understandable. In their review of 55 experiments, Levie and Lentz (1982) conclude that illustrations related to the text help readers learn the illustrated content. The authors find, however, that illustrations unrelated to the text provide no learning gains.

This review concerns learning from illustrated texts. Its findings do not support a claim that an editorial illustration will automatically make a commercial offer clearer, nor do they allow a benefit for your brand identity to be quantified. For illustrated books as for an introductory page, they suggest a first criterion to examine: which specific passage does the drawing help readers understand?

Place the image beside the text it is intended to accompany and underline the sentence it should clarify, even if you already like the drawing. Then look for the element in the image that corresponds to that sentence. If the text explains a relationship between two people, for example, examine how their position or gaze makes it clear.

If you cannot name any specific connection, ask for a sketch more closely focused on the underlined passage before approving the drawing’s details.

Why does the work we perceive behind an image matter?

The work we believe we perceive behind an image can increase its value in our eyes, as Kruger et al. (2004) show with poems and paintings. The authors call this tendency to judge a work by the effort we attribute to it the “effort heuristic”, especially when its quality is difficult to assess.

This assumed effort may differ from the time actually spent on creation. To examine an illustration intended for your brand, ask what the work done contributes to the project: the stated number of hours is not enough to justify choosing a proposal.

Does your illustration retain its meaning across different media?

The second criterion involves examining what remains visible as the available space decreases, from a sign to a small label. If a relationship between two shapes carries the drawing’s meaning, it must still be legible in the smaller version. For each medium, ask yourself what you can remove without changing what the image conveys.

On the page about my method, I explain that my approach applies particularly to brand identities and projects spanning multiple media. Let’s take a hypothetical example: a sign features a character holding an object. You want to retain this gesture on a label. Part of the setting can disappear, a garment can be simplified, provided that the position of the hands and the placement of the object still allow the scene to be understood without consulting the sign.

Place a printout of the label at its intended size beside the version intended for the sign. Note what disappears: losing a detail of the setting or the object held by the character calls for different decisions. Only the second belongs to the subject that needs to be retained. If that object becomes indecipherable, ask for its shape or placement to be reworked, then check the new version on the printed label.

Could this drawing work just as well for your competitor?

Yes, if you can replace your name with a competitor’s without the drawing seeming any less appropriate. For this third criterion, hide the name and look for what connects the proposal to your business. A symbol of your sector may suit several businesses; a detail linked to your history gives you something specific to discuss with the illustrator.

If you cannot find anything specific to your brand, indicate which part of the drawing a competitor could keep unchanged. Ask for a revision based on a distinctive feature of your business that you can explain. This gives the illustrator a more precise starting point than a request to make the image “more original”.

When an element seems specific to you, ask the illustrator which aspect of your business it relates to, beyond your preference for a colour or style. To choose between two proposals, select the proposal whose connection to your brand you can explain without relying on the name written beside it.

Could a ready-made template or a generated image meet your needs?

Yes, a ready-made template or a generated image may suit an occasional decorative need when the image does not have to carry your brand identity. In my practice, I recommend an image library or a generated image when a space needs to be filled that same day on a fixed, low budget. Custom work addresses a request for representation specific to the brand.

1. First, write down what the image will be used for. “Decorate this post” allows you to look for an available visual. “Define our brand’s visual world” involves exploring what that world should express.
2. Set your actual deadline. If the image must be used today, account for that constraint from the start.
3. Clarify what the budget covers. Buying an image for a space and commissioning visual exploration for a brand involve different scopes. Compare proposals based on the work requested.
4. Finally, reread your request before choosing the tool. Are you trying to find which image to use here, or what your brand should look like? This question guides my choice of visual language suited to the project.

How can you decide whether a custom illustration is useful for your brand?

To decide, prepare for our discussion using an actual medium and the message you want to communicate through it, expressed in a sentence. In my brand identity work, I begin by clarifying the business and its audience, then the media and the elements specific to the company. Ask me how the proposal will be examined against the three criteria presented in this article.