Visuals are a major part of what makes a brand interesting. It provides brands with a great opportunity to create a distinction in their branding. To establish this visual distinction, a brand can rely on key elements such as colors, creative typography, and imagery – especially illustrative branding, which form the backbone of some brands.
Illustrative branding is the strategy of building a brand, particularly its identity, by leveraging unique custom illustrations to represent the brand. When a brand/ company uses illustrative branding, it offers a host of benefits including helping with brand recognition and raising brand awareness.
With that in mind, in today’s blog, we want to present 7 companies that use illustrative branding as part of their visual game and thus, stand out because of it.
These illustrative branding examples will inspire you and provide ideas and insight into how to follow suit with your company’s branding.
Let’s begin!
Duolingo is a popular language learning platform offering both a website and mobile app for users to learn new languages in a fun and engaging way. Duolingo is different from similar language learning platforms because it uses gamification to teach over 40 languages.
But no one will argue that its iconic mascot, the green owl named Duo is the center of attention. It plays a critical role in encouraging users to stay motivated and continue their lessons.
Duolingo is also known for its user-friendly mobile and web interface, adorned by illustrations showcasing their illustrative branding approach.
They also have interactive daily streak reminders that accompany various illustrations of Duo as well as other brand characters.
Speaking of other brand characters, you’ll see, if you look at their website, a variety of colorful and vibrant illustrated characters that also pop up during lessons.
This use of diverse yet consistent illustrative branding is a great way to create a lasting impression on users making Duolingo a top brand to go to for inspiration.
According to the Duolingo website, (and by experience), Duolingo illustrations are recognizable anywhere. And the secret to this is their usage of a brand guideline that outlines the construction of their illustrations which is quite fascinating. If you take a look at it, you’ll see they’ve gotten illustrative branding down to a science!
If you love organizing, then Notion is a nifty tool for it. Notion is a versatile productivity and collaboration tool/ platform designed for both individuals and teams. Using Notion you can manage tasks, take notes, organize projects, and collaborate in real time.
Notion is equally popular among freelancers, startups, and large organizations because of its user-friendly interface and the ability to create highly personalized and flexible workspaces. It has become a go-to tool for organizing knowledge, tracking projects, and enhancing productivity.
Another one of the main reasons Notions is a top pick among similar platforms is how it distinguishes itself with its illustrative branding.
They use black and white outline cartoon illustrations. Here’s a look at some of the illustrated characters that they use across the platform.
Various other forms of these illustrations appear throughout the process of using Notion like in the instances shown below when you’re signing up:
The color palette usually remains the same (in black and white) except for a few instances when they spruce it up with a few colors.
All in all, Notion uses illustrative branding to make boring work, seem fun. And the simplicity of the illustrations keeps them from appearing imposing or overwhelming – perfectly ideal for a work setting.
Salesforce began as early as 1999. They are a global leader in customer relationship management (CRM) software, offering cloud-based solutions for businesses to manage their sales, customer service, marketing, and analytics.
Salesforce is widely used by businesses of all sizes to optimize their customer engagement and drive growth.
It all sounds quite serious but as a brand, Salesforce has taken the initiative to be welcoming, friendly, and warm instead of intimidating potential users. How they do this is by using illustrative branding.
If you visit their website you’ll see a friendly and interactive website owing to the various illustrations that adorn the pages.
Let’s take a look at some of these:
From the mascots to the illustrated icons and the landscapes, it’s not what you usually expect from a brand in this industry.
Even their core values are accompanied by illustrations. Here are some of them:
Salesforce also uses a mix of both 3D illustrations as well as 2D and flat illustrations. They mix the 2 to make it work harmoniously.
Regardless, the use of colorful and vibrant illustrative branding helps Salesforce build trust among users, with the illustrations acting as a precursor of the delightful services they can expect.
Minor Figures is a UK-based company specializing in plant-based, dairy-free products, particularly oat-milk and coffee-based beverages. The brand focuses on sustainability and quality, catering to consumers who are conscious about environmental impact and health.
Besides their delightful dairy-substituted beverages, they have a playful, artistic brand identity, which often incorporates quirky illustrations across various mediums and platforms. This illustrative branding approach sets their beverages as well as their brand apart from others that are similar.
Here’s a look at their illustrative branding on display:
The unique illustrations are a fresh dose of inspiration for those looking to refresh and switch towards illustrative branding. Note how each product carries a custom illustration instead of the same one in different colors. How they keep things cohesive is with their illustration type and quirkiness – some great tips to pick up when creating illustrative branding.
Lagunitas Brewing Company is a California-based craft brewery known for its bold and hoppy beers, particularly its signature IPA (Indian Pale Yale).
Lagunitas is also known for its connection to music and art, frequently sponsoring live events and collaborating with artists. Now a part of Heineken International, Lagunitas remains a favorite among craft beer enthusiasts worldwide.
Lagunitas has also gained popularity not only for its distinctive brews but its laid-back, fun-loving brand personality. How they show off this personality is through the use of illustrative branding.
Their website has line-drawn illustrations in various places.
However, their illustrative branding is heavily seen more on packaging than on other mediums and marketing platforms. So it’s a very controlled and balanced strategy.
By looking at each product you can tell how they’ve given thought to make them distinct not only from one other but from other similar products on the market too. The only recurring illustration is of the Lagunitas dog, a spirited American Staffordshire Terrier inspired by the dog from the famous movie, ‘The Little Rascals.’
Overall, the Lagunitas Brewing Company’s illustrative branding is a testament to how you can evoke emotions by how you present yourself – in their case, playfulness is what they’re going for.
Headspace is a mindfulness and meditation app that offers guided meditation sessions and mental wellness resources. They help users manage stress, improve focus, and enhance overall well-being. As a company, they aim to make meditation accessible to anyone who needs it.
The effective scientifically backed techniques and its user-friendly interface paired with the approachable design and engaging animations is what has made Headspace a go-to app for meditation.
On the design front, how they’ve made it so approachable and engaging, is by incorporating illustrative branding.
Throughout the app as well as their website you will see how they use various flat illustrations in many different colors to help users associate different actions with different illustrations.
Here are some of the illustrations featured on their website:
Here are some app screenshots that showcase how they use illustrations as part of their
branding:
As a company that helps its users mediate, experience calmness and be better versions of themselves, they have understood the importance of accompanying visuals.
Amazingly, they chose to incorporate illustrations into their branding instead of using real-life images. But in truth, this is what separates Headspace from being another meditation app. Their illustrative branding helps them stick out from the rest.
Red Bull is a global leader in the energy drink industry. And we’ve all seen and heard its iconic slogan “Red Bull gives you wings.” Launched in 1987 they’re one of the oldest brands on this list. It’s also not surprising to know that Red Bull was one of the first energy drinks to hit the market, providing a boost of energy through a blend of caffeine, taurine, and B vitamins.
Fast forward to today, the brand has positioned itself as more than just a beverage, associating itself with extreme sports, high-adrenaline activities, and a bold, adventurous lifestyle.
Red Bull’s distinctive branding, sleek cans, and innovative marketing have made it a household name and a dominant force in the energy drink sector. But for those design-savvy souls what stands out about Red Bull is its fun illustrations.
Red Bull’s illustrative branding comes in a very comic book strip, illustration style with recurring elements. These cartoon-like illustrations border on the humorous side
What’s interesting is that the illustrative branding of Red Bull doesn’t extend to products and packaging. It’s solely for marketing purposes where the illustrations are used to portray scenarios of before and after having a Red Bull. It’s a genius strategy that helps set them apart.
Here are some of the illustrations that you can find on their website:
Here’s a look at a video ad that uses animated illustrations:
As you can see Red Bull relies a lot on illustrative branding to showcase a unique side of their brand. They’re fun, quirky, and very engaging helping create lasting impressions on consumers.
And with that let’s wrap up with some FAQs.
No, illustrative branding isn’t mandatory. But it’s a great way to stand out visually with 36.4% of marketing specialist using such unique art in their marketing strategies. Some brands benefit more from photography or minimalist design. It all depends on your brand’s personality and target audience. If you want to inject playfulness or creativity, illustrations can help you do just that!
Ask yourself a few key questions: Do you want your brand to feel approachable, playful, or unique? Do illustrations fit with the message or tone you want to convey? If the answer is yes, illustrative branding might be worth exploring. Here are some ways to use custom illustrations in your marketing.
You can find illustrators on platforms like Fiverr and Upwork but you’ll have to do a bit of screening before finding the right one. And the quality of the illustrator depends on your budget as well. We would recommend using an unlimited design service to get custom illustrations done as they offer many benefits beyond things like unlimited illustrations and fixed rates.
