Illustrations

Guidelines

We use illustration to center our brand around storytelling. Our illustrations demonstrate the benefits we want to bring to people’s lives by using our product.

Illustrations will be used across blogs, emailers and social media

BE USEFUL

Illustration should add information. It provides context, adds
clarity, or leads users to their next step. Ultimately, any illustration
should provide a deeper understanding of the tool or brand.

WORD Brand Illustrations
WORD Brand Illustration Guide

BE CONSISTENT

Being consistent in illustration means considering details of a single illustration, as well as looking at the body of illustration work as a whole. Consistency speaks to quality: of the illustration and of the product it represents.

BE FOCUSED

Illustration is most effective when it is precise in choosing a single message to deliver. With every narrative that is built there needs to be a focal point, a hierarchy of elements that contribute to the single, pointed message. With every illustration, we ask ourselves “what are we trying to say?”

WORD Brand Illustrations Guideline

When to use Illustration

Illustration is a powerful communication tool, but only if you have something to say. When illustration is simply ornamental, it can easily become overwhelming or distracting, and ultimately detracts from the overall experience of using the product.

COMMON PLACES TO USE AN ILLUSTRATION

  • There’s too much text or the text is not being read and understood
  • You want another way to speak directly to your user
  • You want to congratulate or celebrate with your user
  • Emailers

Types of Illustrations

Hero Illustration

Hero illustrations are intended to tell more complex stories. This allows them to be more metaphorical and fantastical in nature. The viewer should feel a sense of teamwork, adventure, achievement, and optimism. In the majority of cases, a central, larger-than-life object should be surrounded by a team working to build, fix, and assemble. Hero illustrations contain more than three people and their complexity should vary depending on the intended size.

WORD Illustrations
WORD Illustration Guide

Spot Hero Illustration

Spot heroes are slightly simplified versions of heroes, visually and
metaphorically. These assets are perfect when you need to pack a punch
with limited space. Often they are a slightly more literal representation of a
single concept. Despite simplification, they still contain a small team working
on or around a larger-than-life subject

Spot Illustration

Spot illustrations are the simplest and most literal expression of a concept.
Because they are often used in the product as an empty state, or in a
composition with other spot illustrations, they are small and simple. They
usually do not include any people but occasionally include some
atmospheric background elements, depending on the design.

WORD Illustrations Guideline

DO’S & DON’TS

BACKGROUND COLOR

DO
WORD Illustration White BG

Unless otherwise stated, each illustration was designed for either the #230051 background color, or the #FFFFFF card color.

DON'T
WORD Illustration Dark BG

Change the background color

TRANSPARENCY AND BLENDING MODES

Each illustration has to be designed with a specific transparency and blending mode.

DO
WORD Announcement Illustration

Use the illustration at 100% opacity; normal blending mode

DON'T
Announcement Illustration Dark BG

Change the blending mode of an illustration

ELEMENTS

The illustration team maintains not just the quality of a single illustration, but the
quality of WORD illustration as a whole. This means, among other things, making sure
that they have the same level of detail, they don’t repeat elements too often, and their
metaphors are used with the intended meaning.

DO
WORD Brand Illustration White

Incorporate elements using either of the two patterns in the illustrations, Opacity ranging from. 10%-50%

DON'T
WORD Brand Illustration Dark

Overehelming use of the pattern Opacity at 100%

SCALING

Each illustration was created for a specific screen size. There are elements of the
illustrations that do not easily scale, and instead need to be re-drawn to meet WORD
quality standards.

DO
WORD Mobile Illustration

Design a mock up with the illustration that showcases how it interacts with the other elements on the page

DON'T
WORD Stretched Illustration

Stretch or warp an illustration

Illustration Applications

Illustration in product

WORD Email Verification Illustration
WORD Assistance Illustration