“A picture is worth a thousand words”. You know it, I know it, everybody knows it!
Illustration and advertising relationship goes way back, when photography wasn’t even a thing.
They used to come up with illustration work to visualise every concept and catch the attention of the audience.
The smart ones still do!
Yes, photography shows the product itself, but have you ever thought that there are a million other products out there? What makes yours so special?!
Nowadays,It’s all about the way you will present it to the target audience.
Illustration in many cases is the perfect medium to do so, for the following reasons:
1.Illustration thrives in creativity
Through an illustrated image you can create a whole new world. It can portray fantastic creatures, fictional characters and abstract environments. It depicts the living and brings back the dead. To sum up, it can visualise complex concepts and advertising messages in a creative and unique way.
All that with only one purpose... To highlight your product!
2.Pictorial Advantages
Illustration makes it easy to communicate concepts that are not easy or cannot be documented photographically, such as the ocean’s bottom, the space or even bring to life disorders like OCD or schizophrenia.
Emotions and thoughts can be illustrated in creative ways to make the imagery interesting pass the message they are supposed to.
3.Stylistic Capability
A challenge every brand has to overcome is to make themselves recognisable. Illustration can be used as an identification mark for brands and set a specific mood or style that clarifies a brand’s promise.
Also, it creates a consistent branding which is very helpful for a company or a service.
Let’s take some time to look how some very well known brands used illustration:
Airbnb
Uber
Slack
Shopify
Dropbox
4.Cost Effectiveness
Last but not least, illustration can be a very cost efficient way to implement advertising concepts.
A quality illustration costs a lot less rather than an organised photo shooting that requires expensive props, location, the presence of professional photographers, art-directors, actors and so on.
Illustration cannot only be used for imaginative environments, but for realistic concepts, with a twist, as well.