Since the beginning of time the human race has been sharing stories and using narrative images to best convey their messages. The earliest examples of illustration appears in the cave paintings of Lascaux, France. Where the illustrator produced a succession of logograms to convey important information. It’s no coincidence that the people in 15,000 B.C. would turn to illustrating either, did you know that 90% of the information that comes to the human brain is visual, and that studies have shown learning in classrooms improves by a massive 400% when visuals are used. A picture really is worth a thousand words.

Today we use illustrations to convey ideas that are difficult to express, why spend a load of time trying to explain or describe what you mean when you can use an image? The brain processes visual information much more quickly and it holds it in your memory longer too. It can also be useful when conveying messages to people with learning difficulties or those afflicted with short attention spans.

‘Walker-Smith says we’ve gone from being exposed to about 500 ads a day back in the 1970’s to as many as 5,000 a day today.’ 5,000 a day! Advertisers know this and try to cover every blank space available with some form of brand logo or new marketing campaign and it just so happens illustrations are not only one of the cheaper ways to do this but also one of the most effective. Sure, you could use videos or photographs for advertising (we do those too!), but illustrations have a few advantages over them.

Here’s a few examples:

1. Lightning fast

Illustrations are either JPEG, PNG, or GIF and are visible as soon as you open the web page, no waiting for video to load or, even worse, having it play on it’s own at full volume for everyone in the office to hear!

2. The sky’s the limit

There is no limit to what you can do apart from the imagination of the business or designer. For instance, just try and get a photo of me holding up a pencil in a cool He-Man pose…

3. Changed your mind?

Illustrations are easy to customise – you can add or take away elements at the flick of a designers wrist.

4. Complete control

Illustrations can be completely tailored to your needs throughout the whole design process, with preliminary sketches and as many proofs as needed (we don’t normally need many!)

5. Not hiring

High quality illustrations require less expensive equipment and time than high quality photography or video.

6. Scaleable

Illustrations are versatile, you can produce an illustration for a tiny thumbnail image on a website and have that same image ready to use for a huge billboard. No worrying about DPI or resolution size, format etc.

7. Who are you?

You can completely tailor your brands personality using a complementary illustrative style that suits you. Across web, print and social.

Illustration is something you see before reading an article or advert, it can determine whether the user even reads it, and it can shape the way your clients perceives the advert, and you! For any and all illustration needs we can help you make it perfect.