Identity systems

Member lesson

Illustration systems

Lesson 15 of 18 in Identity systems.

Illustration Styles for Brands with Mika Bacani · Design Dialogues
Lesson

A brand that uses illustration rarely uses one illustrator forever. Somebody leaves, a deadline collides, a market needs local work. So the useful deliverable is not a set of drawings but a set of rules specific enough that a stranger can produce a drawing that belongs.

the logothe smallest parttypecolourlayoutimagevoicemotionpeople can name the logo and nothing elsethe other six are what they actually recognise you by
What an identity system holds beyond the logo: type, colour, layout, image and voice.
An ink drawing of three illustrators in a studio, a kitchen and a flat at night, each drawing people in the same flat four-colour style, with the same style sheet pinned above each desk.
Three illustrators at separate desks draw people who clearly belong together, because each one follows the same pinned style sheet.
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Members answer these 3 questions and keep the ticket for this lesson. Every lesson has one.

  1. Question 1, locked

    Which of these words means this? “Rules that let several illustrators produce work that looks like one hand.”

    • Cypher
    • Illustration system
    • Maskable icon
    • Earcon
  2. Question 2, locked

    Which of these words means this? “The document defining line, palette, perspective and how people are drawn.”

    • Style sheet
    • Type roles
    • Monogram
    • Luminance threshold
  3. Question 3, locked

    Which of these words means this? “What an illustrator is given. Usually too vague, which is why the work comes back wrong.”

    • Stacked lockup
    • Icon grid
    • Identity system
    • Commission brief

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