Not just pretty pictures

The importance of stylized illustrations in creating a unique brand language in an era of ubiquity

It’s not for nothing it’s said — “A picture is worth a thousand words’ and ‘A face can launch a thousand ships!” The power of visuals, and therefore creating a unique visual language, cannot be understated in branding. However, how do you create this unique and consistent footprint as a brand when you have to employ multiple vertical expertise agencies?

Take the examples of two well-known brands in the market Uber and Google — they use illustration rigorously in their communications embracing users across cultures and classes and have achieved the status of high-value brands in the world.

We can see how, of many tools available, we can create a unique footprint using the visual language of illustrations. In order to create a customized language, you need three aspects in place.

Good clarity on your brand's true purpose, positioning and personality
Onboarding a branding studio that is a right fit, talented and multidimensional
Create a versatile illustration style and language which can be easily replicated or used by multiple agencies across different verticals

The outcome could be anything under the sun that is a perfect and unique fit to your brand giving you a distinct identity like no other. However, this is more easily said than done. It's a challenge to produce a totally new style which is a system and in some cases a new visual and communication language.

Below, we share our approaches for four different branding projects, in which we have created a distinct brand language using a bespoke illustration style and footprint.

NESTAWAY

We innovated and created a fresh youth-focused visual and narrative language for Nestaway, a home-finding portal. The rebranding exercise brought out their own distinctive positioning with an active voice, to take forward their strong beliefs in youth power and equity, ‘no-discrimination’ policy, and the fundamental right to have a home of your choice.

The one-of-its-kind graphic system positioned them as a platform empowering the youth, distinguishing them from the crowded look-alike house rental market.

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Click to see the article by the client

PMNCH

The Partnership, as they are popularly known, wanted a rebrand with their new digital strategy of 2021-25 taking forward their health advocacy for women, children and adolescents. This warm, colourful and diverse collaborative of more than 1000 partners worldwide, needed a punchy and vibrant face. We made a colourful pictionary of characters and elements through which we could create a wide range of stories to support their advocacy stance. This gave the brand a leverage to distinguish itself and stand out in the digital space across channels.

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TRANSFORM HEALTH

Digital design has given us democracy — the ability to create in a prolific fashion and to churn out many variations in a relatively short time. We gave Transform Health a powerful visual footprint by bringing out the coalition’s objectives through a systems approach that included a unique set of characters, icons and elements that users could assemble easily on any digital interface. Circular faces, round to squarish body parts, geometric shapes and quirky elements were made, and by using a colour palette, also drawn out of their logo, to identify holistically with the brand.

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AYUSHMAN BHARAT HWCs

How can you fix a single style for such a diverse country like India? We answered this question by saying ‘No you can’t!’ Instead, we created a system that allowed each local culture to express itself visually within a system, carving an identity at both macro and micro levels. The system takes care of branding 1,50,000 health centers across India giving each one its own footprint, which people in the locale could relate to while belonging to the Ayushman Bharat brand as well.

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Written by Anthony Lopez

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Transform Health

BRAND STRATEGY + BRAND IDENTITY + VISUAL SYSTEM + UI&UX