2020 saw us taking a deep-dive into how we visually represent orderbird. As a company, we clearly understand who we are and what we stand for but missing was a clear translation between our brand values and visual identity. In developing an illustration guideline we look to achieve consistency across all our platforms but also a deeper rationale as to how our brand is reflected in our illustration style. 

Our brand is: authentic, natural and confident.

We use illustrations to communicate concepts and topics. They also play a key role as typographical anchors. That is a fancy way to say, that within a page or a scroll they stand out giving instant visual identifier to a specific section. 

Historically, orderbird’s illustrations have not previously been well documented. There have been a few cartoon-ish birds flying around and a general use of our brand colours. The lack of clarity is something that a thorough guideline aims to address.

In response to the challenge of designing a consistent illustration style we took a ‘form follows function’ approach, at each step checking back in with our brand values.

An authentic, confident illustration does not require additional bells and whistles. We want to achieve a feeling of simple clarity. From this, we came to see our illustrations as a scaled-up extension to our icons. Details are added to as appropriate to the size of the illustration. 

N.B. The difference between icons and illustrations: Icons are the most simplified visual representation of a concept possible. Illustrations are larger and start to show details and communicate some feeling.

With this in mind, it is as if orderbird illustrations are not stand-alone assets but an extrapolation of our product’s UI. On a subtle, metaphorical level this is saying: ‘we are product-driven’. 

“If we were shapes we would be circles and lines.”

Again in the pursuit of simplicity, the illustrations are formed out of basic shapes. Here we looked to our logo for inspiration. The word-mark of the orderbird logo is based on the Helvetica Neue typeface, however, adjusted and simplified. Cut up the logo could be broken down into circles and lines. Circles and lines are the building blocks of each illustration. 

Similarly, taking precedent from the orderbird logo, we use contrasting thick lines, thin lines and fills. You can see the inspiration for this in the contrasting bold and light fonts as well as the bird logo-mark. 

Such limitations, in practice, have resulted in illustrations that always look as if taken from the same book—even when showing diverse concepts or being created by different hands.