Building a New Illustration Style for Shopify
<p>Over at Shopify, the illustrators have been busy. We’ve been working hard to find a new visual voice for Shopify. (And of course when I say <em>we</em> I mean <a href="https://dribbble.com/Coleman811" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Ryan Coleman</a> & <a href="https://dribbble.com/hschofield" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Holly Schofield</a>. Think I’m being humble or whatever? Ask a first time design manager how much actual design <em>they</em> put out. Seriously. Zero heavy lifting here. Ryan and Holly are crazy talented.)</p>
<h1>The Problem:</h1>
<p><strong>Why was it so important to give Shopify a new Illustration style?</strong><br />
Illustration is a communication tool with three super powers. It can add clarity to a complex idea. It can link concepts to the words we’ve assigned them within our respective products (aka on-boarding). And, it can capture the values and traits of a brand in a single voice, shift the tone depending on the situation, and speak directly to the user.</p>
<p>The existing illustration style, while visually pleasing, did little to augment the content, and only repeated the existing copy instead. It was limited in it’s ability to communicate complex ideas, and it did not accurately map to the Shopify values or principles.</p>
<p><a href="https://ux.shopify.com/building-a-new-illustration-style-for-shopify-2b25dcf14117"><strong>Website</strong></a></p>