The Full Circle of Creativity: Illustration
When it comes to pack design, illustration is a powerful tool. Versatile and expressive, it can help set the mood – and consumer expectations – by contributing to the story that packaging tells about a brand or product. In this instalment of ‘The Full Circle of Creativity’ our Creative Director Martin Orme paints the full picture of how illustration works within Equator.
What role does illustration play in shaping a brand’s personality?
Illustration can really carve out a unique personality for a brand. If you want to see this in action, walk around Selfridges and look at some of the chocolate companies. Even from across the room, you can start to identify brands before you see the logo, just by the style of illustration. For a major commercial brand, it might be quite polished and three-dimensional, whereas a luxury, artisanal brand might use more textural illustrative elements. It’s all about positioning and how the brand wants to be perceived.
Can you tell us a bit about the process of developing illustrative concepts at Equator?
It depends on the project. If we were expanding a range for a retailer that we had an existing relationship with, we’d know before the brief had been put together what would and wouldn’t fit within market expectations. For other projects, it might be a case of picking up a trend that’s been seen in the market, then mood boarding that out. What I like to do, if I’m creating different options on a theme, is to give each of my mood boards a working title to really give them a sense of purpose and differentiate them from one another.
Can you give us an example?
When we worked on The Fresh Market’s Chocolate Library Boxed Set, each bar had its own mood board based on the flavour profile, which we associated with different personality traits. The dark chocolate with fig felt rich, robust and a little bit indulgent, whereas the milk chocolate with honeycomb felt like a cheeky, fun treat. You can see how the different illustrative styles we used reflect these characteristics.
What about if the project has come through design first?
If the designer has had their hands on the project first, they will have mapped out creative territories with mood boards and visual references. Then they might do a few thumbnail sketches to communicate their intention to the illustrator, and one of us will refine that. There might be a bit of back and forth between us to iterate it further, but then it will go back to the client for further comments.
How do you select which illustrators work on which projects?
We try not to pigeonhole people by style, so it wouldn’t be the case that one person does all the vector work, and another does all the airbrush work. We’re all able to work across the board and we work with each other. So, someone who excels at realistic work might get help shaping a fun character for a children’s range from someone who’s great at that, and vice versa with highly rendered pieces.
Are there any particular challenges when it comes to creating illustrated characters?
Well, it’s one thing to create a character that looks like something, but what does it make you feel? Can you evoke emotion within that character? You have to animate them and bring them to life – give them expression. That’s the skill. Often there’s a whole cast of characters across a range, so you have to consider how they all fit together and react with each other. It’s funny, you might have a character that’s a goose, and you find yourself asking ‘what would that goose do in that situation?’ But our responses are part of what makes us unique, so you really do have to know the answer to that as the artist.
Sometimes packaging features both photography and illustration. What’s the benefit of having both of these elements on pack?
You can tell more of a story around the photography with the addition of illustration because you can bring in quirkiness and unexpectedness. With Giant Eagle’s Market District range, for example, there were illustrated characters on pack harvesting potatoes alongside a photographed potato chip! It helps that we’ve got both specialisms under one roof at Equator, so we’re always cross-pollinating ideas and enhancing each other’s work. It’s definitely one of our strengths.
How do you keep your ideas fresh and unique?
We keep on top of trend reports and market analysis – that’s really important. And we like to look at magazines, especially more artistic or avant-garde publications, as well as Instagram and Pinterest. There’s such a wealth of inspiration out there, it’s hard not to get inspired. Our job is to take these seeds of thoughts and germinate something that’s new and unique for the client while also fitting their personality.
Next in the series we’ll be speaking with our expert photography team to uncover what goes into crafting the perfect shot – from the appetite appeal created by our food stylists to the mood and storytelling shaped by our prop stylists.
Curious about how bespoke illustration could elevate your brand? Get in touch. We’d love to bring your story to life.
