Illustration
First and foremost, illustrations should always have an element of humor, personality, and quirkiness. We entertain and inform, and in that order. Second, we keep it simple. Raising kids and running a home is already complicated enough. We don’t need our communication to be visually complicated.
Hand Drawings
Hand drawn illustrations help add to the authenticity of our communication and make us seem more real.
Illustrations should be clear and relatively simple. Readers should not have to guess what the meaning is or what the drawing represents. If it takes more than a second to understand the image, then we simplify it.
Icons
Icons are simple and are little more than line art and don’t have to be funny. They are more function than anything.
Graphics
Graphics are simple, uncluttered, uncomplicated, and easy to understand. We sometimes use animation to help clarify complex concepts or ideas. For hand-drawn graphics we sometimes use handwritten labels.
Orange is our primary color but is to be used sparingly (because it’s orange!).
The ‘NO’ list:
- no drop shadows
- no gradients
- no patterns
- no background images
- no sharp edges (if possible)
The ‘YES’ list:
- clean backgrounds (white gets priority)
- solid colors
- rounded corners (10% rounded is recommended)