A picture can paint a thousand words but sometimes your storytelling abilities through photography are held back by a limited photo stock, or budget, or both.
When using photographs on a website, you need to ensure consent forms are signed, and that your photo shoot(s) to obtain the necessary images are comprehensive of a diversity of audiences. This can take time to arrange and carry out the photography to obtain the images required. Weather, no shows, equipment failures, shy subjects and other on-the-day issues can all make a photo shoot problematic. A beautiful set of subject images is something to be treasured but they can also become out of date quickly as people leave the organisation or other circumstances change.
It is for such reasons that we sometimes work with clients to develop illustrative images as part of their brand portfolio. A set of illustrations can be distinctive for a brand and it is often easier to align them with brand characteristics than photography files. With illustrations, the brand owner has full creative control and the flexibility of using and adapting them as they wish. Illustrations tend to have a timeless quality, requiring fewer updates than photography.
Touch Design and our sister company Volute teamed up to work with the West Midlands Cancer Alliance on an illustrative approach for their website re-commission. The West Midlands Cancer Alliance is one of 20 alliances funded by NHS England which cover the whole cancer pathway in a region, from screening programmes to living with and beyond cancer. The Alliance works with health service commissioners, GP practices, hospital trusts and other regional networks to ensure equal access and implement best practice in care.
As the Alliance began to broaden its original professional focus to include a greater emphasis on patient involvement, the website re-launch needed to embrace a wider set of character images that more fully represented the patients and clinicians involved in people’s cancer journeys. These images also needed to reference a greater emphasis on workforce development and training within the Alliance.
Photography was going to prove difficult to achieve across the age range and ethnicities of the region, as well as the different staff groups involved. Instead, the illustrations we produced, representative of patients and professionals, are accessible and friendly and allow a mix-and-match approach that would not be possible using photography. The illustrative characters provide an individual and recognisable visual element and have been drawn up using the NHS colour palette, mixed in with other colours as necessary. Photography is excellent when you need absolute authenticity and realism, but illustration is perfect when you want a flexible and easy updateable subject portfolio.
The illustrations on the Alliance website now help provide an essential part of their brand appearance. Within other areas, such as news items and team headshots, photography of course has its place. It all adds up to a visually attractive, user-friendly, engaging website, where site visitors – professionals and patients – can identify with the subject content and imagery.
For advice on illustration and its creative uses, simply This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. us.
Give us a call on 0115 950 9394 or email info@touchdesign.co.uk