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Why individual illustrations are so important today

Why individual illustrations are so important today

The majority of social media channels are completely amass with visuals. On Facebook and LinkedIn quotes for example are being used as images, while services such as Instagram and Pinterest are purely image driven. You will no doubt be soon adviced from your boss to use images for your next social media strategy.

The modern social media consumer has indeed become familiar with a surge in image orientated messages and posts. The trend “clicking and engaging” with image-loaded content has quickly developed into a winner. News sites and online magazines are exercising such a technique with undoubted success.

A prime example is the site USA Today which is flooded with such image-teasing articles. Even medicalvision.de posts are using a very persuasive image, enabling you click to experience more.
There are a now a huge number of websites offering stock photos, illustrations and animations — and due to a huge number of files available online, there are agencies who specialize in helping pick suitable imagery for project needs. What’s more, completely new branches are now appearing based on the consumer’s need for visuals.

This development does of course has some consequences. Stock material for example follows the same rules as anything else does: People get used to it. And on top of that, you might see the same young woman with a nice mediterranean complexion and bright smile a couple of times a day — on and offline.

Fact is: We need to break free from the masses

What does this mean to you? Online communication such as graphics need to be 110% accurate. Your message and the information being portrayed must reach the user within seconds. Stock material cannot do that.

Infographics on the other hand have become the trend at getting important messages across very successfully. They incorporate creative layouts, facts and of course the all important image. Good infographics even have the chance to go viral. Likes, retweets, +1 or shares are the hard and valuable currency. The most important part of communication is of course the imagery that gives every company it’s character — a part of the corporate design, which the business partner, client or customer might see a couple of times a day. At that point we come back to the introduction above. The imagery is the chance, maybe a couple of times in a modern day, to break free from the masses — and leave competitors behind.

The comsumer’s eye is trained and quickly recognises stock material. Illustrations that do not fit a message exactly, may immediately be labelled as “royalty free” and lose their value at once. So if the topic is “What do measles do?”, the illustration should show the virus infecting a cell. Just a germ floating in a vessel is not enough. A stock photo of a person infected with measles should also – if at all – only be a compromise.

medicalvision does business under the name “agency for visual communication”. For nearly 30 years now we’ve been creating individual scenes of microbiology, molecular worlds of the pharma industry or medical illustrations of the human anatomy. Join the ride!