Our infographics and descriptive illustrations serve as a bridge between the elegant continuous line illustrations and the more simple and graphical line icons. The visuals should always feel effortless, well-thought-out, informative, and positive.
By creating the infographics and descriptive illustrations with purposeful use of outlines and coloured parts, we can direct the viewer’s eye to the most important parts of the infographic.
The simpler the better. Especially when we are visualising complicated subjects.We should always try to keep the visuality as simple as we possibly can. Too many elements will make the infographic busy and distract the viewer’s attention with too many competing elements. For this reason, try to minimize the amount of superficial decorative elements from the visuals. Keeping it simple helps us achieve beautiful, smart, and balanced visuals.
In cases where a fuller illustrated world is necessary, make sure most of the illustration is made with black line on white background and that the viewer’s eye is lead through the visuals to the right places by subtle and prompt use of fill coloured elements.
Black line
The infographics and descriptive illustrations are created mainly with black line. The line has rounded cap.
The black line is usually combined with Powering green fill colour. The line should be used purposefully. It should always be thoughtfully planned and doesn’t always need to fully surround all the elements. The illustrations should always feel airy, and the lines should never get clogged.
The lines should be created with as few as possible deliberate anchor points to avoid any roughness on the line. The line should always look smooth and effortless, never bumpy, or rugged.
Always use only one stroke weight throughout the illustration. Mainly use black line colour.
The simpler the illustration, the more stroke weight can be used. The fuller the illustration, the lighter the stroke should be to not clog any parts of the visuals.
White line
White line can also be used on top of the fill colours or on background colours when the black line wouldn’t show or would be too heavy.
Colourful line
In some cases, use of colour in the lines might also be needed. For example, in some infographic elements green line might work better than large areas with green fill colour. Still, always use black as the main line colour and colourful line as secondary option and only on smaller areas.
Colour of the line should be in sync with the fill colour if both are present in the same visual. The primary colour of choice is the Powering green.
Fill colour
The fill colour serves as an eye-catcher that pops from the line art. It works well when used to highlight the most important elements of the illustration or infographic. It can also be used by having the colourful parts in the immediate vicinity of the most important element to bring the viewer’s eye there. This is a nice way to bring the attention where we want but not underline certain elements too much.
‘Less is more’ with the use of fill colours. The fill colour shouldn’t fill up too large areas of the descriptive illustration or infographic. It should be thought more as a spot colour than a background colour that would be used widely in the visuals. When used with the spot color idea, the coloured fill works better in guiding the viewers eye from different parts of the visuals to another.
Always primarily use only one fill colour per infographic illustration. The primary fill colour is Powering green.
If using more colours is the only way to make the infographic or descriptive illustrations understandable, more colours can be used. An example of such case is when the infographic needs to have some distinctive colour coding assigned for different elements, such as specific energy forms or different parts of a process.
When using multiple colours, always try to avoid piling up the colours on top of each other. They work best when they have more space between them. Secondary fill colours can be any of the other brand colours.
The characters can have more fill colours in addition to the Powering green to ensure a diverse and inclusive visuality. The skintone fill colours are derived from the Balancing beige.
Skintones and other character specific solutions can be found at the Character section.
When planning the descriptive illustration or infographic, remember, that some elements or parts of them can and should be drawn without the outline present. The coloured parts can form any shapes to the background or serve as a part of the illustration without an outline.
Black fill colour can also be used in small amounts for example in the character’s hair, shoes, and clothing or some other carefully thought elements. Remember, that you should not have too many or too big black coloured fill areas.
Primarily design the infographics and descriptive illustrations on white background.
If and when coloured backgrounds are necessary, try to primarily keep the backgrounds green. The coloured background also calls for even simpler and minimalistic illustrations as fuller illustrations together with the background colour easily turn very busy.
Tiny splashes of Powering green on Calming green background works well and the use of Powering green colour is the same there as on top of the white background. Don't use background colours behind our characters.
The descriptive illustrations and infographics might have characters in them. The characters should also be made with simple outlines, and they can have green or black fill colours in them as well. See more detailed info about characters.
Mainly use black line to create the illustrations.
Use the green fill colour thoughtfully.
Use only white or black line on top of fill colour.
Adjust the number of details with the sizing of the illustration.
Colourful line can also be used if they work better in the visuals than large areas with green fill colour would.
Don’t overuse the green fill colour.
Don’t overuse the colourful line colour.
Don’t use multiple fill colours in the characters clothing or other elements if they do not serve a specific purpose for the illustration or infographic. Also avoid piling up the colours.
Don’t use colourful line on top of fill colour.
Don’t have overly detailed and full visuals. This easily makes the illustration look restless and even clogged.
Don’t use multiple line widths in the visuals.
Don’t use heavy line width in the visuals. Thick line changes the overall look and makes the visuals feel heavy. Always take the whole picture and number of details into consideration when picking a correct line width. If the visuals get clogged, try to t
Don’t use extremely light line width in the visuals. Thin line changes the overall look and makes the visuals feel too light and unnoticeable. Always take the whole picture and number of details into consideration when picking a correct line width. Avoid
Don’t use tiny details in characters that are going to be used in tiny sizes as the details easily clog in smaller sizes.
Don’t use background colours behind the characters. Especially the Powering green background causes the illustration to lose its Powering green fill elements such as clothes and accessories.
Don’t use background colours behind the characters. Even though Calming green works better than Powering green as a background colour, this solution would take the whole look away from the preferred outline style.
