ShippingEasy: Establishing a Brand’s Illustration Style

About the Project

One of my first responsibilities at ShippingEasy was establishing and maintaining a unique illustration style for its highly-trafficked blog. Until late 2018, ShippingEasy lacked a clear style for its blog illustrations. Although seemingly insignificant, the blog posts were frequently shared and distributed — and there was no obvious branding to differentiate ShippingEasy.

Establishing a Color Palette

Before creating an illustration style, we needed to finalize the brand’s color palette based on ShippingEasy’s legacy green and blue.

The following images are a few examples of ShippingEasy blog posts over the past few years.

On a personal level, these illustrations become a major creative outlet for me, and I spent countless hours of my free time trying to become a better illustrator. Unlike many designers, I have a very limited artistic background (aside from a handful of classes at summer camp) and am not a good hand drawer. Although some areas of design came more naturally to me, illustrating certainly did not — and I became hell-bent on trying to make up for the art classes I never took.

Of course, I recognize that the illustration style of a blog won’t make or break a business, but I’m incredibly proud of how our style has evolved. The extra hours were certainly worth it — ShippingEasy established a clear and consistent illustration style, and I learned a skill I assumed was outside of my wheelhouse!