Working together with the YouTube team, we created 35 illustrations (four of which are animated) to help explain different features and make the YouTube Shopping experience easier and more fun.

Our brief for the updated illustrations was to make them easily understandable but with a playful edge. We spent a good amount of time on the concepting for this – portraying complex ideas like security in payments in ways that are instantly readable, charming and within the illustration system, takes a bit of thought.

A big part of the brief to take into consideration was including elements of YouTube’s UI. Things like phones, shopping bags, cards, products, shopfronts and tags have these instantly recognisable features, to keep everything consistent and on-brand.

We devised different characters for different tasks, systematising the sketches and making a rule set that could be implemented into broader contexts. In essence this project was about setting up a reduced illustration system. Showing a diverse range of characters through hair, faces and shoes. Big eyes, no nose, a body that's all legs. Simplicity often hits the nail on the head!

An illustration in situ

Services

Style exploration, Development, Concepting, Artworking, Creative direction and Production

Deliverables

35 x Illustrations (small, medium and large)
3 x Animated illustrations