Digital Storytelling: A Guide On How To Tell Your Brand Story With Illustrations

Digital storytelling will help the brand reach people and make them understand their message. Here’s how illustrations can impact your brand story.

Jenn Pereira
December 15, 2021
digital storytelling

There are many digital strategies used to captivate an audience. Story illustrations are one of the most feasible choices. In this article, we’ll show you how to tell your brand story with illustrations.

Digital Storytelling
Image Source: Sahil Bajaj

Using visuals to their full potential is powerful for marketers. They can convey specific messages to connect with their customers. Digital marketing has become increasingly popular, which is why there is amplified demand for visually appealing material. When it comes to digital strategies that grab an audience, story illustrations are among the most feasible choices.

What is Digital Storytelling?

Digital storytelling is using a narrative in order to communicate a specific message. When used in marketing, the aim is to enable the audience to feel emotions that lead them to take positive actions towards the brand. It is important in modern marketing because it paves a way to connect with customers.

Some concepts might be too complicated for an audience to understand. The concepts could be about your brand ideals, how your products or services work, or another idea that needs to be thoroughly explained. With digital storytelling, illustrations will help people to visualize the concept. This makes it easier for them to understand and appreciate it. Infographics, for example, will help explain complex data. Digital storytelling will help a brand to reach people and make them understand their message.

Image Source: https://asana.com/

Digital storytelling transforms graphic design and illustration into more memorable information. There have been studies conducted about how telling a story makes it easier for a person to retain information. Even Stanford’s Graduate School of Business figured out how people easily remember stories by up to 63%.

What are the Keys to an Effective Brand Story?

Even without exact details, the audience can remember the brand with a good story. A strong story is one of the most powerful ways to leave a lasting impression. It is therefore vital to create an effective brand story that would make customers remember and stick with your brand.

Harnessing the awesome power of storytelling and integrating it into digital marketing helps to create advertising that’s relatable and has lasting power. Story illustrations in brand marketing are also not limited to a single method, like film.

Stories can be told verbally, in forms of writing, or with images. Storytelling is versatile in the sense that almost all channels can be used for its delivery. You can tell your story either through your website, social media marketing, email marketing, or even through traditional billboard advertising.

The keys to creating an effective brand story include:

  • Having Thoroughly Researched the Subject. You can’t expect the audience to immediately understand the concept behind your design if you’re unfamiliar with it. You need to be thorough in studying the subject matter, what story you will tell, how you will illustrate it, etc. in order to create an effective story that resonates.
  • AA Highlighted Conflict. Opening up about your shortcomings and showing them makes people trust your brand. Be transparent about the difficulties that your brand has encountered and own it.
  • A Crafted Resolution. As the protagonist of the story, your brand should be able to structure a resolution to solve the conflict. The audience should see that you are credible enough to solve the conflict.

How Can Illustrations Impact Your Brand Story?

Illustrations are useful in crafting a solid brand identity. It is easy to utilize and integrate brand personality into your marketing strategy. With illustrations, you can paint a clear picture of your brand image. For example, minimalist illustrations are perfect for brands who want to exude sophistication and professionalism. Those who are aiming for an innovative front should go with elaborate, visually-packed, and colorful customizable graphics and illustrations.

Image Source: https://www.dropbox.com/

In telling a good story using illustrations, your can demonstrate why your brand is both interesting and relevant to the customers. You have the chance to make the stories look personal so that you draw the audience to the story. Illustrations will allow you to instill emotion and empathy. Instead of telling your story using plain texts that tend to be boring and complex, illustrations give you another option. This choice is often simple but more memorable, relatable, and entertaining.

Why Illustrations are More Effective for Brand Stories

Many businesses are still hung up on using graphic design and stock images when telling their brand story. Although these are still able to make the story visually aesthetic, they cannot compete with what illustrations can better provide.

The biggest difference between graphic design and illustration is that the former is more concerned with the technical aspect of creating visuals. The latter is focused on producing a creative, emotional output. Most designers would agree that illustrations carry warmth and are able to communicate information in a more entertaining and organic way. This suggests that illustrations can attract a deeper connection with the audience than simple graphics can.

How To Tell Your Brand Story With Illustrations

There are many different ways to tell a brand story. Using illustrations is encouraged when it comes to digital marketing, because it makes it easier to cultivate emotional investment. Illustrations are ideal outlets of creative ideas and graphics that the audience can appreciate.

 In order to make illustrations work for your brand story, you have to:

1. Center your aim in building a personal brand. You have to be very specific on the message that you want the audience to understand.  Think about the colors to be used. The tiniest details, such as colors and fonts, should align with your brand story. It would help set the mood if you are using colors that evoke the right emotions and set the story’s tone.

2. Think about the colors to be used. The tiniest details, such as colors and fonts, should align with your brand story. It would help set the mood if you are using colors that evoke the right emotions and set the tone of the story.

3. Highlight diversity. You can expand your reach if you are able to highlight diversity. Try to create illustrations that are inclusive and celebrate equality. The characters, for example, should have different skin colors, races, etc.

4. Be consistent with your styles. One way to imprint your brand to the audience is by being consistent with your illustration styles. The audience will be able to spot your brand because of your distinct artistic inclinations.

5. Create your character. Illustrations usually involve endearing characters. Characters provide a positive aura to your marketing strategy and will elevate the mood of the story.

Image Source: Absurda


6. Illustrate Conflict. The conflict in your story is what will allow you to highlight your brand’s purpose. Illustrating the conflict will make the audience see your worth in order to avoid meeting the same adversity.

7. Show How You Do Your Business. An illustration is a great way to show everything about your business. It gives the audience an understanding of what you really do and the processes behind it. This develops a deeper understanding of your brand and successfully builds a personal brand identity.

8. Illustrate your challenging journey and milestones. There’s nothing more entertaining than hearing about inspiring stories. Your brand story should show what is special about your company. Bring your story to life with illustrations that convey your brand’s personality but make sure to do it with the goal of looking relatable. Highlight the events that support the main message of the story.

Explore Teamwork as a Theme

9. Explore Teamwork as a Theme. Instead of focusing your story on what you can contribute as a brand, you could also include the audience in the plot. Make illustrations that show how they are part of the resolution of a conflict. This will show how they are needed as part of the solution. It will also show that you can both work together to achieve the same goals.

20. Use Creative Narratives. It is not enough to have a great story of your brand’s triumph over adversities. Show what is unique about your brand using well-crafted graphic design and illustration. Vivid and entertaining imagery must show why your brand is unique. It must also define your company and prove what you stand for.

It’s Your Brand Story That Matters

Your story defines who you are as a brand. People trust and connect more with brands that have stories they can relate to and understand. Besides focusing on the actual product marketing, the audience need to see the motivation behind a business. This is very important in completing the whole customer experience.

With illustrations, you can help your audience build awareness about your business. This is by communicating your message in a way that they can easily absorb and understand. By giving them a glimpse of the success behind your brand through stories, you get to connect with the customers better.

A story illustration makes for some first-rate creativity but only when you are able to do it right. With digital marketing, graphic design and illustration play a huge role in communicating your message to the audience. Illustrations enable marketers to relay a story even without explaining anything. The artistic way will tell the story in a simpler, easier to understand, and more impactful manner.


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Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Suspendisse maximus ex in molestie mollis. Donec at ex et odio aliquam pharetra a vitae ligula. Nulla facilisi. Integer feugiat imperdiet varius.

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About the author :

Jenn Pereira, Growth Marketing Lead at designstripe, has 14 years of digital marketing experience and a proven track record of driving website traffic from 0 to over a million monthly visits. Her impressive portfolio of Growth Hack Case Studies demonstrates a systematic approach to achieving goals through creative & innovative ideas, strategic planning, and focused execution.

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