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Illustration
We’re honest and distinct. It’s honesty without feeling too naive or childlike. It’s distinct without feeling too foreign or crazy. Illustration is one of the strongest assets that can simplify the over-complicated in finance, all while putting the focus on people and relatability.
Illustration Principles
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Our illustrations cleverly distill complex ideas down to their simplest, yet surprising form
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Pleo’s illustration style is meant to break down the cleanliness of our graphics with easy-going and playful expressionism
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Illustration has become a distinctive hallmark of the Pleo brand in a sector where few do this. It reflects our brand traits and serves as an integral partner to our tone of voice
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To name but a few, we’re inspired by mid-century cartoons, illustrations from magazines such as Monocle and New Yorker, and their take on the world of work and finance
Our Style
Our style combines clean, linear strokes, high contrast and solid colours. Forms are simple and thought through, aimed to intrigue and spark curiosity. The concepts avoid default corporate iconography where possible.
We use illustration to simplify complex finance jargon and break down the cleanliness of our graphics with easy-going, playful expressionism.
Brush and stroke
Brush and stroke
Whether raster or vector our illustration uses a high-contrast, smooth brush with no texture.
Colour
Brush and stroke
Colour is dosed with care, our illustration palette is usually limited to 2-3 colours, especially in the case of simple illustrations.
Complexity
Our illustration is categorised by their function and level of complexity into 3 groups:
01
High complexity
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Low complexity
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Pictograms
High Complexity ILLUSTRATION
Even our complex illustrations aim for simplicity of form and clever ideas. Intended to support copy through visual narratives our detailed illustrations leverage brand, explain our product, and bring life to the story we’re painting.
Those are used on our website, in educational modals in product, and all core marketing materials.
HIGH COMPLEXITY WITH UI
We use simplified UI to depict our product. We avoid drawing Pleo software – it is important we leverage our great product in a realistic, trust-evoking manner where we can.
In this context, illustration plays a secondary role, highlighting desired sections and adding the brand spark.
LOW Complexity ILLUSTRATION
Low complexity illustrations distill message to a simple visual, directing users’ attention and bringing delightful accents to our product. They support copy, but are not intended to replace, or substitute it as we avoid building multi-levelled rebuses.
Low complexity illustrations are used in smaller scale layouts, mainly on our website and in product, but can be also used in marketing materials.
Pictograms
Very slight stroke thickness variation is used to suggest weight, distance, or add a pinch of dynamism. Hands are drawn on soft, slanted curves, without nails, with one button on a cuff. Faces’ dot-eyes are broadly positioned, with single-line nose reaching their height. Objects are simplified, yet decorative. For expressiveness, some are drawn at slight angle.
PICTOGRAM SET
CONSTRUCTING PICTOGRAMS
Use a 3pt blob brush
Set smoothing to 100%
In digital applications, pictograms should be 48 x 48px minimum, 80 x 80px maximum
Journalists looking for the Pleo press kit
Partners looking to showcase our logos in their respective channels
Passers-by looking to explore good brand work
Drawing the Pleo logo
If the Pleo logo is part of the illustration, we incorporate a vector one. If stylistically it makes sense to draw it, we trace it over a vector one. The outline should be confident and stable. If it’s a small-scale case, logo should be a single line, drawn with care to disrupt it as little as possible.
