Sometimes, using illustrations make the perfect alternative to using photographs for when you want to convey something that a photograph just can’t, like fantasy scenes or abstract emotions. Illustrations can also make your content stand out from the crowd by bringing new perspectives and styles to a concept. They can also be ideal for icons and infographics, especially as vector illustrations can be scaled up to any size without losing image quality or becoming pixelated.
If you’re looking to bring fresh aesthetic appeal to your content, here are 5 illustrators you should know about.
Jess Rodriguez
Jess Rodriguez is a Spanish illustrator who has been a contributor since 2018. Rodriguez combines vivid colour palettes of highly contrasting tones with sharp edges and geometric shapes. His illustrations play with the aesthetic of traditional printmaking and collaging techniques, while bringing bold contemporary imagery to the page. With well considered and often repeating compositions, Rodriguez challenges the viewer and requires his audience to work hard in order to make sense of his sometimes-chaotic scenes, which reflect our often chaotic modern lives. His use of different colour schemes enables customers to fit his images more easily within their content.
Isaxar
It might surprise you to know that these inky loose line drawings are in fact vector illustrations. The use of a monotone colour palette encourages the viewer to concentrate on the lines and form of each drawing, and creates a stark bold image against the white background. Isaxar’s subjects vary from character design and architecture to scenes of people going about their everyday lives. Isaxar sometimes creates an entire city vista, conveying the hustle and bustle of the crowds, while other times she chooses to pick out one element of a scene, leaving the background blank and forcing us to focus on a chosen detail. The unfinished, sometimes rough and ready style of some of her work conveys a deceptive sense that these scenes were completed with ease.
Yuliya Kachan
Belarusian illustrator artist and designer Yuliya Kachan grew up in an area affected by the Chernobyl disaster, and as a result her village was mostly abandoned. This meant that she was surrounded by almost wild untamed nature, a theme that permeates through her work. Mainly working with oil and watercolour paints while also producing vector illustrations, her bright and eye-catching repeating patterns are ideal for packaging, backdrops for text or on textiles.
Alan Rogerson
Alan Rogerson is a freelance artist and illustrator based in Cambridge, UK, and has nearly 600 illustrations in his collection with us. His surreal, sometimes nightmarish lino cut-esque illustrations are frequently reminiscent of Escher or medieval art, and sometimes carry political themes. Strong linework and bold contrasting colours mean that Rogerson’s illustrations command attention, making them perfect for use in books and editorial publications, especially for those looking for more abstract imagery. These bizarre and dreamlike illustrations often amuse viewers and leave the meaning behind them ready for subjective interpretation.
Tithi Luadthong
Tithi Luadthong is a digital illustrator based in Bangkok, and since our interview with him in 2019 has added nearly 400 new illustrations to our site. Luadthong’s talent for producing visually arresting sci-fi inspired artwork started as a childhood hobby, when he enjoyed drawing cartoon characters copied from comic books and manga. Luadthong has a degree in architecture and worked at an interior design company producing hand drawn interior renderings for 10 years. Here he became interested in digital art and honed his skills in drawing cityscapes and landscapes. Heavily influenced by dystopian sci-fi movies, his images are also influenced by real locations that he has visited, taking his own photos as references for his compositions. If you are looking for imagery to accompany content related to gaming, future surrealism, sci-fi dystopias or fantastical worlds, you should definitely be considering Luadthong’s work.
