Overview
Our illustrations take on many forms and ultimately have a job to do. They should always have a clear purpose, support content and guide a user to understand difficult concepts, products or services. Clear and simple illustrations help us provide meaningful engagement to our users.
Principles
IBM has a distinct perspective on illustration and a carefully crafted set of principles and best practices. Our illustrations aim to be engineered, clear, nimble, diverse and delightful to create the best possible experience for viewers. These principles capture fundamental ideas that are important to the IBM point of view for illustrations and their overall effectiveness regardless of size or medium.
IBM illustrations should feel engineered with a strong sense of balance and control. Precise use of the grid, along with consistent shapes, angles and radii, help define a particular aesthetic that’s critical in expressing the “IBMness” of our illustrations and reveals a well-considered and systematic approach.
IBM illustration should never work too hard or be burdened with too many ideas. Only essential, non-decorative, elements should be used to communicate the main idea. Keeping an illustration simple and straightforward adds clarity. This simplicity helps guide viewers through complex concepts, stories or scenarios.
IBM illustrations should display a sense of ease, lightness and nimbleness. This nimble sense of composition, space, weight and orderliness will help the viewer intake complexity with ease. A nimble quality also adds a great sense of activity and liveliness in the illustration.
We take great pride in our commitment to diversity and inclusion and IBM illustrations should be created in the same spirit. Gender, cultural and geographical diversity should always be considered when creating illustrations so that we strive for inclusion, representation and accessibility for all.
IBM illustrations should carry a sense of wonder and delight. While illustrations are primarily used to explain or convey meaning, their delivery can be more lighthearted at times. Lightheartedness means adding a sense of fun that isn’t overly humorous, but spirited, charming and appropriate for the situation.
Illustration styles
IBM illustration styles have been carefully considered to allow our design teams to implement them with success across IBM while maintaining a consistent and unifying aesthetic. They draw from the DNA of visual elements and principles within the IBM Design Language and IBM’s rich visual history.
Line style
Line style illustrations are simple yet hard-working visuals that convey a sense of precision, honesty and authority. They’re a continuation of pictogram logic, but extended to allow for communicating richer narratives or concepts.
Flat style
Flat style illustrations are colorful, bold, graphic statements that can have a big impact in a variety of spaces, applications or platforms.
Isometric style
Isometric style illustrations harness dimension for an added sense of depth and space that helps communicate complex ideas or processes in interesting ways.
