I started my journey of becoming a product illustrator around May 2017 when I joined Flipkart. Since I don’t have a design background and had chosen to leave my first tech job as a developer and become a product illustrator, there have been some key learnings that I have learned from making mistakes, following advice from some amazing designers and mentors around me.
My experiences and learning so far have helped me become a little better every day. The following points are from my experience as a product illustrator in an organization as well as an Illustrator.
1. Illustrator vs product Illustrator.
To even being with, what is product illustration and what’s the difference between product illustrators and illustrators? Just like packaging design, Product design, product illustration specializes in visual systems for digital products. Unlink editorial or 1 off illustration work where it’s usually 1 illustration and it’s done, product illustrator is a tightly coupled system of visuals. There are icons, empty states, error states, feature icons, loading states, and etc. As a product illustrator, not only it’s your duty is to ensure that the visuals you introduce stay relevant to your product, are consistent, and convey what you mean, your job would equally be to ensure it goes smoothly with the UX of the app and fits in holistically in the big picture.
2. Don’t be limited by style.
Different organizations have different style guides and brand guidelines. As a Product illustrator, you should be able to adapt and scale the visuals as per the guide. If you feel comfortable adapting to various styles, you already have an advantage.
Try experimenting with different styles of illustrations/graphic design, for which, recreate various illustrations from Dribbble/Instagram or various artists you admire. Then self-assess your illustrations to see how you’re progressing in your skills. Keep a digital sketchbook where you keep experimenting and exploring various styles and quick visual ideas.
3. Have a Journal.
In a day, you’d get so many icon requests, quick fixes requests, and so many tasks that it might get overwhelming to track. Some tasks would feel like Monolith that’d need to be broken into smaller chunks, while some would be as small as replying to mail with a link or sending an asset across which would be equally important.
To start easy I use started with to-do lists. This made me more productive as I knew what to do next. Later, if some days I’d feel overwhelmed because of so many thoughts in my mind, I’d make a list of worries and write everything that is the cause of the overwhelm. This helped in 2 ways. Firstly, it freed the clutter from my mind as now I have these thoughts in a notebook and not just a bunch of ideas floating in my head. Secondly, I’d write actionable corresponding to these and complete them one by one.
I have now finished over 5 journal notebooks with ideas, brainstorms, to do tasks, learning, and random thoughts. This just puts your mind in a notebook, so to speak. I do a sketch in the same journal as this makes it one consolidated place for everything.
4. People Management.
Working in an organization or even with a client is a collaborative effort. These efforts require you to not only work with people but also negotiating, getting work done, delegating work, managing bandwidth, and many more. While people management comes more with experience, a couple of things that can help are.
- Say no to work that you can’t pick up. There’s no way you should commit to something that you cannot deliver. Do raise your concerns related to the work, timeline, or project but don’t promise unless you’re sure about it.
- Your manager is your friend. Keep weekly 1:1 with your manager to discuss your schedule, possible obstacles, and keep a track of your progress
- Disagree and commit. You may sometimes agree with some idea or not. In either case, do put your thoughts forward and let your opinions be heard. This makes your thoughts transparent and people know your views and take input. Later on, if the final decision is made, do commit to it, even if you might not agree to it.
5. Documenting your work.
Initially in the organization, I had trouble articulating my thoughts and evangelizing my work. Often telling the process and how I came to a particular solution or a decision would be very hard.
Documentation is not just important for your portfolio but also for you to consciously write down the decisions you made, the choices you made during the progress. Having a framework in place helps you focus on one step at a time. The overall framework that I use for my documentation looks something like this.
- Introduction
- Overview
- Principles/Concept
- Sketches
- Early drafts
- Final designs
- Adaptations
You need to talk about your work, why you chose these colors, how did you finalize the composition, how did you incorporate the feedback, and how everything led to the final output we see. Documentation includes pencil sketches, mind maps, color explorations, mocks, etc.
6. Social media/dribble is just a byproduct.
I still remember the joy I’d feel in college when I’d make something and upload it on Instagram/Dribbble. That feels nice and I still feel it’s nice. However, your primary product shouldn’t be an Instagram post or a Dribbble shot. Surely when you’re starting, it’s good for sprint and warming up, but later as you progress, think of these like showcase where you show an extract of what’s in the store. Focus on making projects and sharing WIP/Documentation artifacts there. Also, as a side note, you should definitely have a website.
7. Figure out your weakness as early as possible.
The idea of looking at a blank piece of paper has always scared me. I’d be able to do geometric objects easily but human postures were very bad. Thanks to my former manager Varun Dhanda, who encouraged me to do sketching, no matter how bad my sketches were at starting.
I would make absolutely horrible sketches earlier and feel bad about my inability to draw them. I tried doing it on paper and failed for at least 3 months. The only way to get better was to just keep trying and I collected some good examples of human forms and admired and make a board on the sketch. I started with replicating them on pencil and paper. Analyzing and critiquing the sketches and figuring out which works and which doesn’t work has helped me over the months to become better at human forms and hands.
8. Be critical of your work.
No one can understand your work as much as you can. The more critical you’re of your work, the more you’d develop a refined taste of your work. At least knowing what’s not working is far more important than actually fixing it. If you’re not aware of these shortcomings, you’d have a very hard time addressing the feedback you get from the team/clients.
Once my former manager told me that in design schools, after one assignment they were asked to tear that artwork and discard it. If I was asked to do that, I’d probably not, and that’s what I’ve learned not to do. Your work, if seen not seen critically by you, would become an attachment and therefore, you’d not be ready to point out the wrong in your work and move forward. You can either be happy about your work or criticize your work and move forward to the next task.
9. Make 6 discard 1.
Discarding your work doesn’t mean you’re discarding your skills, it just makes you consciously eliminating a piece of your work that doesn’t qualify as per your standard. Now, whenever I make an illustration series, If I plan to make let’s say a series of 4 posters, I make sure to sketch 6 final sketches.
This way I eliminate 1 that I feel don’t fit together. The extra 1 is eliminated later once I start making colored vectors. This way I ensure I always pick creme de la creme so the quality of the final product remains intact.
10. Make in series.
I wish I knew this ever before I started making anything. Please don’t make personal projects just one, especially your print posters or postcards. 1 thing I have learned is that when you make a single shot, you’re just making a one-off work that doesn’t fit anywhere and surely will end up being on Instagram. If you keep making in series, you’ll not only learn how to make multiple works in the same style, you’d also learn to organize your work better, approaching things systematically and at the end, you’d also have an end-to-end project that your can showcase.
Say hi!
I hope the article has helped you in a way or the other. liked it? hated it? Have feedback? Drop a mail on thapliyalshivam@gmail.com
What I learned as a product Illustrator in 2 years was originally published in Bootcamp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
