ILLUSTRATIONS for Your Products and Services

Drawings or illustrations are ideal for demonstration materials, how-to and technical manuals, advertising and books

TECHNICAL DRAWINGS: Technical illustrations are ideal for many types of promotional or information materials such as hardware or software instruction manuals, where a photograph would be too busy. Illustrations work well because they remove the sometimes distracting details that can get in the way when you're trying to show how something works. We created this series of computer equipment drawings for a software company that was producing a "How to Operate a Computer" manual and DVD. We took photos of various pieces of computer equipment to get the correct perspectives on each item. The illustrations were drawn in Adobe Illustrator and delivered to the client in both Illustrator and JPG formats. Adobe Illustrator files can be enlarged to very large sizes and still look crisp and razor sharp. This is handy for use in large format trade show banners and posters.

INSTRUCTION MANUAL AND DEMONSTRATION ILLUSTRATIONS: The complexity of even highly detailed objects can be greatly simplified and made easily visible using technical illustration techniques as shown in these drawings of a modern digital camera and pickup truck. We can turn these custom illustrations around rapidly based on your product or prototype shots. Each of the shots was based on a photograph for precise perspective and exact detail. They look great online, and even better in print. Technical drawings can be created as simple line art or turned into fully shaded and colorized semi-realistic illustrations as required.

MANY TREATMENTS FROM ONE DRAWING: We've created hundreds of illustrations for many companies over the years in many different styles, depending on what the client needed. What you see on this page is a small fraction of the work we've produced.

The illustrations of the truck and wooden chairs below show some of many treatments that we can produce for your products and/or services. A single piece of artwork can be presented in many different ways, so feel free to challenge us.

Do you know what you want but don't see it here? Give us a call to discuss your specific needs: (727) 766-6888.

DETAILED SEMI-REALISTIC PRODUCT ILLUSTRATION: Despite some of these images looking like photographs, they are all illustrations. You may be in the market for drawings that are more detailed and true to life as shown in these products. All illustrations were created in Adobe Illustrator (except screen captures, which were tweaked in Photoshop, then added to the Illustrator files) and carefully shaded with gradient fills to have a near-realistic look. This style of illustration used to be prohibitively expensive, but is now very affordable for many types of products.

Used in combination with Adobe Photoshop and digital photography, it is possible to create beautiful line art, grayscale or full-color mockups of items that are prototypes or have not been manufactured, yet still need to be displayed in ads, catalogs and on web sites. Various levels of realism can be attained, including what looks essentially like a photographic image.

We've created magazine ads with these mockups which allow what appear to be actual grayscale or full-color products, allowing them to be advertised long before they roll off the assembly line. This can be beneficial for creating pre-sales, especially for new or pilot projects or for test markets. We can also create finished artwork from sketches, or touch up prototype photographs so that they look like the actual product. Give us a call at (727) 466-6888 to discuss what you have in mind, and we'll build the artwork you need to win over a new crowd of buyers.

DRAMATICALLY SHADED CONTOURS: This Canon camera shows how a simple line drawing can be transformed into a beautiful image with real depth and mass. Give us a call to challenge our creative team to come up with something dynamic for your company.

ILLUSTRATIONS FOR HOW-TO MANUALS & BROCHURES: The drawings below were created as part of a series of illustrations, graphs and charts for a sales manual for a successful California and Florida firm. The technical ins and outs of how to organize a sales team, flow lines, commissions and a basic understanding of how to achieve personal success were quickly demonstrated in an easy to understand and friendly style that made a potentially dry and confusing subject very appealing.

RESIZABLE MULTI-TEXTURED VECTOR IMAGE DRAWING: Sometimes projects crop up where a logo needs to be redrawn in vector format (made of lines, shapes and curves, not pixels) because it has to be used at many different sizes. In this case, the Entertainment Tonight logo had to look perfect and crisp but all we had was a small JPG image that simply couldn't be enlarged without looking awful. The usual solution would be to create a HUGE version in Photoshop and then reduce it as necessary—but Photoshop files are very large, unwieldy, tricky to work with and are still pixel-based. Instead we used Adobe Illustrator to create what looks like a meticulously airbrushed, semi-3D logo with shadows, gradient fills and feathering, but has a small file size and can be resized up or down without any loss in quality. This is a huge plus for many clients who use their branding on everything from brochures, magazine ads and web sites to the sides of busses and giant billboards. The line drawing on the right shows the actual vector paths that make up the ET logo. Our creatives know their tools and can work magic. We didn't design the ET logo, but we were able to re-create it in a format that our client could use without the limitations of pixel-based artwork.

ILLUSTRATIONS FOR BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS: Dr. Gottfried Lange commissioned a series of illustrations, graphs and charts for his book "How to Really Prevent and Cure Heart Disease" (on sale at Amazon.com). Dr. Lange is an MD as well as a naturopath, nutritionist, researcher, lecturer and author to travels Europe and North America with his news of hope for heart disease and high blood pressure without the use of pharmaceuticals. We were provided with rough line drawings and artwork and created a consistent look throughout the book to make the understanding of this rather complex subject simple.

ARTISTIC REPRESENTATION ILLUSTRATION: Here's a tricky one. An obstetrics doctor wanted us to create a web site, brochure and packaging design for a new aid he'd invented to help women during childbirth: PushPal. It was important to show how the product is used, but in good taste and with attention to aesthetics. We hired a model (not pregnant), put her in tights and shot several photos with the product on her legs, the way it would be used during delivery. Then we created an artistic, feminine, flowing brush-like drawing style and added in her round belly. The client was very pleased with the result.

Give us a call at (727) 466-6888 to discuss your illustration projects
This is just a small sample of the vast range of illustration work we can provide. If the type of illustrations you see on this page aren't exactly what you need, our talented staff has the skills to deliver what you need. All you need to do is challenge us and we'll rise to the occasion. We're looking forward to working with you soon to help your next book, brochure, web site, product package or other project look terrific so that it will attract customers and create sales.

DESIGN STRATEGIES, INC.
2060 Sunset Point Road, Unit 52
Clearwater, Florida, USA 33765
Phone: (727) 466-6888
Fax: (727) 466-6881
Skype: design-strategies