Selling your illustrations on Iconfinder

Monica Matei
The Iconfinder Blog
11 min readAug 18, 2021

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We know

We know what you are thinking.

“Iconfinder selling illustrations!? I mean, it’s called Icon-finder.”

You are right. It might seem counterintuitive at first, so let us explain. We fell in love with illustrations a long time ago. It was only recently that we were able to see with clarity just how much they share with icons.

They both beautify web and print materials and make them easier to understand, more engaging, more approachable. More than that, illustrations complement icons, both being used alongside each other for landing pages, onboarding flows, presentations, posters, and so forth. It is then convenient to find them in the same place.

We realised then that selling illustrations was a natural step for us to take.

We know that this may also be a natural step for you as an icon designer and that many of you are already in the illustration business. This article explains everything you need to know to achieve a well-performing illustration shop on Iconfinder. The different sections are accompanied by quotes from our customers.

Contents

You will learn about:

· How are illustrations different from icons
· How to upload illustrations
· Earnings for illustrations
· How to spread the word
· Guidelines for illustrations
· The customers

Let’s begin.

How are illustrations different from icons

Icons are stylised and simplified graphics whose aim is to capture the essence of an object or action (it zooms in). Often using geometrical shapes, a good icon can be understood by everyone in a few seconds. Icons work very well in small sizes and are often used as UI elements.

Examples of icons

Illustrations are more artistic and elaborate graphics whose aim is to enchant and bring life into a situation or action. Often using organic shapes and strokes, illustrations can be metaphorical and open to interpretation. They need to be seen in larger sizes in order to be understood. They are often used in presentations, landing pages, error pages, or even printed on books.

Examples of illustrations

To see what we understand as illustrations, please check our entire illustration collection.

To see what we consider as high-quality illustrations, please check this landing page.

How to upload illustrations

For now, you can use the same upload flow as for icons. After your submission is approved, our team will categorise them as illustrations.

Here are the basics that you need to follow before uploading illustrations.

  • We recommend an artboard size of 1000 px. If you’re choosing a smaller one, you can also start at 512 px.
  • Use unexpanded lines.
  • Upload in SVG format.
  • Use a transparent background.
  • There is no maximum file size, but we recommend 2–3 MB for best performance during upload.
  • We recommend pricing each illustration at $5 (or higher if it is of great quality and complexity).
  • Have a minimum of 10 illustrations per set.

Here is a good go-to article to check before uploading.

Besides these basic technical requirements, we further share with you guidelines for creating well-performing illustrations.

Earnings for illustrations

Illustrations are more elaborate and require more work. Therefore, they can be sold at a higher price than icons and will receive higher earnings from subscription downloads.

While icons are generally priced at $2-$3, we recommend pricing illustrations at a minimum of $4-$5 each. However, the price depends on the illustration’s uniqueness and complexity.

Additionally, when illustrations are downloaded by subscribers, earnings are distributed differently than for icons. When it comes to illustrations, these will earn you 5 times more compared to icon downloads. So, illustration downloads are multiplied by a factor of 5 and icon downloads by a factor of 1.

How to spread the word

We will make the official launch of the illustration section in the end of August. Here is how you can help us spread the word.

Twitter and Product Hunt

You can help us spread the news by retweeting and upvoting us on Product Hunt. We will send you a reminder about this by email.

If you haven’t done that yet, we would appreciate a follow on our social channels. That’s were were post some of the beautiful content that you contribute, as well as share all the updates and launches.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/iconfinder
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iconfinder/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iconfinder
Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/@leblancstartup

Referral links

Whenever you are linking to Iconfinder, remember to use your referral link — no matter if you are sharing a link to your own content or any other page on Iconfinder.

Guidelines for illustrations

Here are our general recommendations when drawing illustrations.

Quality

Illustrations occupy an ample space on a website and are the main point of focus. This is why their design quality has to be high. We recommend spending time creating beautiful illustrations with attention to detail.

Example of an illustration with great attention to detail

To get an idea about what we consider high-quality illustrations, check the families featured on the Illustration section.

Consistency

Illustration sets and families that match each other are essential for a consistent design language when used on a website, onboarding flow, newsletter, etc.

“It is important that all illustrations match.”

An example of a consistent illustration set

Variety

Illustrations come in handy when designing websites for clients. When working with several clients, access to a variety of different drawing styles becomes key.

“I need to have different styles to chose from — so I can use different ones for different clients.”

Easily editable

Illustrations should be easy to customise to make them match the customers’ brand or the right atmosphere. Try to keep a limited colour palette so that the colours can be easily edited when needed.

An example of an easy-to-recolour illustration

“Most of the time, I do edits to illustrations. 70% of the time I change the colours, 40% of the time I do alterations to the shapes.”

“To me, it is important that the illustration either fits with our brand guides or that I can easily modify it to have our colours or perhaps even remove elements.”

Expect custom job requests

As mentioned above, being able to edit illustrations is very important for adapting them to customers’ own use cases. On many occasions, customers will reach out to you to ask for modifications or custom illustrations.

We recommend that you are quick to respond to customer messages.

“It is super important to me that I could contact a creator for modifications.”

“The ability to contact the creator is very important.”

Diversity & inclusion

Illustrations are primarily about people. Our recommendation is to stay open-minded about the type of people you include in your designs.

We recommend including people with:

  • Different skin colours.
Example of illustrations with different skin colours
  • Different ages, with a particular focus on age-positive illustrations (portraying old age as a happy and dignified age instead of showing sickness and frailty).
Example of an age-positive illustration
  • Different religions, ethnicities, cultural groups.
Example of an illustration including a diverse group of people
  • Disabilities and impairments (blindness, deafness, hearing aids, etc.)
Example of an illustration about deafness
  • Different sexual orientations.
Example of an illustration portraying a gay couple
  • No gender stereotypes (especially around professions and roles at home and in society; avoid portraying only men in management jobs, for example).
Example of illustrations breaking gender and cultural stereotypes

Here is what customers have been saying about diversity:

“A suggestion — maybe “diversity” should apply to age, as well? Be great to have some grey hair and bald heads in there, too… that would make the selection truly inclusive.”

“Makers would you be willing/able to add us (black ppl) in nature-based settings hiking, biking, birding, gardening, etc.)? There is def a need in the environmental space as well!”

“Will you please add some illustrations of people with the disability of hearing loss, deaf, and also cochlear implants?”

“Inclusion and diversity — students need to see themselves in the content they’re working with.”

Free samples

Customers often want to try an illustration before they buy it. This is even more important if they are planning to buy a whole set or family. This is why we recommend offering one set for free in each illustration family.

The customers

Next, we’ll look at the input that customers have been sharing with us in surveys and interviews, together with some search data.

Who are the customers

The most common customer groups we have observed are:

  1. UI/UX designers. They usually get illustrations for adding to websites and applications.
  2. Project managers/consultants/strategists. They use icons and illustrations in presentations, flowcharts or mapping tools to explain ideas and concepts to other stakeholders.

“Illustrations help the products to feel less dry.”

What are illustrations used for

The most popular use cases for illustrations are placing on websites, adding to presentation slides, creating social media material, or adding to newsletters, followed by a tail of other uses too.

Most common illustration uses according to the customers we surveyed
  • Website uses include: landing pages, onboarding flows, login pages, error pages (specifically 404 pages), empty pages etc. Some customers need illustrations for client websites they are designing.
  • Presentations uses include: Power Point presentations, Keynote presentations, slide decks etc.
  • Social media uses mean creating visuals to share.
  • Newsletter uses mean embellishing emails that are sent regularly to customer segments.
Example of one of our newsletter emails that has been embellished with an illustration

Customer quotes

Here are some quotes from users in reply to the question ‘What do you use illustrations for?’:

“I use them for web and mobile apps. Mostly digital products.”

“Mostly, a professional newsletter which really needs illustrations but doesn’t have the budget.”

“Website development and marketing promotions.”

“For me, the illustrations are not meant to convey a message but rather create a vibe and atmosphere.”

“Social media, infographics, email campaigns, etc.”

“I use illustrations in my applications to make them feel more alive. The illustrations will be graphical representations of what a feature will do or of a flow. It would be great if one could combine multiple illustrations into one single illustration, i.e. a warehouse, a truck and an arrow that represent the process of handling incoming goods in a mobile app. “

“To add a little flair to our monthly newsletters and blog posts.”

“I’d like to use illustrations instead of icons in some cases to make it easier for the user to distinguish between different modules or flows in an application. As an example I’m working on an application for handling reception of goods, picking orders for shipments, creation of orders and inventorying. Having illustrations to describe each module on the first page would be better than trying to find icons. The illustrations can be quite small and still be understandable.”

“Social media posts and PPT for lectures and training. Less often, but also for website.”

“Whiteboard videos, animated videos, learning modules.”

“We typically use background illustrations as part of our packaging design.”

“Making brochures easier to read, infographics.”

What are the criteria for choosing illustrations

When picking an illustration or a set, the most frequently mentioned criteria is the relevance/message, the style, whether the illustration is easily adjustable, and its quality.

Most important criteria when choosing illustrations according to the customers we surveyed
  • Relevance/Message means that the illustration has to closely represent the message that is being conveyed and to be easy to understand for customers, either literally or with the use of metaphors. In some instances, the illustration is required to work well with the text appearing next to it on the page.
  • Style refers to the way the illustration is drawn and what vibe or atmosphere it creates.
  • Easily adjustable means that the illustration can be edited, either by modifying its colours or shapes, or by adding or removing elements.
  • Quality/Resolution is about the illustrations being well-drawn and having attention to detail and a good resolution.
Example of an illustration creating a great landing page header

Customer quotes

Here are some thoughts in customers’ own words when they were asked ‘What is the most important criteria for you when choosing illustrations?’:

“That it either fits with our brand guides or that I can easily modify it to have our colours or perhaps even remove elements.”

“It is important that the illustrations match the visual identity of the company.”

“How unique it is. Sometimes illustrations come off as very typical.”

“Ease of recognition so the user gets what I’m trying to communicate.”

“Large selection and ability to contact the author to make modifications or custom illustrations.”

“For example, if the content includes a list of actions or behaviours to avoid that reduce productivity, I might look for a person burying their head in the sand or a person trying to insert a round object into a wall of square openings.”

“Simplicity and identification (don’t like those types that have no personality on their characters)”.

“Quality and unique feel. If there are lots from the same theme or if there is flexibility to adjust them, then I’m more likely to use for a larger project.”

“What matters the most is the action shown in the illustration and the style. If there are more than one illustrations to be used, consistency is also important.”

“Illustrations make interfaces more alive and not stale.”

Customers’ taste for illustration styles

There are also different preferences that customers have been mentioning when it comes to choosing the illustrations that they like. Here are some of the words they used to describe the style they go for.

“Unique, whimsical style.”

“Tasteful design.”

“Not too childish.”

“Modern and minimalist styles, hand drawn elements with that ‘sketch’ feel.”

“That humans look anatomically correct. Your sample page shows a lot of tiny heads.”

“Either totally depersonalised or custom made.
Nothing in between — nothing screaming ‘clip art’. “

“Illustrations from other stock sites often lack character.”

What keywords are used when searching for illustrations

The table below shows you the keywords that customers used to search for illustrations. The data corresponds to a bit over 2 months of illustration search.

This data can give you a good idea of the most demanded topics for illustrations so far.

We look forward to seeing your illustration work on Iconfinder. If you have any questions not covered by this report or the guidelines article, you can write to us at support@iconfinder.com.

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