Illustration Brief & Style Exploration
We agree on purpose, themes and reference styles, then test options so the final artwork matches your brand character.
- Style options
- Illustration brief
Graphic Design & Creative Services
Custom Illustration & Icon Design
Our illustrators create original spot illustrations, hero art and consistent icon sets, delivered as scalable SVG and layered source files, so your product and marketing share one visual language.
- Custom illustration
- Icon sets
- Scalable SVG files
- Style guide
- Years of delivery
- 8+
- Years of delivery
- Projects shipped
- 350+
- Projects shipped
- Clients across US, UK, AU & SG
- 200+
- Clients across US, UK, AU & SG
What’s included
Everything You Need to Get Illustrations and Icons Made Just for You
We create bespoke illustration and icon sets in a consistent style that gives your products and content a distinct look.
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Concept Sketches & Storyboards
We sketch compositions and characters for your approval, so changes happen early before detailed artwork starts.
- Rough sketches
- Approved layouts
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Custom Digital Illustration Artwork
We produce original illustrations for websites, apps, campaigns and print, with a consistent look across all pieces.
- Final illustrations
- Layered source files
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Brand Mascot & Character Design
We design memorable characters with poses and expressions, giving your brand a friendly, recognisable face.
- Character sheet
- Pose variations
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Custom Icon Set Design
We craft pixel-aligned icon sets with one visual style, so your product interface and marketing feel unified.
- Icon set
- Grid & style rules
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SVG, Icon Font & Sprite Export
We export scalable SVGs, PNGs and icon fonts, so developers can use the assets in web and mobile without rework.
- SVG files
- Icon font
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Illustration Library Expansion & Licensing Terms
We add new artwork over time and clearly document usage rights, so you can grow your library with confidence.
- Extended library
- Usage rights note
Need something specific?
Why Kramate
Why Business Owners Choose Kramate for Illustration and Icons
Drawings made new for you and kept in one style.
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Drawn for You, Not Pulled From Stock
Instead of
pictures you see on rival sites
With Kramate
Each drawing is made new for you, so no other company is using it.
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A Style Test Before the Full Set
Instead of: buying a set in a style you dislike
With Kramate: We draw one sample first, so you approve the look before we create the rest.
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Every Icon Matches Its Neighbours
Instead of: icon sets with mixed thickness and corners
With Kramate: We set one line thickness and corner style, and a second person checks every icon.
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You Own Every Drawing
Instead of: paying again to use your own art
With Kramate: All artwork is yours with no extra licence fees, and we sign a privacy promise first.
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Show Us What You Like
Instead of: briefs that leave you stuck for words
With Kramate: Send us pictures you love, and we turn them into a clear style direction.
Our approach
How We Create Your Custom Illustration & Icons
We draw a style that is yours, then build the pictures and icons you need.
7 clear steps 7 deliverables you keep
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Drawing Style Chat
We discuss where the artwork will appear and gather examples you like, to pin down a drawing style.
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Rough Sketches
We draw quick pencil-style ideas and story panels, so the idea is settled before details are added.
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Colour Illustration
We turn the chosen sketches into finished colour illustrations that match your brand palette.
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Character Sheets
If you need a character, we design its face, shape and poses so it can appear in many scenes.
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Icon Grid Set
We draw every icon on one shared grid with the same line weight and corners so the set looks unified.
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Vector Exports
We save the artwork as vector files plus web-ready versions, so it stays sharp at any size.
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Library Growth
When you need more pieces later, we draw them in the same style and set clear terms of use.
Tools & technologies
Technologies We Use for Illustration & Icons
Hand-drawn and vector tools that produce a consistent style across every asset.
- Procreate: Hand-drawn illustration sketching and painting.
- Adobe Photoshop: Retouching and image compositing for polished visuals.
- Adobe Illustrator: Vector artwork that stays sharp at any size.
- Affinity Designer: Vector and raster design for logos and illustrations.
- Figma: Design tool for dashboard wireframes and layouts approved before build.
- Inkscape: Open-source vector editor for SVG artwork.
- Iconify: Huge open icon library for consistent icon styles.
- SVG: Scalable vector format for logos, icons and web graphics.
- Blender: Creates and optimises the 3D models and animations used in scenes.
- After Effects: Animation and visual effects for motion graphics.
- Lottie: Lightweight animations that play smoothly on web and apps.
- Google Drive: Cloud folders for sharing files and final assets.
- Notion: Shared workspace for roadmaps, decisions and documentation.
- Loom: Quick screen recordings for walkthroughs and feedback.
Expert guide
Custom Illustration and Icon Design: A Complete Guide for Businesses
Custom illustration and icon design gives a business a visual language that belongs to it alone: drawings, spot art, scenes and small symbols that look like they came from one hand, because they did. Stock art and generic icon packs are fast, but many other companies use them too.
This guide is built around the decisions that shape the outcome: how a style is defined, why icon sets are built on a grid, which file formats you actually need, and who legally owns the finished artwork.
It also covers accessibility, honest use of AI tools, trademark and copyright points in the USA, UK, Australia and Singapore, what drives cost, and how to brief a studio so the first round lands close to the target.
What custom illustration and icon design covers
Illustration and icons look similar on a mood board but solve different problems. Illustration explains and sets a mood: a hero image, an empty-state scene, an onboarding sequence. Icons are functional symbols that must be understood instantly at small sizes: a navigation item, a status, a feature label.
A studio usually delivers one of three things:
- One-off pieces, such as a cover or campaign scene.
- A system: a documented style, a palette, and a library of reusable components that your own team can extend.
- An icon family: a set of symbols drawn on one grid with one stroke logic, sized for every place they appear.
For more than a handful of images over time, a system is usually the better investment, because future pieces match without recalling the original artist.
Defining an illustration style that scales
A style is not a mood. It is a set of rules specific enough that two different artists could produce matching work. Before drawing finished art, a good studio fixes the rules on a small set of test pieces.
| Decision | What gets fixed | Why it matters later |
|---|---|---|
| Shape language | Rounded or angular forms, how lifelike the proportions are | Sets personality and keeps characters and objects related |
| Line and fill | Outlined, flat-filled or textured; line weight rules | Determines how art survives shrinking |
| Palette | Primary, secondary and accent colors with usage limits | Keeps art tied to the brand and to accessible contrast |
| People and diversity | How figures, skin tones, clothing and abilities are drawn | Avoids stereotypes and lets audiences see themselves |
| Do and do-not examples | Approved and rejected sample pieces | Lets your team and other vendors stay on style |
Ask for three varied test subjects, such as a person, an object and an abstract concept, drawn in the proposed style. If all three feel like one family, the system will scale. The professional association AIGA (opens in a new tab) publishes design practice guidance useful when writing a brief.
How a consistent icon set is built
Icons look simple because the discipline is invisible. Each symbol is drawn inside the same grid, with the same stroke weight, corner radius, and padding, so that a dozen different icons feel like one voice. Optical adjustments are made by hand, because a circle and a square of equal measured size do not look equal.
- Audit the vocabulary. List every concept that needs a symbol and merge duplicates.
- Set the grid and keyline shapes. Decide the base size, safe area, stroke weight and corner treatment.
- Draw a pilot batch. Start with a few hard concepts, not the easy ones, to stress-test the rules.
- Test at real sizes. View icons at the smallest size they will be shown, on light and dark backgrounds, next to your actual typography.
- Name and organize. Use consistent names so developers can find and swap icons without asking.
If icons will appear inside a mobile or desktop app, check the platform conventions. The Apple Human Interface Guidelines (opens in a new tab) explain how icon and symbol usage is expected to behave on Apple platforms, and designing within those expectations avoids rework late in a build. A shared component library in a design tool, as described in the Figma Help Center (opens in a new tab), lets designers reuse icons without re-exporting art. For teams building a full component library, see our design system development work.
File formats: what to ask for and why
Most disputes after delivery are about files, not art. The format decides whether developers and printers can use the work alone.
| Format | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| SVG | Web and app icons and illustrations that must stay sharp at any size; defined by the W3C SVG 2 specification (opens in a new tab) | Text must be converted to outlines or fonts supplied; very complex art can become heavy |
| PNG | Raster output with transparency for email, slides and social posts; defined by the W3C PNG specification (opens in a new tab) | Fixed resolution: export at the sizes you need, including high-density screens |
| PDF or EPS | Print production and archival vector masters | Check color mode: print work often needs a different color setup from screens |
| Native working file | Future edits by another designer (layered file in the studio’s tool) | Needs the right software and fonts; ask for it explicitly |
Ask for layered master files at the start. A studio that delivers only flattened images has effectively kept the artwork.
Accessibility in illustration and icon design
Artwork carries meaning, so it needs to be perceivable. Three habits cover most of the ground:
- Contrast. Icons that convey meaning, and text placed over illustrations, should meet the thresholds explained in WCAG contrast guidance (opens in a new tab). Check the palette early.
- Text alternatives. Meaningful images need a short description; decorative ones should be marked so assistive tools skip them. The W3C images tutorial (opens in a new tab) explains how.
AI-assisted illustration: where it helps and where it hurts
Generative image tools can speed up mood boards, composition sketches and rough variations. They are much weaker at what a brand system depends on: consistency across many images, clean editable vectors, and predictable behavior at tiny sizes.
The legal position is also less settled than many vendors admit. In the United States, the U.S. Copyright Office (opens in a new tab) has published guidance and reports on how human authorship applies to works that include AI-generated material, and protection depends on the human contribution. A business that wants to own and enforce its brand art should ask which tools were used and keep the human-drawn masters.
Ownership, licensing and trademarks in the USA, UK, Australia and Singapore
Copyright usually starts with the artist, not the client who paid. Commissioned work generally moves to you only through a written agreement that assigns the rights, so the contract matters more than the invoice. Confirm details with legal counsel.
- USA. The U.S. Copyright Office (opens in a new tab) explains copyright basics and registration. Registering key brand art can help if you ever need to enforce it.
- UK and Australia. Assigned rights are separate from moral rights, such as the right to be credited. Contracts commonly include a written consent or waiver, which is worth asking about. Name and logo marks are handled by the UK’s trade mark service (opens in a new tab) and IP Australia (opens in a new tab) respectively.
- Singapore. The Copyright Act sets the rules, and the national intellectual property office handles trademarks. State the assignment explicitly.
If an illustration becomes part of a logo, mascot or packaging, consider trademark protection. In the US, marks are searched and registered through the national trademark office, so check availability first. Also check third-party elements such as stock components, fonts and openly licensed material. Open licenses differ in their attribution and commercial-use conditions, so read each one before you inherit a restriction without noticing.
Where custom illustration pays off: illustrative examples
These examples are illustrative scenarios, not Kramate results.
- Software company. An empty-state and onboarding illustration set replaces generic stock scenes, and the same character style carries into help articles and campaign pages.
- Fintech. A line-icon family for transactions, limits and alerts gives every screen the same visual grammar.
Cost factors and how to plan a budget
Illustration pricing varies widely because the work varies widely. A fair estimate for custom illustration and icon design rests on these factors:
- Number of final pieces and how many unique concepts each needs.
- Level of detail, and whether characters or scenes are involved.
- Whether a style system and guidelines are in scope.
- Number of icons, sizes, and style variants such as filled and outline.
- Rounds of revisions included and how changes in direction are handled.
- Rights requested, including exclusive ownership of master files.
Commercial models include a fixed price per defined set, hourly work for exploration, and a dedicated designer for continuous demand. A small paid pilot checks style fit before you commit to the full set.
How to choose an illustration partner
For custom illustration and icon design, check these points before you sign:
- Review portfolios for range within a style, not one memorable image.
- Ask for a pilot or a paid test on your hardest subject.
- Check that they deliver vector masters and clear naming, not just exports.
- Confirm who owns the work, what tools were used, and what happens to rights on delivery.
A brief with audience, usage sizes, and references you like and dislike shortens the first round more than any other step.
How Kramate delivers illustration and icon work
Custom illustration and icon design work starts under an NDA before detailed discussions, followed by a free consultation and a detailed estimate within 24 hours. A dedicated project manager runs the engagement, posts daily updates on Slack or Teams, and holds a progress review at the end of each two-week round. All intellectual property is transferred to you, and the team works with four to six hours of overlap with US Eastern time and a full working day with the UK, Australia and Singapore. Fixed-price, dedicated-team and hourly options are available. See how our approach works in practice.
Related services include brand identity design, infographic design, UI/UX design and motion graphics, which can animate your illustration system.
Frequently asked questions
How to design a consistent icon set?
Fix a grid, stroke weight, corner radius and padding first, then draw a pilot batch of the hardest concepts and test them at their real display sizes on light and dark backgrounds. Consistency comes from the rules, applied by hand with optical corrections, not from drawing quickly.
What file formats do icons and illustrations need?
Usually SVG for screens, PNG exports for email and slides, and PDF or EPS for print, plus the layered working file for future edits. Request the masters at the start of the project, not as an afterthought at the end.
Who owns commissioned illustration?
Not automatically you. The artist typically holds copyright until a written agreement assigns it. Make sure the contract transfers rights, covers the master files, and addresses moral rights where relevant. Kramate transfers all intellectual property to the client.
Can AI-generated illustrations be copyrighted?
It depends on the country and on how much human authorship is involved. In the US, the Copyright Office looks at the human contribution, so purely generated art may not be protectable. Ask your studio which tools were used and confirm the position with legal counsel.
Custom illustration vs stock illustration: which is better?
Stock is faster and cheaper for one-off needs. Custom is better when you need a recognizable identity, consistent assets across many touchpoints, or ownership you can enforce. Many businesses mix both.
How do I brief an illustrator well?
Share the audience, where the art will appear, required sizes, brand colors and a few references you like and dislike. Describe the idea each piece must communicate, and name who approves the work. A clear brief shortens every later revision round.
Sources and further reading
- AIGA, the professional association for design (opens in a new tab)AIGA
- Human Interface Guidelines (opens in a new tab)Apple
- Figma Help Center (opens in a new tab)Figma
- Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 2 (opens in a new tab)W3C
- Portable Network Graphics (PNG) Specification (opens in a new tab)W3C
- Understanding Success Criterion 1.4.3: Contrast (Minimum) (opens in a new tab)W3C WAI
- Images Tutorial (opens in a new tab)W3C WAI
- U.S. Copyright Office (opens in a new tab)U.S. Copyright Office
- Trade marks (opens in a new tab)GOV.UK
- Trade marks (opens in a new tab)IP Australia
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Cost follows the number of pieces, their level of detail, and the style. A simple icon set takes less time than detailed scene illustrations. Other factors include the need for animation-ready layers, how many revision rounds you expect, and whether we must develop a style first.
We start with a brief and reference gathering, then produce style tests or rough sketches. After you approve one direction, we finish the artwork and export the files. Timing depends on the number of pieces, approval speed, and whether a style has to be created from scratch.
You do. After payment, Kramate transfers ownership of the final illustrations and the editable source files, along with usage rights. We sign an NDA before discussing your project. Tell us early if you plan to resell, print on products or license the artwork, so the agreement is clear.
Yes. We study your logo, colours and any current visuals, then draw in a way that sits alongside them. If you have no defined style, we propose one and test it on a few pieces first. Icon sets are built on a shared grid so they look consistent.
Vector files such as SVG, AI or EPS are standard because they scale without losing quality. We also supply PNG exports at the sizes you need. For app or web use, we can prepare icon sets in the sizes and naming your developers expect.
Stock is faster to start with but other businesses may use the same artwork, and it rarely matches your brand exactly. Custom illustration is drawn for you, so it can show your product and ideas specifically. Stock suits one-off uses, while custom suits brands that want recognisable visuals over time.
Revision rounds are agreed at the start and are usually tied to stages, such as sketch and colour. Changes during sketch are easy. Changes after final linework cost more effort. Giving consolidated feedback from one person per round helps keep the project on course.
Common ones are vague briefs, mixing too many reference styles, and changing the direction late. Share your audience, where the art will appear and two or three style examples. Also say whether you need extra versions, like dark backgrounds, so the files are planned correctly.
Taking new projects
Let’s talk about your Custom Illustration & Icon Design needs
Tell us about your project and get a free consultation and estimate within 24 hours.
- We reply within 4 business hours A real consultant reads your brief — no bot, no queue.
- 30-minute discovery call We dig into goals, constraints and budget. NDA signed on request.
- Proposal in 24 hours Scope, timeline, team and price — clear enough to decide on.
NDA on request You own the IP No obligation Free estimate