39. Why Illustrations Are Valuable

Why Illustrations are Valuable © thesmarti

I have always been charmed by the novelty and efficacy of an illustration. So in this post, I want to uplift illustration as a creative, powerful tool within the visual art industry and advocate for the value of my services. In this post, I'll share a couple of the reasons why illustration is a valuable tool, how it has specific powers, why it deserves fair compensation. (Two quick caveats: I'm a visual learner so I suspect that some of my reasoning will be skewed in that direction. And second, AI illus are not in the scope of this post because although I believe it's always going to lack that raw quality that only human-made illustrations evoke.)

......

Illustrations are drawings that convey information that could otherwise be written. It can replace words like hieroglyphs or it can complement words like story books. Every illustrator has their own artistic style and their work comes through this lens with a particular look and feel.

Illustrations are just one tool in the visual art industry. There's sculpture, painting, photography, video, animation...yadda yadda yadda . Each of these tools lean towards a specific purpose. Need to see reality? A: photographs. Need to understand space and time of one perspective? A: video. Etc. Illustration is just one other tool, but it is a special tool with personal style and specific charm.

What's so special about illustration's personal style and charm? Well, all visual tools relay concepts, simplify information, increase retention, and enhance focus. But illustration ALSO sows familiarity and repetition through their custom niche style. This naturally sparks visual awareness which is KEY for branding! On top of that, the innate style and charm of illustration creates emotional connections too. Therein lies the magic of illustration that other tools can't capture in quite the same way.

POWERS OF ILLUSTRATION:

Illustrations Simplify Info © thesmarti

Illustrations simplifiy information. Flip open any technical manual and you will see black and white illustrations of the components for your IKEA furniture, your new kitchen gadget or the special gauges from the car dashboard. There's a reason why illustration works faster than photos and it's because of the inherent simplification. It whittles out unnecessary elements (whatever they may be visually) and makes the important features more relevant and easier to understand.

Illustrations Increase Memory Retention © thesmarti

Illustration increase retention. Humans are known to have high visual sensitivity (read here, or here) and most of us remember visual references in memories to recall information. Diagrams are a form of illustration that can lay out a linear process. Lists create the hierarchical relationship of things to each other. Schematics display the arrangement of everything on one level. Illustrations can play with every single one of these visual connections (sometimes all in the same illustration) that can later help us retrieve all kinds of information stored in our brains for quicker recall and better memory retention.

Illustrations Enhance Focus © thesmarti

Illustration enhances focus. When you need to bring everyone together about a topic, illustrations can help rally the focus. On a slide presentation, an illustration can bring something straight into everyone's mind. Without using words, it can highlight a problem, change the perspective, show a process, etc. While photos can do this too, illustrations carry a far greater range in variety because every single bit of the image can be tailored for the specific purpose - color for mood, perspective for focus, subject for diversity, etc. The capacity to specifically sync everyone's mind to the same thing is a powerful tool of persuasion.

Illustrations Spark Visual Awareness © thesmarti

Illustration sparks visual awareness. I remember as a kiddo recognizing different characters based on the hint of their appearance - Hello Kitty colors vs Snoopy squiggly line. Visual awareness is the immediate recognition of something - it's what helps us see patterns in all kinds of design choices like colors, typography, pen stroke thickness, patterns, etc. It's kind of a super power of visual tools to help people remember a thing, or place. In illustration this is the line-work, painting, coloring of something that extends a personal element beyond just the corporate graphic design. The power to cue associations helps people see and connect quickly.

Illustrations Create Emotional Connections © thesmarti

Illustration creates emotional connections. Illustrations have a unique charm and personal associations that are special for each of us. When we see an illustrations in an app, we build a personal attachment to it. It's a similar reason why mascots become a sweet cherished friend of products or places. (This is especially true in Asia!) We feel a connection with one experience over another when illustrations extend the ethos of a brand, company, corporation. In this way, illustrations create a sense of belonging and emotional link beyond any other visual tool.

......

Illustrations spark, simplify, expand, enhance, connect us all in deep ways. The ephemeral beauty of imagination captured in a drawing is always going to be part of a magical space! Yes, there are a hundred other visual tools, but illustration in its static nature gives us the deepest freedom to immerse ourselves and be in the picture for longer. Just like that, illustrations are powerful, wonderful, meaningful.

So if illustrations are valuable, then illustrators are valuable. The time it takes to learn the skills, to practice the techniques, to build the knowledge, to use the tools - all to make the actual illustration...and THEN the endless patience to tweak at it to make it sing visually - well, it's good, hard work.

Please note: since illustrations are so valuable, and my time invested is considerable, I cannot offer my illustrative work for free. However, if you are under the umbrella of social business or social enterprise offering services or products for Animals, Conservation, Culture, Community or Environment - I still honor discounts because I believe in the value of OUR work together. You can send me an email at hello@thesmarti.com and let's see if we can make beautiful things happen.

Cheers to the value of illustrations and acknowledging our worth,

smarti

38. Designing winter card games

Ah, the artistry of a good game. Small cards, detailed illustrations, fun prompts. A moment to get caught up in play and mischief with friends and family. Clean fun. I get kicks out of designing games even though I'm actually not a competitive person. In this post, I'm sharing some of the winter card games that I designed for an upcoming family holiday vacation.

Earlier this year I read a book called The Power of Fun by Catherine Price. In the book, Price consolidates anecdotal research of fun moments into three elements - playfulness, connection and flow. Each element has a list of different categories. Reading about these three elements and analyzing the categories helped me to understand what exactly I find "fun" and why I'm so attracted to making games.

(I recommend doing the Power of Fun assessment tool to unlock your own elements of playfulness, connection and flow. To start, you describe the times you laughed till you lost your breath or felt in the flow. You learn the different elements of playfulness, connection and flow. And finally you work backwards from your stories to tease out the categories that create fun for you. It really helped me understand what I laugh at and even quelled some friendship compatibility questions I've been knocking around in my head.)

My fun stories pinpointed that in playfulness category, I enjoy silliness, creativity, intellectual stimulation, challenges, games, absurdity, and a little bit of uncertainty. (I like a bit of improv, but I like knowing there are easy rules and limitations.) I especially light up brainstorming how things fit together and then making things myself. This is a big reason why I can't stop myself from making art, and it bleeds seemlessly into why I also enjoy making games. It hits almost every single one of my categories in "playfulness" elements! No wonder I'm delighted by it!

In my own journaling, I also hit upon an a-ha moment about vulnerability when it comes to games. At face value, a game highlights our talents, tests our luck, maybe even bares our flaws. But at a deeper level, the act of playing a game is a symbolic gesture of commitment. It's a love act of togetherness and quality time. Players let go of other responsibilities and instead circle around a game with the purpose and a mission of active participation.

In essence, the game is actually a gift of true presence. Even the tangible elements grounds everyone to right here, right now. Hold your cards. Toss the dice. Walk your marker down the map tiles. Everything, everywhere outside of the game collapses into itself - one dimension, one timeline, one focus. This is a sacred thing in a time where our attention is pulled in infinite directions. Makes me burst into a sunshine smile just thinking about it!

For all these reasons and more, it's hard to play a game if you don't feel safe with the other players. So, when I design games, I truly focus on ways to make it a comforting safe experience, maybe intellectually stimulating but always generous. I try to make games that help people to share deeply, or allow people to be playful together. And I always lead games with as much cooperation and supportive encouragement as possible.

(I'll just note my bias that yes, I'm a sensitive type who values deep friendships and fostering a cohesive vibe so this is probably just my own personal preference with games. To be quite frank, I've been at too many tables where games are just a way for people to one-up each other. When games are designed for the kill, it's perfectly normal for that kind of insecurity to surface. But I really can't stand the sick scared feeling I get when competition erodes the safety of the group. I'm just not made for those kinds of experiences.)

So in anticipation for this holiday vacation, I pulled together some card games that I can easily transport to our final destination. Now that the younger ones in the family are bit more grown up and can join in, I can take the games into a more challenging level. So I thought about story-sharing and vulnerability experiences around some classic winter themed elements. Here are the four card games:

Guess the Movie - I collected movie quotes from all of our holiday favorites - Muppets Christmas Carol, Scrooged, Elf, etc. The goal is to guess the movie based on the quote. Even better is to name the character who said it!

There is a choice here in how to play the game in a supportive way, ranked from 1 to 3 in incrementally increasing tension.

1. Play individually: one designated game leader, everyone/anyone can shout out the answers, each player collects their own points for an ultimate winner

2. Play 2 teams: with a designated reader for each team reading the card for their team (if they can't get it, allow the other team to guess)

3. Play everyone helping 1: one designated player and everyone else gets to see the card and help the player by any means necessary (charades, giving character info, describing movie moment)

Would You Rather - a list of experiences with different christmas characters, or different christmas situations from the movies or life. E.g. Would you rather have your tongue frozen to a metal pole OR have your holidays canceled by your boss? The goal is to get people to choose sides.

It's a great game for moving around a bit. With kids especially it's fun to designate a side of the room for each answer so they have to physically walk/skip/jump to the other side of the room to "stand" in that answer. I adore playing this with my family since my dad hates hypotheticals and it turns into a hilarious situation of trying to convince him to come to terms with a particular answer.

Never Have I Ever - a list of experiences of situations or mishaps that are common during the seasonal time. Having a crush on a particular christmas character, making snow angels at midnight, overindulging on a dessert, etc. This game is for sharing vulnerability so it's an opportunity to expose cheeky heartfelt memories about previous holidays.

This game can foster some playful movement too. On TV shows they have people lifting paddles or raising their hands as a way to say yes or no to a question. But for family gatherings, it can be uniquely wonderful to switch up the answer process - maybe people can stand up or sit down as an answer. (Great for the glutes!) Or you can make it subtle to have people move cutlery at the table as a "yes" answer. OR if you are a family or group of friends that feels safe for touch, you can even make it cumulative touch experience where each "yes" answer is a one finger on the person's shoulder next to you, culminating with all fingers on their shoulders and then shifting closer to each other, etc. until you are all in a big group hug. Ha! Could be hilarious!

Pictionary - a classic game which I filled with a list of items that are commonly found during the seasonal holidays. Snowflakes, boots, cookies. A quick slab of paper and some big markers and voila - you have yourself an excellent drawing game.* Of course, if there's no paper you can just turn it into charades. Then it becomes a whole new level of physical play to be a little more expressive with movements - an excellent choice to add a little extra silliness!

*I always bow out of these games if I'm with people who don't have drawing chops. As a designer/illustrator, my brain is primed to think in images and my hand-eye coordinating is well practiced. It can be intimidating and not nice to draw with others if one person has an imbalance of skills in a game. That's not fair or fun. Again, this is one of those moments where I'm hyper aware of the experience and the people around me. Ultimately, the point of a game in my opinion is vulnerability and connection so I find it perfectly fair to bow out for the sake of group ambiance.

For the design of the cards, I whipped up some quick little winter animal illustrations. Winter rabbits, penguins, polar bears, and mooses. I almost went with deers, but it quickly competed with the moose and I really fell in love with that moose face! I chose a gorgeous dusky blue for the first game and then decided a monochromatic scale of the blue for each deck would easily look elegant and coordinated. I made a quick exploration of art deco motifs to round out the whimsical bordering for each of the cards - this way each deck of cards is distinctive and memorable and cute to boot!

Confession time: I designed this all a long while ago so I'm super jazzed that I'm gonna be able to play with the family this time! Normally I make the games just beforehand and that naturally makes me privy to the answers. So I gracioiusly bow out or take the reigns as game leader calling out the cards or directing the game. (Again, I'm hyper aware of my role as game designer and I want to be fair to the players!) But this time, dear friends, I'll be able to join in the shenanigans because I designed all four decks back in June of 2024! Thank you past-me for being so proactively thoughtful. Yay!

These are the card games I'll be bringing on vacation. It's a one-off game experience that I'll probably only use this one time because like any game, the more you play, the easier to recall the information which shifts the game from a novel experience for everyone and turns it into a strategic competition instead. So I personally prefer to just "retire" games for a while. Stash them away and let the game rest!

Sometimes with enough distance of time, you can bring back an old game and you can reawaken the freshness for everyone. So maybe next year I'll bring these back out and we can play again. But knowing me I'll get back to the dreaming up a new game in no time. As someone who is constantly building new things, I find it perfectly wonderful to let go of old games so I can make room for fresh new games to come.

cheers to game-making for the sake of togetherness,

smarti

37. Springtime in Namibia

Namibia blooms in a 2-week burst. Springtime in desert country! For two whole weeks it's FLASH: green and flowers! And then CRASH: burnt and done. It's typically at the beginning of October and snaps directly into summer normalcy. So although technically it's gone, I'd still like to honor springtime in Namibia with this quick recap of my favorite 5 things from this fleeting season:

1. BEARABLE TEMPS

The winter cool dissapates and the spring heat warms up the day comfortably. I struggle with the dry snap winter temperatures but I personally don't mind the intense heat of the summer. But the springtime in Namibia is both manageable for heat lovers like me and heat haters like my partner. I typically drape a longsleeve over my shoulders and slip it on or off depending upon where we are. Spring is the easy compromise between the two extremes. It's light, breezy, comfortable and easy.

2. CITRUS BLOSSOMS

We are lucky to have a side garden with five citrus trees lined up in a row: kumquat, grapefruit, naartjie (mandarin), clementine and lemons. We get a load of citrus in the beginning of the short winter and plenty of opportunity to share them with friends and neighbors. But in the spring, the citrus trees bloom at lightninig speed and the flowers drop in a week. The scent is intoxicating and the blossoms are beautiful. So fresh and lovely.

3. BIRDS ARE BACK & BIRDSONG BEGINS

In our backyard I've seen rosy-faced lovebirds and grey Lourie (go-away birds) and even once found hornbills at the backyard birdfeeder! So, in the background of my office, there is constant bird song during the day. I've never lived anywhere that had this much bird song in the air. Maybe that's partly to do with the tree patches so close to the house. Maybe it's because I keep the windows open in my office because I only have AC in the bedroom. Whatever the reason, it's incredibly soothing, and there is research proving that birdsong sharpens mental concentration!

4. INSECT SIGHTINGS

The backyard is full of random insects I've never been close enough to witness in the cities. I'm growing flowers to attract pollinators so I get to see butterflies of all sorts. But also praying mantis, millipedes, ladybugs, beetles, grasshoppers, spiders, and once, even a scorpion! [...] Obviously, some visitors are more welcome than others.

5. JACARANDA BLOOMS

By far, the best part of springtime in Namibia is watching the jacaranda trees blooms across the city in purple puffs. I know they are invasive species to the area, and they guzzle too much water for a drought-inclined country. But I cannot help bursting with delight when I drive around the city for errands and catch a glimpse of the purple petals contrasting the city's green trees and sandy buildings. Every corner has a jacaranda blooms! I like imagining the trees yelling out a minnie mouse "yoohoo" to each other as they expand their purple branches overhead.

Windhoek is not the first time I've experienced the seasonal shift of being in the southern hemisphere. Singapore, Sydney and Buenos Aires taught me to appreciate the spring in the late half of the year and enjoy a summer winter instead. But Windhoek has been a very different living experience because of the desert landscape and dry heat. So I'll rest in deep gratitude for these sweet Jacaranda blooms - they last for up to two months, so while everything in the garden has bloomed and bowed out, there's still plenty of time to enjoy their purple flowers for a little bit longer. Yoohoo!

Cheers to springtime in Namibia - the fleeting moments are the most delicious,

smarti