Why illustration for Charities, social enterprises and not-for-profits?

Charities have long used imagery to raisie awareness and for fund-raising whether that’s branding or one-off visial assets for specific campaigns.

We know what works to engage donors - real people and real situations showing how exactly the donatins make a difference.

But it isn’t always possible or finiancially viable to go down the photography route. And are we at a point where we are used to seeing this kind of campaing that it’s time for a fresh look at things?

I’ve recently been involved in a campaign for the International Women’s Development agency creating illustrations for gender based domestic violence. A difficult subject and one that required a huge amount of emotion to be injected into it

Using illustration as opposed to photography took the campaign to a new dimension. While a photogtraph can only truly represent what has been staged in front of the lens, illustration can take this one step further. It can introduce a level of emotion that (in my opinion) is difficult to convey in photography.

Illustration can also set a scene successfully. What ever is in your mind can easily be transferred onto paper.

The scope for heart-felt illustration within the charity sector and not-for-profits is huge in my opinion. There’s a slow shift over to using illustration on many platforms (Mailchimp were first a few years ago) and I think this is one that will be particularly effective.

For me it’s important that I put something back in and that my work has meaniung beyond paying the mortgage. If I can find a balance of those two while raising awaress for worthy organisations I’d say thats a win for us all!

Get in touch if you’d like to chat an idea through in the first instance helenatycedesigns@gmail.com