Designing Imaginative Illustrations for Ordio (Plan)
Brand Overview
Ordio is a German company that allows restaurants to easily liaise with suppliers and distributors. Ordio is free to use, for both suppliers and restaurants and is available to download on the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store. The app offers reminders so that restaurants don’t miss any orders and also reduces employee errors by supplying order templates.
Ordio Plan is a digital time recording and shift schedule tool that’s currently in the beta phase. It offers automated timesheets and availability queries for free. It allows users to create duty rosters and checks employee availability via the app.
Brucira's Services
- Illustrations
The Challenge
Brucira needed to design energetic and attractive illustrations to brighten up Ordio’s webpages. The goal was to make these illustrations easy on the eye, making the process of tracking time and making duty rosters more enjoyable. We wanted to make the illustrations relatable so we could add an element of fun to something that’s usually a pretty monotonous task (time-tracking).
What made Ordio’s requirements more challenging was the fact that they needed each character and the little additions to their surroundings to be based on the team members themselves. Each illustration needed to focus on bringing to life a different team member’s avatar. Capturing real people in illustrations is always tricky, but we were excited to try something new and innovative!
The Approach
1. Creating an initial sketch
Before we decided on the final illustrative style, it was important for us to understand what the company wanted to express through these illustrations. We wanted to make Ordio’s offering visually clear to the user and chose an appropriately interesting style to communicate the same.
2. Levelling up our illustrative style
As more and more companies have begun recognizing the value illustrations bring to their websites, we wanted to do something slightly different but in line with Brucira’s distinctive style of work.
We decided on elements that embodied youth and liveliness to bring the product alive through these illustrations. A thoughtful combination of lines and shapes ensure these illustrations conveyed a friendly yet direct message about the product and its usage.
To bring the relatability in these illustrations, we did some research on how to better bring out the environment the characters were placed in. After all, who among us hasn’t used a sheet to be a pretend superhero?
3. Setting the mood
Any illustration is only as strong as the colours the designers choose to bring it to life. Since our illustrations used a mixture of lines and shapes to draw attention to the finer details, we chose colours that brought out Ordio’s contemporary nature.
We chose black to draw attention to the characters and establish points of relevance in the illustrations. Blue and green are cool colours that were used to complement black and infuse some lightness into the illustration.
Brucira wanted to depict a high level of ease and comfort. Light-heartedness and humour were infused into the illustrations to achieve the same. A laptop flying around in space is a delightfully imaginative way to perk up the Error 404 page.
The Impact
Ordio Plan’s illustrations were challenging but were also great fun to work on due to the ebullience they needed. Each illustration went through a number of different versions which helped us capture exactly what the client wanted. We even managed to incorporate their dachshund TJ into the illustrations, who serves as the mascot of the company!
Brucira created relatable and attractive illustrations that made the entire process of going through the produce far more enjoyable and far less complicated.
