Six remarkable examples reveal how innovative companies harness custom illustration design to captivate and connect with their target audiences.
Have you observed the surge of illustrated content appearing across advertisements, product packaging, and brand identities lately? From my perspective as a design industry journalist, this shift appears deliberate and strategic.
Increasingly, organizations recognize that brand illustration delivers something standard photography simply cannot—the capacity to construct entirely original, bespoke environments that spark imagination and articulate brand principles with exceptional precision.
Throughout 2025, from product wrapping to major event installations, companies have expanded the frontiers of possibility when partnering with skilled illustrators. Here are six exceptional examples, each developed by artists represented by Handsome Frank, highlighting the varied approaches this discipline revolutionizes brand communication today.
1. Cinematic Storytelling: Nissan’s Piccadilly Circus Takeover
The global automotive manufacturer Nissan faces uncertainty as the industry navigates its electric technology transition, rendering traditional marketing approaches less dependable. This prompted Nissan toward an innovative direction, partnering with illustrator Matt Saunders. Their collaboration produced a remarkable 30-second infinity zoom animation transporting viewers through futuristic landscapes: from racing circuits to neon-lit Tokyo evenings.
The technical accomplishment proved impressive. Matt collaborated with production agency Grand Visual across four months, constructing each sequence in three elaborate sections: background, mid-plane, and foreground, all centered around one focal point. Though initially conceived for digital platforms, the outcomes proved so striking that Nissan secured Europe’s most massive advertising display—the 783.5m² Piccadilly Lights screen—to present it globally.
Key takeaway: When organizations provide illustrators ambitious projects and adequate execution time, outcomes can genuinely capture public attention.
2. Festival Culture: Costa Coffee’s Experiential Approach
Boardmasters represents an annual five-day celebration in Newquay, Cornwall, merging significant musical performances with surf, skate, and BMX competitions. This presented an ideal opportunity for coffeehouse chain Costa Coffee to engage a youthful, trendy, and influential demographic. However, the brand sought more than logo placement on merchandise; they aimed to craft a tangible experience encouraging genuine interaction.
Costa commissioned illustrator Luke McConkey to develop vibrant artworks integral to their festival footprint. Aligned with the event’s atmosphere, Luke’s methodology proved refreshingly spontaneous. “I just kind of let things start happening, much like when you’re at a festival,” he describes. “It’s all just happening at once, and stuff happens because other stuff happened.”
Luke incorporated himself, his wife, and son within the festival scene; “These people make their way into my work subconsciously,” he observes. When executed genuinely, this personal element injects authentic humanity into brand encounters.
Luke’s intricate visuals decorated everything from primary installations to highly desired reversible bucket hats, which became the celebration’s essential accessory.
Key takeaway: This example proves brand activations at cultural events succeed without feeling like corporate impositions. Visual storytelling branding can transform them into environments people genuinely desire to experience and remember fondly long-term.
3. Fashion Collaboration: Illustration Meets Streetwear
Established in 2016, Spanish sneaker brand HOFF rapidly developed recognition for vibrant and distinctive footwear. Each design pays homage to particular cities, neighborhoods, or destinations, frequently incorporating landmarks or location maps on soles.
For their newest collection, HOFF required an illustrator whose aesthetic could complement their striking style while introducing freshness to their location-focused concept. Malika Favre emerged as the ideal partner. Recognized for her instantly identifiable minimalist approach, Malika excels at reducing images to fundamental elements while making them striking through masterful light and shadow manipulation.
Results appear in the Mexican Bauhaus collection, showcasing striking sneakers in two dynamic colorways, plus a sweatshirt and tote bag, all displaying Malika’s signature lips emblem. Drawing from her beloved place, Mexico, the collection encapsulates the nation’s iconic hues and architecture through reds, pinks, and oranges against pale blue skies.
“Colour is incredibly important and I was instantly attracted to it,” Malika elaborates. The collection represented Mexico through what she characterizes as “a minimalist, architectural vibe where colours and shapes bring the designs to life.”
The organic alignment between HOFF’s destination-centered philosophy and Malika’s ability to concentrate locations into visual essence produced a collection feeling authentically linked to both brand and artist.
Key takeaway: The appropriate artist becomes a legitimate creative collaborator, contributing their artistic perspective to strengthen a brand’s aesthetic rather than merely decorating merchandise.
4. Retail Storytelling: Tesco’s Destination-Driven Packaging
Supermarket packaging typically emphasizes utility over aesthetics. However, supermarket chain Tesco’s Finest tea range challenged this convention by commissioning Tom Haugomat to develop five destination illustrations. Partnering with design agency Coley Porter Bell, Tom created vibrant and evocative imagery transporting consumers to tea-cultivation regions worldwide.
Each illustration demanded both compositional strength and flexible elements functioning across various pack surfaces. Tom’s cinematic quality and delicate textural imperfections delivered the “handmade, authentic quality” the brief required.
Key takeaway: This initiative demonstrates how custom illustration design magically elevates ordinary retail categories into premium encounters. By investing in bespoke artwork narrating product origins, Tesco transformed its tea range from commodity to craftsmanship.
5. Public Transport Celebration: TfL’s Community-Focused Campaign
Transport for London (TfL) represents a local government organization managing and operating most London transport networks. Their 25th anniversary campaign, Making Every Journey Matter for 25 Years, illustrates how illustration in advertising helps public services establish emotional connections with communities. Charlie Davis received responsibility for developing three initial artworks celebrating London landmarks and moments, from the ‘Baby on Board’ badge to Night Tube services.
The campaign reimagined recognizable transport symbols while honoring significant London occasions, including the 2012 Olympics and cycleway introductions. By engaging a London-based illustrator, TfL ensured authenticity connected genuinely to the city served.
Key takeaway: This case proves illustration enables public organizations and institutions to express values feeling personal rather than bureaucratic.
6. Sensory Storytelling: Opihr Gin’s Spice Route in Paper Form
Premium gin brand Opihr sought to capture its adventurous essence in one image: one transporting viewers to botanical origins. Paper artist Helen Musselwhite endeavored to create a key visual functioning as a ‘portal’ into Opihr’s flavor universe. Constructed entirely from paper, her artwork combined arches, exotic flora and fauna, and the gin bottle itself, centrally positioned, as if viewed through a window onto the Spice Route. Each layer received careful design adding depth and texture, reflecting Opihr’s tagline: “Let the taste take you there.”
The outcome represents richly tactile brand communication—part sculpture, part illustration—embodying craft, color, and curiosity behind Opihr’s identity. It demonstrates that in a world saturated with polished digital visuals, handcrafted elements can feel most luxurious.
Key takeaway: When brand narratives root in craft and heritage, tactile mediums like papercraft render values both authentic and unforgettable.
Branding Through Illustration: Emerging Trends
These six cases illuminate several significant trends defining how brands employ packaging design trends and illustration in 2025:
Collaboration over decoration. Most successful initiatives treat illustrators as creative partners, not merely ‘brush monkeys’. Luke McConkey’s organic Costa project approach and Matt Saunders’ month-long Grand Visual collaboration demonstrate genuine creative partnership power.
Authenticity through personality. Each project succeeded because illustrator style naturally synchronized with brand principles. Malika Favre’s minimalist aesthetic complemented Hoff’s playful confidence, while Tom Haugomat’s romantic sensibility elevated Tesco’s premium positioning.
Multi-touchpoint thinking. Contemporary illustration commissions require assessing artwork functionality across multiple touchpoints. Tom’s flexible elements for Tesco and Charlie’s designs for various TfL locations demonstrate how intelligent planning maximizes creative impact.
Experience over advertising. Today’s optimal campaigns don’t simply broadcast top-down, but utilize illustration creating experiences people actively engage with. Costa’s festival installation and Nissan’s Piccadilly Lights spectacle transformed advertising from endurance into enjoyment.
As brands pursue authentic methods cutting through digital saturation, these case studies suggest commissioning appropriate illustrators transcends creating visually attractive images: it constructs genuine connections running deep and lasting beyond campaign conclusions.
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