The late 2010s saw a boom in custom illustrations for big brands. After all, illustrations were part of graphic design trends. Hence, it became integral to big brands such as MailChimp, Headspace, and Slack. With that, many businesses are following suit and realize the importance of having illustrations in their branding. And while you can download illustrations from sites, it’s better to have custom illustrations for your brand. Read more below to find out which illustration services are the best.
1. Penji Penji is one of the top graphic design services on the market, and for good reason. Whether you need custom illustrations for merchandise, email campaigns, mascots, or anything else, Penji's team is skilled in this arena. They offer a money-back guarantee so you can test out one of their three pricing tiers for 30 days and see how you like the designs.
Price: $499/mo (Team), $995 (Marketer), $1497 (Agency)
2. Flocksy Flocksy is one of the few unlimited graphic design services that offer custom illustrations. The service has experienced illustrators handling different categories such as avatars, mascots, and storybook or comic illustrations. Their custom illustrations are available on both plans.
Price: $495/mo (Team), $995/mo (Access)
3. Design Pickle What if your brand already has graphic design but wants illustrations only for a new project. Design Pickle is one of the few affordable illustration services to consider. They have a separate illustration plan, priced the same as their graphic design one. The graphic design service tackles portraits, character illustration, and merch illustration.
Price: $649 (Graphics), $1249 (Pro), $1949 (Premium)
4. Kimp Kimp graphics package offers an affordable deal for requesting graphic design and custom illustrations. As you can see, from their work page, Kimp's designers are masterful at using both drawings and fonts to make your illustrations pop.
Price: $499/m or $299.40 for the first month
5. Kapa99 Most unlimited graphic design services would have different plans and include custom illustrations after their basic tier. Meanwhile, Kapa99 has one all-inclusive plan, including custom illustrations. They create illustrations for storybooks and other printed materials.
Price: $399/mo
6. Design Shifu
Price: Starts at $499/mo
7. Delesign If simple illustrations are your style, Delesign has got you covered. Even on their basic subscription, you can request simple and merchandise illustrations. Their illustration design expertise leans on the vector and character style.
Price: $499/mo (Graphic Designer), $599/mo (Multimedia Designer)
8. ManyPixels Rounding up the unlimited graphic design services here is ManyPixels. Similar to the ones above, they have a variety of illustration styles for brands to request. It’s all thanks to the pool of illustrators available on their platform. Most of their illustration styles are vector and character-focused. Not only that, they have free illustrations available for download too.
Price: $549/mo (Advanced), $899/mo (Business)
9. Creativepool Another way to find an illustrator is through freelance platforms or marketplaces, like this one from Creativepool. Here, you can hire illustrators or post a job. Plus, if you buy their Monthly Pass, you could contact any creative anytime and help you make a hiring decision.
Price: Varies per freelancer
10. Fiverr As a freelance website , Fiverr also houses freelance illustrators for any design project. As their name implies, you can find design gigs starting at $5. However, with illustrations being a more complex project, you can expect higher prices. There, you’ll find various hand-drawn illustrations and artwork that will suit your brand.
Price: Unverified freelancers charge $5, while Pro freelancers charge $100
11. Toptal Toptal is another freelance website, but only the best of the best get a spot as a freelancer on the platform. Illustrators there use different design programs and use various illustration styles like realistic and vector ones. To hire an illustrator, Toptal will match you with the best illustrator based on your preferences and design brief.
Price: Starts at $80/hr.
12. 99designs 99designs is one platform to get illustration services from. Here, you have two options to choose from in getting your custom illustrations. One is through a design contest , while the other is browsing through their freelance marketplace. Aside from the vector and character illustration styles, 99designs freelancers also specialize in line, realistic, and conceptual illustrations.
Price: Starts at $349 (design contest), $299 to $1,499 when hiring a freelancer
13. The NetMen Corp Unlike most unlimited graphic design services, The NetMen Corp lets you choose which illustration style you’ll need for your business. So far, available styles include character, infographic, vector, icon set, and made-for-children illustrations.
Price: $199 (Character and Infographic), $249 (Icon set and made-for-children), $349 (Vector)
14. Infobrandz Originally an infographic design agency, Infobrandz appears to have branched out to offering custom illustration services. Based on their portfolio, they specialize in vector and character illustrations. And the illustrations they create are ideal for eBooks, landing pages, infographics, and print materials.
Price: Starts at $149
15. Vox Illustration Here’s one agency or service offering illustration services exclusively. Vox Illustration covers a wide range of illustration styles ideal for any business or entrepreneur looking to level up their branding. Storybook, line, pop, realistic, you name it, they can draw it. They have four subscription plans, depending on how many illustrations you’ll need.
Price: Starts at $49 up to $4799
16. Akuna Technologies Akuna Technologies is another design service to receive custom illustrations. They’re experts in vector artwork and illustrations made for logos, websites, storyboards, and apparel.
Price: $124
Frequently Asked Questions What’s The Best Illustration Style for My Business? It’s up to you which illustration style suits your taste. Mascots, portraits, conceptual, icons, cartoons, and realistic styles are some to consider for a more professional look. And if you need more inspiration before deciding on which illustration style is the best fit, you could go to Behance or Dribbble. Or you could go straight to any of the services mentioned above and see if their designs match your style.
Where Should I Include Illustrations? You can showcase your custom illustrations everywhere. Your website’s landing page, social media, packaging, and email are prime examples of where to place your illustrations. All the more will your customers or clients recognize and remember your brand.
Is It Better to Use an Unlimited Graphic Design Service for Illustrations? That depends on your project. For example, if you have a high volume and demand for graphic designs and need custom illustrations as well, an on-demand graphic design service is ideal.
