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Add Illustrations
Why This Matters
Illustrations add personality and warmth to your store. They help break up text-heavy pages, guide the user's eye, and make your brand feel more human.
You don't need to hire an illustrator. There are excellent free illustration libraries that offer customizable, modern illustrations you can match to your brand colors.
Use illustrations strategically — on your homepage hero, empty states, 404 page, about page, and in email templates.
What You'll Do
Browse illustration libraries and download a set of illustrations that match your brand style and colors.
How To Do It
Where to Find Free Illustrations and Keep Your Store Visually Consistent
This takes about 30 minutes. Illustrations add warmth and personality, but mixing styles makes your store look like a ransom note. Here is how to do it right.
1. Choose ONE illustration library (10 min)
- unDraw: Clean, modern, SVG illustrations you can recolor to match your brand. Huge library covering every topic. Best for most stores.
- Storyset: Animated and static illustrations with customizable colors and elements. Great if you want subtle motion.
- Blush: Mix-and-match illustration components from various artists. More playful and unique styles.
Browse these free options and pick a single source:
The key rule: stick to one library for your entire store. Mixing illustration styles from different libraries creates visual chaos. Consistency beats variety every time.
2. Customize to your brand colors (10 min)
Most free illustration libraries let you change the accent color. Set it to your primary brand color — this instantly makes generic illustrations feel like custom work. On unDraw, you can set your brand color in the top bar and every illustration updates in real time. Download as SVG so you can recolor later if needed.
3. Plan your illustration placement (5 min)
- Homepage hero: An illustration that represents your brand story or value proposition
- Empty states: Cart empty, no search results, no reviews yet — these feel friendlier with illustrations
- 404 page: Turn an error into a brand moment
- About page: Illustrate your mission or process
- Email templates: A consistent illustration style in emails reinforces brand recognition
Don't scatter illustrations randomly. Place them intentionally:
4. Download and organize (5 min)
Create a folder called "brand-illustrations" and save both SVG and PNG versions of each illustration. Name them descriptively (hero-shopping.svg, empty-cart.svg) so you can find them quickly later.
By the end of this step, you should have:
- A set of 5-8 illustrations downloaded from a single library, recolored to your brand palette
- Illustrations placed on key pages: homepage, empty states, 404, and about page
- An organized illustration assets folder with SVG and PNG versions
Recommended Tools
unDraw
Open-source illustrations you can customize to your brand color. Massive library covering every topic.
Try unDrawBlush
Create and customize illustrations from artists around the world. Mix and match styles.
Free with attribution
Try BlushStoryset
Animated and static illustrations you can customize colors and elements. From the Freepik team.
Try StorysetPro Tips
- 1Pick one illustration style and stick with it across your entire site for consistency.
- 2Match illustration colors to your brand palette — most free libraries let you customize the accent color.
- 3Don't overdo it. A few well-placed illustrations are better than one on every section.