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I joined the Alchemy Team at Microsoft with the goal of re-establishing the power of illustration in Business Applications Products. Along with a team of 3 other designers and illustrators we began a year-long journey of defining a new style and establishing guidelines for the entire studio to follow.
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We began with a clean slate to explore different styles, metaphors, and color use, with the goal of developing a new standard. The majority of our first explorations centered around isometric illustration.
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As my team began to solidify our approach to the isometric style, I helped establish some basic guidelines for us to stress test how responsive and dynamic this style would be in product.
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Through the initial explorations, one thing became very clear - we weren’t designing a flexible or dynamic enough system for illustration. Isometric was fun, but it didn’t give us enough space to grow, and more importantly it wasn’t own-able or unique. The goal was to create a system and style that could be owned by Microsoft. So - we started from square 1.
Early explorations for a ‘front-facing’ style
Explorations for spot illustrations
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Approval and acceptance of our new approach was the first major step, then we began sharpening our approach and process in order to reach the goal of establishing guidelines and general guidance for the entire C+AI Studios.
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My team established a system of illustration that brought inspiration from the web and material design principles of the Microsoft Design effort as a whole. Combining flat shapes, dimension, and ‘Acrylic’ styling gave the Business Applications Group a completely own-able and dynamic illustration system.
