Storytelling that fits the goal
Before opening Figma, ask what the illustration is for. Filling an empty state, walking someone through onboarding, helping a new user feel at home — each goal pulls the work in a different direction. When the answer to "what do we want the user to know?" is sharp, the illustration writes itself.
At Moments we treat every illustration as a sentence inside a larger story. Together they explain what the product does — at a glance, before the user has read a single line of copy.
Sketch fast, refine later
Quantity beats quality in the early stages. A wall of small, scrappy sketches reveals more good ideas than three carefully polished ones. The sketch is not the deliverable — it's the search.
We keep a paper-and-pen rule for the first hour of any new illustration. It is faster than any tool, and it stops us from over-committing to a half-formed idea.
Inspiration without copying
Studying other illustrators is essential — copying them is not. The trick is to absorb broadly, then put the sources away. Once the references are out of sight, the work that comes out is yours.
When we feel ourselves leaning on a single piece of inspiration too hard, we stop collecting and start drawing. The reference always comes back, transformed.
Consistency and the mascot
A consistent angle, palette and stroke weight makes a product feel like one product. We document the rules so anyone joining the team can extend the system without breaking it.
And then there is the mascot — the character on the empty state, the welcome screen, the 404. A good mascot earns affection, not just attention. That is harder than it looks, and worth every iteration it takes to get right.