The Silhouette: A Design Element

Here’s a design element favorite of mine: the silhouette vector image. Easy to do and visually impactful, says a lot without any detail or specifics, makes a bold statement yet is very low key…I love it. I used it below on a direct mail project I worked on back in 2005 (featured below.)
I decided to take a different approach with the cover of this mailer. Rather than showcasing hotel shots from all these different properties, I decided to go with a solid color background that emphasized the NAMES of all the properties (of which I used as a design element) and then added 3 strategically placed vector silhouettes, which were in fact images of models wearing uniforms from these designated properties. Very simple, classy, easy to look at, easy to read. The backside of the mailer shows an actual photo from the Sheraton’s uniform program at the time….just enough detail with a slight bit of copy.

Here is another project I used the vector silhouette. This was also a direct mailer….I needed something on the front of the mailer that looked “cool”, grabbed your attention, went beyond a photo or a huge logo.

I took these images a step further and made different pieces of the images different solid vector shapes. I still love how this mailer turned out! You can’t go wrong with the silhouette, you can however, abuse it and put it in everything you design. I make a point to only use it every couple  of years, and I try to change it up a little bit each time.

The vector image is made in illustrator, not photoshop. One of the many things I LOVE about illustrator! Import the photo image you want to make a silhouette from, make it it’s own layer, lock it, make a new layer, grab your pen tool, and start tracing. Using the pen tool can be a little frustrating, but you’ll master it soon enough 🙂

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