Kids Video Game App Illustrations

I was recently commissioned to design a few illustrations and some icon buttons for an educational game company called Sokikom. I’ve created many art assets for Sokikom in the past, so it was nice to have a chance to work with them again. All the final art needed to be vector, so that it could be integrated into the app easily. 

The first item I created were 4 simple silhouetted illustrations. The client wanted these to use in the background of the various game screens, so that they could overlay the actual content on top of it. Each one of these matches the colors and theme of each educational math game. 

The next item, and most complex, was the main video game illustration that will be used to navigate to each game. The client wanted to a fresh, new illustration to replace the existing island illustration they had. This new main navigation screen will be the home screen of the game app, where the students can pick each game they want to play.

I sketched 3 different island concepts for them to choose from. You might be wondering why I have grey borders on parts of the concept sketches… This is because the illustration would need to be cropped for various monitors- computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. I included the grey areas so that the client could identify where the artwork would be trimmed for each screen size. 

The client liked the 2nd concept sketch best, but asked for a few elements from the others to be incorporated as well as the island size to be expanded. Here’s how my final approved concept sketch turned out. 

After approval of the final island sketch, I finished up the illustration in vector art. I had to also keep in mind a limited color palette based on the new web 2.0 colors. Also, I needed to make sure that I was not using any techniques in illustrator- with the shading or clipping- that would affect the art when exporting as SVG files. 

And lastly, the client had requested for me to design 6 fun, catchy icon buttons for the educational game app. These are my initial concept sketches for those. Each icon will navigate to a specific function in the app. 

Here’s the final approved icons. As you can see, there were a couple changes I had to make from the initial sketches. The final icon buttons are quite colorful and fun for the kids. 

I really enjoyed working on these illustrations for Sokikom. I especially love working on projects that help kids and promote education. I believe that strong, quality artwork can really excite children to learn and grow. If I can help you with your kid-related apps or products, please feel free to contact me through my site. I would be glad to talk with you more about what you are hoping to accomplish.