Why Those #Relatable Illustrations You Follow On Instagram Are So Important

Visual art created for women and by women is becoming an increasingly important tool for self expression and connection. Ensuring that women - all women - have a platform to express themselves shouldn’t be something we think about one day of the year. However, this International Women’s Day we want to celebrate the rising importance of female illustration and photography in an increasingly visual world.

Social media sometimes gets a bad rep - Twitter is the ‘wild west’ of the internet, full of trolls and bullies Instagram sets us unrealistic beauty (and life) expectations, and Facebook is the home of fake news and false headlines.

But what we forget and what we take for granted now, is that for all its faults, social media is also crucial for giving people a much-needed voice or platform that they wouldn’t have had it before. A few years ago, if you were smart, funny, or just had something to say, then Twitter was there to give you that platform, without checking where you’d gone to school or who your parents were first - it was the great leveller. And if pictures are your choice of medium for self expression, then Instagram is the perfect platform to give you the opportunity to share your work with millions of other people who totally ‘get’ it.

And it’s here that women are leading the charge. Instagram is awash with smart, relatable, funny and talented female illustrators who manage to convey exactly how they're feeling at any given moment with a smart visual. Just as powerful as the written word, female illustrators and photographers are producing work that truly give women a voice - now more so than ever.

Our friends at Adobe Stock understand the importance of great photographs and illustrations done for women, by women, which is why, for International Women’s Day they’ve teamed up with the very talented Alice Skinner who has created some epic illustrations for them, exploring how far we’ve come in celebrating our own visual identities.

Speaking about her work, Alice told us: "I've found illustration to be a fun and engaging outlet for my emotions towards the world. It’s particularly important in our current age of social media, to create something screen friendly and encourages people to stop scrolling and take a moment to think. It's really rewarding for me to know that people relate to my work all over the world, I think providing visibility to opinions and how we see ourselves in popular culture is so vital."

The concept of fluid self - the notion that identity is a vast and ever-changing range of ideas that should always be celebrated - is something Adobe endeavour to convey through all of their stock images - giving us even more visual tools for self expression.

And what might start off as a shareable and #relatable Insta post can also become political - from Trump to Brexit, marches and protests have seen a resurgence in the last few years, and with it, the power of the protest board as a medium for getting your message across is in ascendance.

If you’re stuck for your own inspo, check out this great artwork from Adobe Stock - there are over 100 images to choose from and your first 10 downloads are free:

Adobe Stock** offers a highly curated collection of inspiring and visually impactful assets sourced from the world's leading photographers, designers and content creators - perfect for designers and visual storytellers who are looking for exceptional ways to tell authentic stories.**

This diverse marketplace of royalty-free assets is uniquely and natively integrated within Creative Cloud, saving you time and enabling uninterrupted creativity so you can search and license high-quality assets without ever leaving your favourite apps. Stock like Only Adobe can. Get 10 free images here.

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.