Illustrations that make financial stories human
Spuerkeess wanted people to actually open its blog. Money, investing, pensions: topics that are easy to skip and easy to explain badly.
So no piggy banks and no coin stacks. Every article gets a scene from real life, built on one clear metaphor. Over the years that grew into a system of more than 300 illustrations, portraits and infographics.
Sketch first
Every illustration starts as a pencil sketch. That’s where the idea gets solved: the framing, the composition, what the reader sees first. Style comes later.
If a scene doesn’t read in pencil, colour won’t save it.
Refined digitally
Then it’s redrawn on the tablet, close to the sketch: cleaner shapes, better proportions, sharper details.
Colour comes last and sparingly, so every new image sits in the same family as the 300 before it.
The blog now has an illustration world of its own. Every article gets a clear visual anchor, and after all these years the archive still looks like one piece. Built to last, not just to launch.
Curious what we could create together?
Tell me what you are working on.
Climbing in Berdorf
Beyond function: an illustration-driven climbing guide