Hand art... does it add to the site or look unprofessional?

Alright, I'm a big fan of the sort of "doodle art" style that you see on sites like Daily Candy and I use it on my own site, DormWise. I think it's generally a good fit because it's a site for young adults, appeals mostly to women, and is all about creative content and articles. Specifically it helps improve the lives of college students living in dorms.

So here are just a few of the images on the site:



Thoughts? Unique and different, or just unprofessional. I can make things in a much more realistic style, but I picked that as it seemed to go along well with my content.

 

I think they look good simple but nice and easy to look at. If you make it to detailed it will take eyes away from the real content anyways. Its a nice style, atleast in my opinion

 

I think that art is fine

it would only look unprofessional if it was crappy, but you (or who ever drew those pictures) have skill and don't need to worry about that.

 

I would tend to go towards really professional illustrations so you dont give the apperance of clip art or something like that.

PM and I can put you in touch with my designer.

 

A quality vector image would look better. I'm sure somebody from DeviantArt could do a good one for $10 or possibly free.

 

there is nothing wrong with hand art provided that the quality is good and can blend well with the website design

 

It shouldn't be a problem as long as you can blend it to the site and relevant to the content.

 

Thanks all for your feedback. I definitely see the value of having more "polished" images but also appreciate the compliments (I did do it myself, after all, lol).

I think I'll probably stick to what rahmat suggested, make sure it

and as soon as that no longer applies, I'll switch over to the more "professional" look.

 

No problem, many of the images enhance the sites and give them a personal feel.

 

I would prefer vectors too, you can get some stock ones at istockphoto (They seem more professional that way).

Regardless, a mixture of images and text always is always better on the eyes.

 

I think your drawings are perfectly fine. It's really up to you if you want to use that style or not.

Rahmat is totally correct in saying it should blend well with the overall style of your site. Currently I don't think they do. Your drawings use a pastel palette but your site has some more vibrant colors and seems a bit more 'clean' layout wise. By that I mean that it follows more of a strict grid layout where your current art seems to be more suited for a freer layout. Use the site that you mentioned as a reference to see how they make the hand made artwork fit a bit better if you decide to go that route.

Nice little doodles