For about four and a half years, I had the pleasure of working for LÍLLÉbaby as a contract graphic designer. They were a baby carrier company that sells a variety of babywearing products like infant carriers, toddler carriers, stretchy wraps, ring slings, and more.
Their original user manuals used photographs of an adult and a baby to show step-by-step instructions on how to use the baby carriers. Some of the photos weren’t very clear on how each step was performed and in some instances, it was tough to get the baby to cooperate (which is totally understandable!). Plus, if any of the photos needed to be retaken, it was very difficult to find another baby the same size/age to recreate an image and maintain continuity.
A pic of what the old manuals looked like with photos for each step.
They came to me with the idea of having a simplified drawing for each step rather than a photograph AND a goal to make the drawings as clear as possible so there could be as little text as possible. When these products are shipped to different countries, they used to have the manuals translated into different languages.
We started with their stretchy wrap and ring sling carriers. These first manuals were fun to create as a single page that folded up to be a little bigger than a business card to work with the small packaging.
From there we slowly started rebranding all of the booklet manuals for their existing Complete and CarryOn toddler carriers, and then their Seat-Me Carrier and various accessories that they sadly no longer sell.
In the later years, we eventually reworked the manuals to contain translations in 12 languages. Yes, this was sometimes exceptionally challenging to fit in the space AND not make the text teeny tiny.
LÍLLÉbaby carriers were already my favorites when my kids were babies, so my knowledge on how their products work was integral in drawing these as clear and concise as possible. Understanding safe and correct babywearing made it easy for me to create these drawings and be in compliance with safety regulations and reduce any liability on the company.
Each new product was a new and fun challenge and they were truly a pleasure to create.