6.0 Illustration · WILS Brand Guide

6.1 · Four drawings per plant

Four views. One geometry.

Each plant has an elevation render, a plan symbol, an elevation line drawing and a line sketch. All four come from the same numbers, so the plan circle and the elevation spread always match.

Drawings are constructed vectors. Nothing is traced from a photograph and nothing is generated as an image.

The four views
View	Colour	Used for
Render	Group colour	Plant sheet, cards
Plan	Ink only	Planting plans, CAD
Elevation	Ink and Muted	Sections, CAD
Sketch	Ink only	Mood boards, reports

Albizia lebbeck, elevation render: a broad green umbrella crown on a single trunk, a 1.8 m figure, a 15 m height line and a 0 to 5 m scale bar. — **Elevation render.** Drawn at 15 m with a 1.8 m figure, scale 0 to 5 m.

Albizia lebbeck, plan symbol: a solid circle for the largest spread, a dashed circle for the smallest, a canopy outline and a centre cross. — **Plan symbol.** Solid circle at the largest spread, dashed at the smallest. Ø 18 m.

Albizia lebbeck, elevation line drawing with width and height dimensions. — **Elevation drawing.** Crown and trunk with spread and height dimensions. 18 × 15 m.

Albizia lebbeck, line sketch: crown outline, trunk, two main branches and three form lines. — **Line sketch.** One pen, Ink only. Not to scale.

Albizia lebbeck. All four drawings sit on the same white plate.

6.2 · The white plate

Drawings always sit on white.

The plate is pure Paper with a 1 px hairline frame. Inside it, lines are Ink and labels are Muted.

Draw nothing straight onto a colour field or onto Ink. Put the plate on the field instead.

Rule

Never invert a drawing and never lay one straight onto a colour field. The plate stays white.

The Albizia lebbeck render on a white plate, set on a Delta Teal field.

The plate on a Delta Teal field. The drawing keeps its Ink lines on white.

6.3 · Scale and the human figure

A 1.8 m person shows the size.

The render carries one plain figure, exactly 1.8 m tall, in Muted. It stands on the ground line to the right of the plant. There is never a second figure, a car or a bench.

A scale bar sits at the bottom left. A dashed dimension line gives the height. Pick the largest scale at which the plant fits the plate.

Scale steps
Scale	Scale bar	Plants
1:20	0 to 1 m	Groundcovers, small shrubs
1:50	0 to 2 m	Shrubs, climbers, small palms
1:100	0 to 5 m	Trees and palms to 15 m
1:200	0 to 10 m	Trees and palms over 15 m

Figure, dimension line and scale bar, shown larger than in a drawing.

Figure height: 1.8 m, to the top of the head
Figure colour: Muted #575B63, solid
Position: Right of the plant, 1.5 m beyond the crown edge
Dimension line: Dashed hairline with a tick at the top. Label reads bottom to top.
Where it appears: Render only

6.4 · Colour in drawings

One colour: the plant group.

Only the render has colour. The crown is the group colour, laid down in layers of different opacity. No second hex is ever added. Every other line is Ink or Muted.

Palms and Groundcovers are light colours. Their crown edge is drawn at full strength so the shape still reads on white.

Render opacities
Layer	Opacity
Back crown masses	16 %
Front crown masses	22 %
Crown edge	75 % (100 % for Palms and Groundcovers)
Crown form lines	38 %
Ground line	60 %
Plan canopy outline	70 %

Rule

Make tints with opacity, never with a new colour. No gradients, no shadows, no textures.

Albizia lebbeck, a tree, drawn in Trees green — TreesAlbizia lebbeck

Phoenix dactylifera, a palm, drawn in Palms amber — PalmsPhoenix dactylifera

Nerium oleander, a shrub, drawn in Shrubs red — ShrubsNerium oleander

Asparagus densiflorus, a groundcover, drawn in Groundcovers blue — GroundcoversAsparagus densiflorus

Bougainvillea glabra, a climber, drawn in Climbers magenta on a post — ClimbersBougainvillea glabra

One render for each plant group. The shapes differ. The method does not.

6.5 · CAD symbols

The drawings are also CAD blocks.

The plan and the elevation come as DXF blocks drawn from the same geometry. One unit is one metre, so a block drops into a planting plan at true size.

The plan block inserts at the trunk centre. The elevation block inserts at the trunk base on the ground line. The 1.8 m figure is its own block, so it can be deleted in one click.

Format: DXF R2010, ASCII
Units: Metres (a millimetre variant is also offered)
Block names: WILS_TR0412_PLAN
WILS_TR0412_PLAN_SIMPLE
WILS_TR0412_ELEV
WILS_FIGURE_180
Variants: A: all on layer 0, takes the colour of the layer it is inserted on. B: layered.
Text: None inside blocks. Data is held in attributes.

Rule

Brand colours are never written to CAD files. Layers carry the colour in the user’s own drawing.

Plan block with the insertion point at the trunk centre — **Plan block.** Insertion point: trunk centre.

Elevation block with the insertion point at the trunk base — **Elevation block.** Insertion point: trunk base on the ground line.

Layers in the layered variant
Layer	Content	Weight
L-PLNT-TREE	Tree circle, canopy, trunk, crown	0.35
L-PLNT-PALM	Palm fronds and trunk	0.35
L-PLNT-SHRB	Shrub symbols	0.25
L-PLNT-GRND	Groundcover extents and spacing	0.25
L-PLNT-VINE	Climbers and their post	0.25
L-PLNT-TREE-SPRD	Smallest-spread circle, dashed	0.18
L-PLNT-FIGR	The 1.8 m figure	0.18
L-ANNO-TTLB	Title block	0.18

Layer names follow the common landscape CAD standard. Weights are in mm.

6.6 · Labelling

Credit and ID, nothing more.

Every plate carries one line at the bottom right: “WILS illustration” and the plant’s ID. Nothing else is credited on the drawing. The wordmark, a logo or a web address never appear on a plate.

Labels are WILS Sans Medium in Muted, turned into outlines so the file needs no font. Numbers use Western digits, with the unit after a space: 15 m, Ø 18 m, 1:100.

The plant name is not drawn on the plate. It goes in the page caption and in the file’s title, always upright.

Credit: WILS illustration · ID, bottom right
Plan, bottom left: Ø and ratio
Elevation, bottom left: Ratio
Sketch: Credit only
File name: id_binomial_view_rNN

The full Albizia lebbeck render with its scale bar and credit line along the bottom edge.

The whole plate.

The bottom edge: scale bar at the left, credit and ID at the right.

6.7 · Photographs and image styles

Five images, one recipe.

Next to the four drawings, every plant gets five images made to one recipe: a cut-out photograph, an ink sketch and a watercolour of the elevation, and an ink sketch and a watercolour of the top view. Real photographs of the leaf, flower, fruit and bark come from openly licensed sources and are credited on the page.

All five share the same rules: one mature, typical specimen; botanically true; pure white background edge to edge; a square canvas with the plant filling about 85 % of it; nothing else in the frame; light from the upper left. The 1.8 m figure and the scale bar live in the drawings, never in these images.

Rule

Change a style in the recipe first, never in a one-off image. If two plants do not look like one series, the recipe is wrong, not the plant.

Albizia lebbeck, cut-out photo — **Cut-out photo.** Photorealistic, soft daylight, clean edge on white.

Albizia lebbeck, ink sketch — **Ink sketch.** One pen, Ink only, elevation.

Albizia lebbeck, watercolour — **Watercolour.** Flat washes, no outline heavier than the sketch.

Albizia lebbeck, ink sketch, top view — **Ink sketch, top view.** Orthographic, straight down.

Albizia lebbeck, watercolour, top view — **Watercolour, top view.** The same crown from above.

The set per plant
Image	View	Size	Where it shows
Cut-out photo	Elevation	2048 × 2048, WebP 1600	The main picture on the plant sheet and on cards
Ink sketch	Elevation	2048 × 2048	Elevation view, “Sketch”
Watercolour	Elevation	2048 × 2048	Elevation view, “Colour”
Ink sketch, top	Plan	2048 × 2048	Top view, “Sketch”
Watercolour, top	Plan	2048 × 2048	Top view, “Colour”
Real photographs	Leaf, flower, fruit, bark, habit	As sourced, 1600 wide	Photos row, with licence and author in the credits

Albizia lebbeck in the five styles. File name: slug, style code, revision, for example albizia-lebbeck_paint-plan_r01.