Offgrid started with a simple idea: create an illustration system we would want to use ourselves.
Not a stock library built around endless variations of the same visual language. Not a side collection hidden inside General Condition. A standalone product with its own identity, rules, audience and room to grow.
What started with individual characters gradually became something larger. Illustration packs needed structure. The structure needed a brand. The brand needed a store. The store needed licensing, product logic, account access, digital delivery and a way to keep expanding without becoming difficult to manage.
That process became Offgrid, an independent illustration store developed by General Condition.
Building a product, not a portfolio section
We could have published the illustrations as another section of the General Condition website. Instead, we decided to treat them as an independent product from the beginning, and that decision changed almost everything.
Offgrid needed its own visual identity, tone of voice, product architecture, commerce system and customer experience. At the same time, the illustrations still come from the same design culture as General Condition, but the product needed enough distance to develop its own personality.
The result is an independent illustration store developed by General Condition Studio, with its own growing library of hand-drawn vector artwork for branding, editorial, packaging, websites, social content and other creative applications. Offgrid currently presents its work through individual illustrations, thematic packs and larger collections.
Creating an illustration system
The first challenge was consistency.
An illustration library becomes more useful when individual pieces feel related without becoming repetitive. At the same time, characters, objects, animals and seasonal artwork need enough visual consistency to work together while each pack keeps its own energy.
We developed Offgrid illustration store around a recognizable hand-drawn language rather than one rigid template. As a result, the system leaves room for different subjects and moods while keeping common characteristics across line work, proportions, color, expression and composition.
This gives us the freedom to move from people and work-related characters to animals, travel, food, holidays or entirely different subjects without restarting the visual language each time. Over time, the library can grow across themes while individual collections continue to expand in depth.
From individual illustrations to packs and collections
Once the number of illustrations started growing, product structure became as important as illustration itself.
Offgrid is currently organized into five active collections: Animals, Holidays, Lifestyle, People and Work. Two additional collections, Concepts and Spaces, are being developed to expand the library into more abstract ideas and spatial subjects.
Within this structure, individual illustrations can exist as standalone products, related artworks can form packs, and those packs sit inside broader collections. This gives the library a clear hierarchy while leaving room for new themes to grow over time.
A single character works as one product. A group of related illustrations becomes a pack. Related packs form larger collections.
This creates several entry points into the same library.
Someone might need one illustration for a presentation. Another designer might need an entire thematic pack. A studio working across multiple projects might prefer access to the broader library.
Offgrid therefore needed to support individual purchases and larger access models without separating the content into disconnected systems.
The current store reflects this structure. Individual illustrations sit alongside larger packs such as Sea World, Farm Animals, People and seasonal collections, while All Access plans provide broader library access.
Designing a brand around the artwork
Offgrid needed to feel like more than a marketplace interface wrapped around illustrations.
The identity was developed to give the artwork space while keeping the store recognizable without relying on the illustrations alone.
A dark interface creates a neutral frame for colorful artwork. Typography, product labels, plan identities and short pieces of copy bring more character into the system.
The tone is deliberately less formal than General Condition.
Product descriptions do more than explain file formats and dimensions. They introduce characters, jokes and small fragments of the Offgrid world. A sea creature pack does not need to sound like software documentation. A strange character does not need a corporate biography.
This tone gives the brand continuity across the shop, product pages, email, social content and future Stories.
Building the illustration store around digital products
Building an illustration store around digital products meant designing for licensing, file delivery, account access and clear product structure rather than physical fulfilment.
The website was designed and developed in WordPress with Elementor Pro, JetEngine, JetSmartFilters, JetTabs, JetWooBuilder and WooCommerce.
This gave us a familiar development environment while leaving enough flexibility to create a custom storefront rather than starting from a standard shop layout.
The challenge was not the cart itself.
Digital illustration products behave differently from physical products. There is no shipping flow, inventory in the traditional sense or physical fulfilment. The important parts are product organization, instant access, licensing, customer accounts and making it clear what someone receives after purchasing.
A product page therefore needs to answer several questions quickly. What is included? Which file formats are provided? Which software works with them? What usage rights come with the purchase? Is the product part of a larger pack? What happens after checkout?
Offgrid currently delivers editable vector artwork primarily through AI and EPS files, with products prepared for screen and print use.
Building licensing into the product
Selling digital artwork means the product is not only the file.
The licence is part of the product too.
We needed a model broad enough for designers to use Offgrid artwork in real commercial work while protecting the original illustrations from redistribution and resale.
The current licence supports personal and commercial projects, including client work, while restricting redistribution of the original editable artwork and use in products where the illustrations themselves become the primary resale value.
This information appears throughout the product experience rather than being hidden only inside legal documentation.
The goal is clarity.
A designer buying an illustration should understand what they are buying, what they are allowed to do with it and where the limits sit.
From products to access
As the library expanded, individual product sales stopped being the only useful way to access Offgrid.
This led to a broader All Access structure.
Standard, Premium and Lifetime plans create different entry points depending on how much access a customer needs and how many people work with the files. The model also lets the library grow without forcing regular users to purchase every new pack individually.
This changed how we think about the product.
Offgrid is no longer only a collection of separate illustration packs. It is becoming a growing creative library where each new release increases the value of the system around it.
Designing for a library that keeps growing
A store with twenty products and a store with hundreds of products are different design problems.
Offgrid was therefore structured around growth from early on.
Collections help group related work. Product relationships connect individual artwork to larger packs. Categories give the library a navigable structure. Search, filtering and editorial content become more important as the number of products increases.
The website needs to support the next pack without requiring the navigation, homepage or product architecture to be redesigned every time something new launches.
This is the same principle we apply to larger client websites: content structure needs to anticipate growth rather than react to it.
Stories as part of the product
A visual library also needs context.
Offgrid Stories are being developed as a space to show how illustration packs are built, how they work inside real design applications and how individual collections relate to broader creative themes.
The aim is not to turn illustration store into a conventional content site.
Stories give the illustrations another layer beyond the product grid. They create room for process, visual references, use cases and deeper presentation of individual packs.
Over time, this editorial layer also gives search engines and AI systems more information about what Offgrid creates, how the artwork is intended to be used and how different collections relate to one another.
Building our own product changes the work
Client projects usually begin with an existing organization, business model or product.
Offgrid started without any of those constraints.
We had to define the product and then design the system around it.
That meant making decisions about illustration, naming, pricing, licensing, product hierarchy, e-commerce, customer support, content, technical infrastructure and growth inside the same project.
It also gave us something client work rarely provides: continuous feedback from our own decisions.
If a product structure becomes confusing, we experience it ourselves. And if a page becomes difficult to maintain, we maintain it. If the library outgrows a system, we rebuild the system.
Offgrid operates as a product and as an ongoing testing ground for how General Condition approaches design, digital products and e-commerce.
Still building
Offgrid is not a finished project.
Offgrid continues to grow as an independent illustration store and as an ongoing General Condition product project.
That ongoing development is part of the point.
We did not build Offgrid to produce one finished case study.
We built it to create something that keeps moving.
Explore the growing collection of hand-drawn illustrations, packs and creative resources at Offgrid.