It's a slightly European, retro look. First popular in the 50s and 60s, it's been making a bit of a comeback. Monocle magazine started using it in the early 2010s and I've seen it used more and more since then.

Stylised illustration like this is great for communicating concepts or how things work in a simple way. It's organic and fun without being too out-there and works well with digital as it brings a human touch to something which could be too 'technological'.

Photos often aren't right as they're highly specific - we immediately focus on the detail, the people, the setting etc., rather that what's trying to be communicated. 'Conceptual' photography is hard to do without resorting to groaningly obvious clichés - think lightbulbs, puzzle pieces or people in suits shaking hands.

It's also fairly cheap to commission – lots of people can do it as it's a well known style. Pricier than Shutterstock, but much cheaper than a custom photoshoot.

I've commissioned this sort of illustration myself, for exactly these reasons.

Some of your references are not even the same style. I get what you are saying anyway.. Who cares?

Because real illustrations take a lot of effort and skill. This means they are far more expensive to commission. Designers (and I'm certainly guilty of this) learned to be creative enough with illustrating to sell a service but we're not so good that we could make a living doing this. Sure, if done right, it can be a learning process to becoming more of a full time illustrator but not everyone pushes themselves to this extent.

Different enough to seem creative, same enough to get signed off.

No, the 2018 trend is this: https://twitter.com/agilek/status/962996686321840128

Almost none of these are the same style?

The trend of colorful illustrations to explain products? My dude, that ain't a trend.

I could be wrong, but I think this style gained significant popularity when Meg Robichaud (https://dribbble.com/megdraws) introduced a bunch of new marketing work when she joined Shopify. This style was the foundation of that work.

It might’ve been sooner, but I remember seeing it really take off after that work started dropping on Dribbble. Again, I could be amiss, but that’s how I recall it.

I like it personally.

Because faces are hard to illustrate.

I don't think there is an accurate answer to your question but this is how trends work. The same thing happened a few years ago when dropbox introduced this illustration style: Missing File Illustration - Dropbox

Developing a unique illustration style takes years and these abstract illustrations are frequently made up of warped geometric shapes that are easy to copy/reproduce with vector apps. A designer with minimal illustration chops can probably figure out how to reproduce one of these fairly easily. That being said—it still takes a lot of talent and I'm not mad at it.

I think this style of illustration is particularly often used within mobile UX design where empty states, onboarding screens and errors are being enriched with contextual illustrations.

What do all these illustration have in common? They don't fixate on the character, but the surroundings/context. Exactly what you need when you want to explain your users 'what happened'.

I preferably use contextual illustrations without too much detail (e.g. no facial expressions/eyes, etc.) because of the relative small size of mobile screens. Also, since most mobile experiences now focus on a minimalistic visual style with a lot of whitespace, big typography and subtle shadows, it's logical that the illustrations are also a bit more minimalistic.

Which trend are your talking about? I'm just seeing some cartoon characters illustrations, and they've been around for a few decades in advertising and all

While I disagree that these could be categorized as the same style, these monoculture illustrations absolutely can, and if anything helps move trends away from that boring ubiquitous geometric style that's been dominant way too long, im all for it.

I don't see these types of illustrations everyday. I think they are good.

Because mid century modern is in.

What's the issue?

I see Anna Hurley riding this wave quite well, http://www.annalouisehurley.com/

I believe Dribbble personalized your home to what you like, maybe that's the reason, you like this styles? You might be in a bubble. I also think that this style is only common in tech/startups groups. When dropbox, google, SF startups do it — the rest of the world just copy you or "get inspired" :)

"just caught on so quickly and so widespread" -> it has been used by Google ;)

https://dribbble.com/google

Cuz it looks great and immediately adds a ton of polish to any site.

Illustration, taking over.

cuz dribbble

it’s interesting that you couldn’t describe it because even though they’re quite similar in a certain way, they’re also have quite unique style.

The style in question is a natural progression of flat design popularized by Microsoft’s Metro (Zune, WP7 ) >> iOS 7 >> Google Material Design.

They call it the "Tailored Illustrations" trend and I hope it will stay for a while…! Simply search this string on google search:

design trends "Tailored Illustrations"

I thought the same. Not sure who started it, but personally I like this style. Esp when humans are involved. Complex illustrations made simple yet adds detail.

https://dribbble.com/shots/3757963-Slack-com-redesign-Illustrations-01https://dribbble.com/shots/3838711-Slack-Home-Motion

First of it's a trend. It seems to catch people's attention. The style is friendly, easy going, colourful and welcoming. Start ups want to be seen in that light and not a corporate one. Furthermore, it's a nice way of showcasing how the product works. They are almost like user stories but for the end user to understand the product.

I personally like the trend, I think it can be unique from one website to another while giving it a more human touch, rather then using just some icons.

Maybe write straight to the illustrators and ask them about it