Examples

Four ways illo renders an idea — pick the register, or let the skill choose. Everything below came out of the skill with no manual editing. Guide →

the default

Editorial scenes

Hand the illo skill a post about shipping discipline and it pulls the load-bearing moments — then renders one scene per moment, ready to interleave through your prose.

Scope creep: a leaning tower of crates — “scope creep has a smell”

Many inputs become one decision — “many inputs, one decision”

Replatform with zero downtime: rebuilding the bridge under live traffic — “replatform with zero downtime”

One character, one palette across the whole set — so the article reads as one voice. When to use scenes →

newest look

SNES

16-bit console sprite editorial — soft dither, game-world staging, and a four-pack cast (matt, ybur, forge, booboo). Also still shipping: bricks for photoreal minifigure builds, and fizz for skate-sticker ship-day energy.

Booboo the boy wizard in snes look — snes · booboo — “tries the spell”

Browse snes → · bricks → · fizz →

when the idea is a story beat

Mini-comics

A story beat — fail→fix, before→after — told in 2–4 panels inside a single image. The same character and key object carry through every panel. A named pipeline is labeled stages inside explainer, not this.

the best shape for social posts

Guide →

when the structure is the point

Explainer diagrams

One register for labeled stages, flow, fan-out, timeline, loop, stack, or system slice — a diagram the reader can trace that still looks like the illo skill drew it. Scenes stay the default; ask for an explainer diagram when the thesis is the structure itself — e.g. /illo how a book gets published explainer diagram. A flowchart or labeled workflow locks labeled stages, not a mini-comic. Arrow notes sit on the arrows: a verb on the main flow, a condition on the return.

Blip sorts envelopes into three bins labeled KEEP, LATER, and TRASH, with a pink sort arrow — “Sort incoming mail into keep, later, and trash as a fan-out, using Blip”

Explainer diagram in bricks look: Orbit at pad, liftoff with stage separation, then orbit — three big beats on one baseplate — “pad → liftoff → orbit”

Pixel-art Forge hammers at an anvil on a stone platform: SKETCH scroll, FORGE, SHIP door, and a yellow retry loop — “Diagram the pipeline from a raw idea to a shipped tool. Use Forge.”

Explainer flow: reader emails move through triage, drafts, two edit passes, publish, and X threads — “diagram our content pipeline”

Guide →

just the mascot

Character cutouts

Blot character cutout — mascot alone for overlay on slides or docs

Transparent PNG — pose and contact continuity only. No scene, no text, no idea to explain. Paste onto slides, docs, or hand off to another tool.

/illo blot cutout waving

Guide →

wherever it's headed

Any aspect ratio

Wide 16:9 for articles and headers, square for social cards, 9:16 and 4:5 for vertical feeds — say where it's going and the illo skill sizes the scene to fit. For an X Article banner, ask for the dedicated 1536 × 640 format.

16:9 scene: hauling a crate across a plank bridge — 16:9 · article header

1:1 scene: stacking small wins — 1:1 · social card

hand it one brand color

Palettes that match your site

Named presets, palettes extracted from your blog's theme, or a full palette derived from a single hex — the scenes below came from /illo scope creep has a smell emerald green accent and “make it royal purple”.

Emerald-derived palette scene — emerald green accent

Purple-derived palette scene — “make it royal purple”

same character, dressed for the destination

Blip in the bold fluoro-pink house palette, made for an X post — for X — the bold house palette

The same character in a blog's own cream-and-orange theme colors — for the blog — its own theme colors

Examples

Editorial scenes

SNES

Mini-comics

Explainer diagrams

Character cutouts

Any aspect ratio

Palettes that match your site

Your turn.