Humans of Cliniko: Patrícia, our illustrator

Illustrations have always been an iconic part of Cliniko and they’re the handiwork of two human designers (and zero clankers). There’s Kelly, who’s been part of the team since the beginning of the company in 2011 and Patrícia, who came on board in 2024.

The visuality of Cliniko is always something that we’ve cared about. First and foremost, we want the design of the software to be aesthetically pleasing when you’re using it in your clinic—it’s always nicer to interact with something that’s neat and easy on the eye! But we aim for this to carry over into every part of what we do, whether that’s the illustration accompanying a post you read on our website or the design of a pair of socks you grab from us at a conference.

As someone with zero artistic talent, I’ve always marvelled at the designs that Kelly and Patrícia come up with for Cliniko. But what does it actually take to get an illustration up and running? Where do their ideas come from? And how does this translate into an end result? Patrícia recently answered some of my burning questions.

When did you start drawing?

I’ve drawn ever since I can remember. As a kid, it was always something I enjoyed doing in my free time; I would spend hours drawing the Disney characters on my TV or pretending to be Beatrix Potter painting in her cottage!

Professionally, I started working as a product designer and later as a graphic designer—that's when I started doing a few illustrations on the job. I was simultaneously posting my work online and to my surprise, getting a few clients for freelance projects. I left the job and I’ve been doing illustration full-time since then.

What kinds of projects does your work at Cliniko involve?

Mostly illustrations and sometimes design too. This means that one day I’m drawing editorial illustrations for an article and also preparing all the images that need to be shared. The next day I’m designing flyers and banners for both online and offline marketing campaigns.

You recently designed some new stickers for Cliniko. How did you approach that task?

The creative process is mostly the same for all projects. It starts with the briefing, or me trying to get as much information as possible about what's needed, where it’s going to be used, and what was done before. In this case, we needed new stickers for a conference and since this was a podiatry conference, we thought it would be fun to have some illustrations related to the theme.

When all the information is gathered, it’s time for my favourite step: brainstorming and sketching! The goal is to have as many ideas as possible and not to focus on small details but rather on key elements that translate the concept well. For this, I prefer to start with quick sketches by hand and then clean them up on the iPad. By now, I already have enough information to see what the final composition will be, even without colour.

Once the sketches are given the thumbs up, by either the team or our founder Joel, I can start adding colour to the chosen illustrations. I use a digital drawing tablet and Adobe Illustrator software for this. To keep Cliniko as a recognisable and approachable brand, it’s important to stay consistent across different mediums. Visually we do this by using our brand colours, fonts, style, and sense of humour—keeping in mind that there’s always room for change!

After all the details are drawn, and fonts and colour variations are chosen, I move onto the more technical part of the process: preparing the files to print. For stickers, I need to be aware of sizing, how colours change from screen to paper, text readability, type of paper, and the shape. Last but not least, I enjoy seeing the work being out there in the world, and people using it and having fun with it as much as I did!

Where do you get your ideas from?

Anywhere and everywhere! My mind is always looking for inspiration in everyday life. It can be a nice cup of coffee, a funny movie, other artists’ work, etc. Sometimes it can be overwhelming to be subconsciously looking for ideas all the time, so it’s good to have other more practical tasks in between, like organising and naming files. Usually the best ideas come when I’m not actively being creative.

What’s the hardest part of being a designer?

Producing new ideas while keeping in mind the overall outcome can be hard to balance. You want to be innovative but also consistent and to present new concepts while staying true to our values. Pushing boundaries but continuing to be efficient and useful is the ultimate goal.

What’s the most rewarding part of being a designer?

Being able to play, tell stories, and solve problems on a daily basis is very rewarding. I love the challenge and the idea that the results will make someone else's day a little bit easier too.