A silhouette, as many of you would already be aware of, is the solid outline of a person, animal or object in monochrome. The interior of the silhouette is always featureless but it is the outline that defines the design element. Silhouette forms one of the most important part of creative designing to deliver a strong impact on the viewer’s mind. While the design is quite well defined, there are also a lot of creative variations that help designers portray a variety of concepts through a silhouette. Let’s take a brief look into how silhouettes can be used in your graphic design work.

Tree Silhouette

One of the most representative parts of nature is a tree and a silhouette can be a powerful flag bearer. Depending on what you are designing and what you are trying to achieve, a tree silhouette can take a variety of shapes and sizes to fit the requirements.

Pine Tree Silhouette

pine tree silhouette

Palm Tree Silhouette

palm tree silhouette

Bird Silhouette

Birds, be it in real life form or just silhouette can add life to any design. You may use bird silhouette thumbnails to come up with a complete nature art or even use them as a standalone element to achieve a well-defined logo.

Flying Bird Silhouette

flying bird silhouette

Love Bird Silhouette

love bird silhouette

Black Bird Silhouette

black bird silhouette

Cat Silhouette

Cats are representative of a variety of things. Cute cats make great pets while evil cats make for a horror poster. Whether you are trying to add the necessary visuals to your pet shop logo or trying to come up with a poster for Halloween, cat silhouettes can be used optimally.

Halloween Cat Silhouette

halloween cat silhouette

Black Cat Silhouette

black cat silhouette

Sitting Cat Silhouette

sitting cat silhouette

Animal Silhouette

There’s really no limit to which you can hope to use an animal silhouette to achieve your design goals. From the silhouette or a ferocious tiger to that of a cute bunny, animal silhouettes inspire the audience in a lot many ways.

Farm Animal Silhouette

farm animal silhouette

Baby Animal Silhouette

baby animal silhouette

Wild Animal Silhouette

wild animal silhouette

City Silhouettes

Popularly used by real estate agencies and party designers, the silhouette of a cityscape adds a lot of information about the work you are doing. City silhouette imagery can also involve window lights to depict the nightlife of a particular place.

City Skyline Silhouette

city skyline silhouette

Flower Silhouette

Flower silhouettes are again commonly used elements in a lot of graphic design work, especially those depicting nature and conservation. Flower silhouettes can also act as standalone graphic element to form a background for a message.

Decorative Flower Silhouette

decorative flower silhouette

Lotus Flower Silhouette

lotus flower silhouette

Hawaiian Flower Silhouette

hawaiian flower silhouette

Car Silhouette

If you are designing something that needs to showcase a car outline, a silhouette will provide the perfect background for the work. Depending upon the model, car silhouettes can take a variety of shapes.

Vintage Car Silhouette

vintage car silhouette

Vector Car Silhouette

vector car silhouette

Off Road Car Silhouette

off road car silhouette

Heart Silhouettes

Another highly popular silhouette shape used by graphic designers across the globe, a silhouette of a heart makes perfect sense when you are coming up with a romantic greeting card or a personal message. Of course, the shape is not of a real heart but of the ‘love icon’ that represents it.

Red Heart Silhouette

red heart silhouette

Heart Hand Silhouette

heart hand silhouette

Crown Silhouettes

Generally seen in casinos and upscale bars and clubs, the silhouette of a crown is representative of royal treatment and high end luxury. In several cases, crown silhouettes have also made perfect logos for big brands catering luxury products.

Royal Crown Silhouette

royal crown silhouette

Princess Crown Silhouette

princess crown silhouette

Monarchy Crown Silhouette

monarchy crown silhouette

Guitar Silhouettes

A great design element for graphic work related to music, the silhouette of a guitar finds its place in many things, ranging from gig posters to wallpaper of music shop. Again, they come in a variety of shape, perfectly understood by music lovers.

Electric Guitar Silhouette

electric guitar silhouette

Acoustic Guitar Silhouette

acoustic guitar silhouette

Sun Silhouette

Now, this is interesting, how can the sun, the dominant source of light, be represented by a silhouette? Well, it’s not always the real sun and the silhouette doesn’t necessarily is all black. The depiction is in monochrome (spanning across a variety of solid colors) and comes in interesting shapes.

Sunset Silhouette

sunset silhouette

Sunshine Silhouette

sunshine silhouette

Sun Rays Silhouette

sun rays silhouette

Angel Silhouette

Thoroughly depicted in biblical platforms, the silhouette of an angel also is a prominent part of designing greeting cards, event banners and similar work. Again, it is the creativity of the designer as to how the angel silhouette is best placed in the content.

Valentine Angel Silhouette

valentine angel silhouette

Baby Angel Silhouette

baby angel silhouette

Paper Angel Silhouette

paper angel silhouette

Cross Silhouette

This is something that everyone has seen somewhere. A symbol of faith elated to the Western civilization, the silhouette of a cross finds its place in all kinds of religious documents, ranging from books to mass banners.

Religious Cross Silhouette

religious cross silhouette

Black Cross Silhouette

black cross silhouette

Fancy Cross Silhouette

fancy cross silhouette

Skull Silhouette

There can be highly creative usage of skull silhouettes and they have found place among religious circles, music stationary and even college and party posters. The skull is basically a representative to cult and in some cases, evil / mystical moods.

Vector Skull Silhouette

vector skull silhouette

Sugar Skull Silhouette

sugar skull silhouette

Animal Skull Silhouette

animal skull silhouette

Leaf Silhouette

A leaf is a bearer of life and is perfectly representative of the same, even in the form of a silhouette. The leaf silhouette is highly representative and thus finds its way into all kinds of design work, ranging across industries.

Palm Leaf Silhouette

palm leaf silhouette

Autumn Leaves Silhouette

autumn leaf silhouette

Green Leaves Silhouette

green leaf silhouette

Truck Silhouette

It’s not just one representative truck design we are talking of. They come in a variety of shapes, largely defined by the industry the design work is for. There could be a lot of creative usage of a truck design that stands for the continuous movement of modern life. In most cases, the truck silhouette is used by logistics companies.

Colorful Truck Silhouette

colorful truck silhouette

Long Truck Silhouette

long truck silhouette

Monster Truck Silhouette

monster truck silhouette

Cupcake Silhouette

Cupcake silhouettes have found their ways into all kinds of greetings and celebrations stationary. Like sun silhouettes, they don’t need to be in dark monochrome but can involve any bright solid color. Cupcake silhouettes also provide a great opportunity in bakery logo designs.

Delicious Cupcake Silhouette

delicious cupcake silhouette

Motorcycle Silhouette

Designing something f a biking event or any kind of rally that used vehicles? A motorcycle silhouette can be creatively used to show the passion associated with riding. A motorcycle silhouette can also become a great logo element.

Riding Motorcycle Silhouette

riding motorcycle silhouette

Vintage Motorcycle Silhouette

vintage motorcycle silhouette

Snowflake Silhouette

Snowflake silhouette have always been used as complimentary graphic elements in fun posters catering to parties, get together and even related stationary. A snowflake is beautiful and adds a fun pattern to your work.

Frozen Snowflake Silhouette

frozen snowflake silhouette

Simple Snowflake Silhouette

simple snowflake silhouette

Book Silhouette

The silhouette of a book is perfect for sending across any serious message. The idea of a book also makes the design more creative and representative. As such, this can cater to the requirements of any kind of industry, business or brand.

Book Shelf Silhouette

book shelf silhouette

Silhouettes in design work make perfect sense when you are more concerned about the message you are trying to present than the form of it. In many case, a real life image can be distracting. For example, the silhouette of a woman/girl finds more aesthetic looking visual than the picture of a real life model. This is same with everything. This doesn’t in any way mean that silhouettes are boring. Used strategically, they can become the highlight of any design work.

Silhouettes don’t come in a limited amount of shapes and colors. Thus, when you are looking for a particular representation, it would be advisable to browse through all the variety available to widen your design perspective. Customization and creativity would also be the key in adding more material to a silhouette design. All silhouettes presented here are available as high quality vectors and can be seamlessly put into any kind of application, be it a small logo or a king size banner design.

 

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