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Alleanna Harris for Toyota US
last updated 11 November 2020
Alleanna Harris is a US illustrator with a background in animation and a love for creating immersive images, rich in colour. She has recently finished working on an exciting project for Toyota USA, designing illustrations for their Instagram. We caught up with Alleanna to find out what it was like creating digital content for the famous car brand.
Can you tell us a little bit about your process and how you developed these pieces?
Burrell wanted me to come up with a few Instagram stories to cover Toyota’s Fall Car Care Month, which included the steps of checking tires, checking the battery, wipers and wiper fluid, and scheduling maintenance. Toyota wanted to centre the Camry and the RAV4 in the illustrations.
I took the pictures of the Camry and RAV4 that they sent to me and immediately started sketching the most straightforward ideas that I thought would represent each Fall Car Care step.
I sent my sketches to the Team at Burrell, and I explained what I was thinking idea wise for each Car Care step. We went through each step one by one and they suggested revisions for each step, which I implemented into color roughs. Overall, I wanted warm fall colors, and the team was happy that I added them in!
After that, I cleaned up my rough color illustrations and it was a pretty fast process from start to finish.
Alleanna Harris for Toyota US - RAV4 from Bright Illustration on Vimeo.
What do you enjoy most about collaborating with clients like Toyota?
I enjoy the briefs! I like their project ideas and it’s always enjoyable for me to figure out illustrations to fit what they’re looking for. I also love how concise the companies’ feedback and notes tend to be! When I do rough sketches, the companies always tell me exactly what needs to be changed and how they think I should go about it. It makes my job easier.
What do you look for in a good creative brief?
Here’s my ideal brief:
A brief description: Describe what you want in the project. You can describe the plot, action, setting, feeling… describe whatever helps me see what you’re seeing for the project.
Inspiration pictures: It can be literal inspiration, like art they want my work to look like, or pictures they want my art to match mood-wise. They can include past work done for the company.
Information about the market audience: What does the target strive for? What’s their style? What makes them, them?
Technical info: Tell me what kind of files you need! That includes the dimensions, color mode, whether you want a layered file, etc.
Clear deadlines: Please tell me when you want things ready! You can even tell me a certain time. It allows me to plan how and when to finish the illustrations.
Straightforward feedback: I like feedback broken down into bullet points, or really concise. For example, “make the sky a more intense or saturated blue” is way better than “the sky doesn’t feel right, could you possibly make it brighter?”
I love when a brief has half or most of those elements. Aside from the brief, it’s always great to work with friendly people! The Toyota team was extremely friendly.
Alleanna Harris for Toyota US - Camry from Bright Illustration on Vimeo.
Do you have any personal projects you’re working on right now?
Yes and no! I’ve been working on client projects, so it’s hard to find time for personal projects. When I do find time, I like illustrating things based on my memories.
Alleanna Harris is represented by Helen Biles for illustration. To work with Alleanna, please get in touch. You can see more of Alleanna’s work here.