No two trucks are the same: each of the 37 vehicles in Amazon's global Treasure Truck fleet are custom designed to the local neighbourhood. We sat down with the man behind the illustrations.
When designing the Treasure Truck, we wanted to make it a local and personal experience, so decided to make each truck bespoke to the neighbourhood it was in. We brought in Seattle artist Kyler Martz to create curious illustrations for each truck, featuring city references and icons to tell the story of local culture, from Minneapolis, USA to Manchester, UK.
We sat down with the Treasure Truck illustrator to find out his highlights of working with us on the Treasure Truck and advice for aspiring illustrators.
Which was your favourite city to illustrate?
It’s really hard to say which was my favourite city. I’m not even sure which side of the truck was my favourite to illustrate. I loved the chance to hide so many Easter eggs in the long landscape illustrations, but also figuring out something iconic and simple for the circular illustration was really satisfying as well.I think my favourite might be the Minneapolis piece. I don’t have any personal connection there, but I feel like the colour palette and mix of classic imagery and weirdness is the best example of the vibe I was going for.
What was your biggest learning experience from working on the Treasure Truck?
Aside from all the interesting local facts I learned about each city, working on a project of this scale really helped me to figure out how to complete complex illustrations like these on a tight timeline. By the end of the project I had made templates and a sort of “toolbox” of all my patterns and lettering. Thinking about projects with this approach has definitely helped me since.
What advice would you give to illustrators who are starting out in their careers?
I think that social media has really homogenized illustration and design work over the last few years. Having your work instantly visible to that many people seems to scare a lot of young illustrators into working in a style they see being successful, rather than experimenting, failing, and taking risks. I think making work outside of your comfort zone forces you to analyze what you like and don’t like about what you’re doing. For me, that has been the best way I’ve found to develop my personal style, and keeps me excited to make work.
See more of Kyler’s work on the Household Instagram.
