From reference photos and Figma components to a fully vectorised illustration of one of cinema’s most iconic SUVs.
Some cars stay with you because you owned them. Others because they were part of a particular moment in your life.
And then there are cars you remember from movies.
For me, the Jurassic Park Ford Explorer belongs firmly in that last category.
I have always loved dinosaurs, movies, and the kind of vehicles that become characters in their own right. The Explorer from Jurassic Park is one of them: the unusual colour scheme, the graphics running across the bodywork, the roof equipment and, of course, the association with one of the most memorable films of my childhood.
So when I started building The Cars of My Life, my collection of custom vector car illustrations and high-resolution prints, the Jurassic Park Ford Explorer was an obvious candidate.
View the finished illustration on The Cars of My Life →
Finding the visual language
Before working on the Jurassic Park Explorer, I had already made an important decision about how every car in the collection should be represented.
I didn’t want to draw traditional side profiles, but I also wanted to avoid the exaggerated perspective of conventional automotive photography.
Instead, I settled on a three-quarter orthographic view, similar to the view you might use while working inside a 3D editor.
It shows enough of the front, side and roof to make the car immediately recognisable, while keeping the proportions relatively neutral.
There is also something slightly object-like about it. The cars feel less like photographs of vehicles and more like individual pieces from the same collection.
That became the starting point for the visual language of The Cars of My Life.
Building a design system for cars
Before drawing individual cars, I created a small design system in Figma.
Rather than treating every illustration as a completely independent drawing, I wanted certain elements to follow the same rules throughout the collection.
As my main tool was going to be Figma, I created a colour library, a styleguide for the visuals and reusable components for the wheels and tires.
It was about creating enough consistency that very different vehicles could still feel as though they belonged to the same illustrated world.
Research before drawing
The actual illustration starts long before the first vector is created.
For the Explorer, I collected reference photographs from as many angles and details as possible.
And, particularly important in this case, photographs of the original Jurassic Park graphics and accessories.
A single photograph is rarely enough. Parts of the car are hidden, distorted by perspective or affected by reflections, so several references are needed to understand what each element actually looks like.
I gather all of this material on a large Figma canvas and keep it next to the illustration throughout the process.
It becomes a kind of visual investigation board.
Could AI create the starting point?
I also experimented with a different approach.
Before drawing the Explorer manually, I tried generating a standard Ford Explorer with AI.
The goal wasn’t to create the final artwork. I wanted to see whether AI could provide a solid starting point with the exact three-quarter orientation I needed.
The results were interesting, but they also revealed the problem.
The car looked convincing at first glance, but small details were inconsistent. Proportions changed between versions, mechanical elements didn’t always make sense, and the perspective wasn’t quite the one I wanted.
More importantly, it didn’t have the visual language I was trying to build.
This experiment ended up reinforcing one of the main ideas behind the project:
the cars need to be drawn manually.
AI can generate an impressive image of a car, but my objective isn’t simply to produce an image that resembles one.
I want every vehicle to go through the same decisions about geometry, simplification, colour, reflections, line weight and detail.
Those decisions are what eventually give the collection its identity.
Creating the skeleton
I therefore returned to the reference photographs.
I selected an image of a standard Ford Explorer that was relatively close to the orientation I wanted and used Photoshop to adjust its geometry.
This isn’t the artwork itself.
It is simply a base skeleton.
By transforming the photograph I can approximate the orthographic three-quarter view used throughout the collection and establish the position of the major elements before drawing anything.
It gives me a reliable starting point for the bonnet, roof, windows, wheels and overall proportions of the vehicle.
From that point onwards, the photographic reference gradually disappears.
Vectorising the Explorer
Back in Figma, I start rebuilding the vehicle piece by piece.
The body is usually one of the first major shapes.
Then come the windows.
The headlights.
The grille.
The bumpers.
The wheel arches.
The tyres and rims.
Each element is created as a vector shape and adjusted until the overall geometry works as a whole.
At this stage the car can look surprisingly simple.
There are no complex gradients or photorealistic effects.
The objective is first to get the structure right.
Only when the main volumes work do I begin adding the smaller elements that make the vehicle feel convincing.
Adding light, shadow and mechanical detail
Once the basic car is complete, I add layers of information.
Flat highlights help describe the direction of the body panels.
Dark areas separate the bumpers and wheel arches.
Thin lines suggest doors, panel joins and mechanical assemblies.
The windows receive their own reflections and tonal variations.
These are intentionally simplified.
Rather than reproducing every reflection visible in a photograph, I reinterpret them using a limited visual vocabulary.
The goal is to suggest volume without losing the clean vector aesthetic.
Recreating the Jurassic Park graphics
The Explorer presented an additional challenge: its graphics are an essential part of the vehicle.
Without them, it is simply a first-generation Ford Explorer.
So the logos and markings had to be recreated as vectors as well.
I drew the necessary graphic elements separately and then distorted them to follow the perspective and geometry of the body panels.
This part requires a surprising amount of adjustment.
A logo that looks correct when viewed flat can look completely wrong once placed on a door or wrapped around the side of the vehicle.
The graphics therefore have to become part of the geometry of the illustration rather than simply being placed on top of it.
The final outline
One of the last steps is the exterior contour.
Rather than applying a generic stroke around the complete illustration, I draw the final outline manually.
This gives me control over where the contour should be visible and where it should disappear behind another element.
I also add a separate shadow line underneath the car.
Both features are converted into configurable Figma components using boolean properties.
That means I can easily create different versions of the same illustration:
- With or without the exterior outline
- With or without the ground shadow
The underlying car remains exactly the same.
This is useful because an illustration intended for a website may need slightly different treatment from one prepared for print.
Preparing the final illustration
Once everything is finished, the Explorer becomes part of the main The Cars of My Life collection.
I then create a separate Figma frame specifically for export.
Because the artwork is vector-based, I can prepare it at very high resolution without losing detail, making it suitable for both digital use and large-format printing.
At this stage the car is essentially complete.
But commissions have one final step.
The detail that makes it your car
When I create a commissioned illustration, I ask the owner for the vehicle’s number plate.
I add it only at the very end of the process.
It’s a small detail, but an important one.
A particular model and colour might represent thousands of cars.
The number plate turns the illustration into your car.
And that is ultimately what The Cars of My Life is about.
Not creating a catalogue of vehicles, but illustrating the cars that have a story attached to them.
The cars we owned.
The cars we wanted.
The cars we grew up with.
And sometimes, the cars that carried us through a dinosaur park.
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I’m a Senior Product Designer specializing in UX, UI, and product strategy, with nearly 20 years of experience. I design scalable systems, efficient workflows, and user experiences that deliver value to both users and business. You can find more about me and my work at ikerortega.com.