Beyond the Brief: Generating On-Brand AI Illustrations

It’s no surprise that cats and dogs dominate the internet, but you don’t have to tell Independence Pet Group (IPG) this. The Chicago-based pet insurance leader covers over one million pets across the US and Canada, keeping them (and their fur-parents) healthy and happy.

We love cats and dogs, too, so when IPG asked us to create illustrations for their employer branding efforts, we were all in. The challenge? IPG had never used illustrations before. The most efficient way to go from zero to concepts was to use AI, so our AI-powered creative team went to work. Let's just say, the results were quite fetching.

The Brief: Creating Custom AI Illustrations

Pets have been sources of inspiration in workplaces for over half a century. Fast forward to 2024, and IPG was looking for a way to help its team show their love for pets with internal branding. The brief called for a variety of assets, including stickers and virtual backgrounds, that reflected the brand colors and were "unexpected and fun."

One twist: Since IPG didn’t have an established 3D illustration style, we were starting with a blank slate.

We had a lot of creative freedom. IPG told us what they wanted and gave us a few reference photos. Then it was up to us to drive the project.

Tamara DalhuijsenGenerative AI Program Manager

We’ve used AI to produce photorealistic images and even comic books for other customers, but creating a new illustration style from scratch was something entirely new for us—a purr-fect challenge.

Beyond the Brief: No Illustration Style and No Time? No Problem

How do you go from zero to a collection of 700 different illustrated pet images? Because IPG had a limited number of design hours to invest and there was a significant exploration component, this project was an ideal fit for leveraging AI.

The AI tools and workflow that worked wonders

For this project, we used ChatGPT, Midjourney and Photoshop for concept, refinement and delivery. ChatGPT made an excellent brainstorming partner, Midjourney sped the exploration and illustration and Photoshop was were all of the elements came together and the final quality assurances were applied. We also used ChatGPT to play around with copy that gave further voice to the personality of the illustrations.

From zero to 10 to two... concept creation at the speed of AI

Based on suggestions from IPG, the team started exploring several different illustration styles ranging to use as references to guide iteration within Midjourney.

When it's not exactly raining cats and dogs...

When you're looking for images to use as reference, the default is to find an exact match, meaning every reference should feature a cat or dog or at the very least an animal of some sort. This is exactly the sort of limitation that AI overcomes.

IPG provided some samples of the visual styles they were looking for.

Superside's AI experts explored a range of illustration styles.

With AI, you can show the tool a rough style featuring any kind of subject matter and go from there. Because of this, within a few hours, there were hundreds of images to choose from. Freed from the confines of worrying about burning hours, the team could focus on the possibilities rather than limitations.

The resulting cast of finely coifed 3D characters.

The references you can create now are closer to what the brief asks for. Sometimes, you'll find a really nice reference of an illustration style, but it's of a pair of shoes. Now, you can use that style to illustrate a cat and save the back-and-forth.

Bianca PieterseAssociate Creative Director, Concept, Copy, Art Direction, AI

Sitting pretty with fashion-forward new friends

The team identified ten top styles, ultimately whittling down the list those down to two: a 3D anthropomorphic approach and a hand-drawn style. IPG liked both so much they asked us to combine elements from each.

Speak GPT, speak..

The theme of dogs and cats sparked some fun copy ideas to explore. I used ChatGPT to get some inspiration and there were a couple of good lines in there. But, the final product was a solid mix AI inspiration and human wordsmithing.

Bianca PieterseAssociate Creative Director, Concept, Copy, Art Direction, AI

Should find yourself at a bit of a loss for being punny, tools like ChatGPT can help you explore common expressions and turns of phrase. While we weren't short on ideas, AI was like a virtual pet phrase thesaurus for the team.

Keeping the pets well groomed

Post-production was crucial because we had to clean up imperfections like an over abundance of whiskers or a scarf that looked like an oddly placed tail.

Bianca PieterseAssociate Creative Director, Concept, Copy, Art Direction, AI

Even with the magic of AI, post-production is still essential to the process. Pieterse used Adobe Photoshop to fix those quirky artifacts and avoid any wardrobe malfunctions. Pets may not have thumbs, but they can still dress for success.

Another challenge was matching the AI-generated illustrations with IPG’s brand palette. Using the correct hex codes in the prompts got the illustrations close, but some tweaking was still needed using Adobe Photoshop.

You won't generally get the colors perfect just by generating images with the hex codes. Midjourney will give you something in that tone, but we needed to match them 100% to be on-brand.

Bianca PieterseAssociate Creative Director, Concept, Copy, Art Direction, AI

Takeaways for Generating AI Illustrations

IPG tapped into generative AI to develop quirky, lovable designs featuring cats, dogs and custom slogans in record time. Here are a few lessons learned along the way:

Greater efficiency, fewer risks. AI let the team experiment more freely, saving time, exploring a greater range of options and possibilities and keeping the creative process more fluid.
Consistency is key—but it requires effort. Maintaining consistency across hundreds of AI-generated illustrations required building a prompt library and allowing for iterative adjustments.
AI makes the impossible, possible. A few short years ago, it wouldn't have been possible to deliver 3D illustrations on this timeline. Now it's the norm.

One of the most exciting parts of integrating AI into creative workflows is discovering new ways to innovate with every project. From refining prompts to building reference libraries, the process is constantly evolving, letting us push the boundaries of what’s possible with AI-powered creative.

Schedule an AI consultation to learn more about Superside can support you in your AI journey and scaling your ability to produce quality creative that delivers outstanding impact.