What do you do, Lo Harris?

by Jordan Kushins

Portrait of Brooklyn-based creative Lo Harris, illustrated by Gracia Lam.

Portfolio tips from Lo:

● Start a vision board. Give yourself permission to dream (and permission to vocalize those dreams)! The decisions that you’re making in your work and career will start to follow those goals you’re setting for yourself. My website reflects the potential that I see in myself.

● Your voice is powerful. Believe in it. Your style is always going to be developing, but your voice is the thing that really sells your work. With that voice comes your lived experiences, your interests, your preoccupations, your quirks, your insecurities, your personality — all of that. No two people's voices are ever going to be the same, regardless of whether or not the work looks similar.

“What do you do?” is a series that explores how creative professionals define themselves, and how they express that identity to others through their online portfolio. From unique personal insights to actionable tips and tricks, each profile will share best practices to build a digital presence that feels engaging, effective, and authentic.

Hi Lo! What do you do?

I'm an illustrator and an animator, but it’s all happened in the last year — and the way I got started was very unconventional.

I went to journalism school at Northwestern University, and fell in love with digital storytelling and motion graphics. I played around on Photoshop and taught myself After Effects. I became someone who could make a producer's vision happen, but I didn’t have agency in that process.

The summer of 2020 was a really tough time. The death of George Floyd severely impacted me — being a Black woman in the newsroom, specifically, and a low-ranking one who did not have a voice [in that environment]. I decided I wanted to find my artistic style. I put up a Pinterest, and started collecting different things — photos, colors, swatches, drawings — and trying to figure out what I liked. Am I somebody who likes that clean vector look? Someone who likes a little bit of texture? I had to really feel out what was natural to me.

I had also created an Instagram that was my first safe place for me to really exercise my voice. It ended up growing quickly, and honestly I was almost embarrassed at the time when people started latching onto it. I was like, it's not ready yet! It’s not the version of my art that I wanted you to see! But eventually something clicked. They always say that there's an incongruence between an artist's intentions, and what they can actually do; one day my intention matched with my skill, and I was able to translate what I wanted from my head, in the way I want it to do it. It felt like I learned a foreign language and I could speak it fluently.

A glimpse of the Play section of Lo’s portfolio. “I wanted to provide space to show whatever I wanted — work that I’m proud of. Maybe it’s something that didn't get that many likes on Instagram, but it shows the range of where I can go, and might open the door for a new kind of opportunity.”

How did your portfolio come together?

As young people entering the job force, I think that we face tremendous pressure to be jacks-of-all-trades; there’s often no luxury of specialization. My first website was a pretty plain amalgamation of packages from college, some things I did as a PA, a drawing or two. It was the equivalent of wearing mismatched socks, but not on purpose. When my art started picking up, it began to bite me in the butt, I needed a website that actually reflected where I was trying to go. So I ended up being, like, Something’s gotta give. This can’t be my portfolio. I’m transitioning from Lauren Harris, the intern, into Lo Harris, the artist.

I commissioned Raydene [Salinas Hansen, of RSH Collective] to do something for me that was immersive and fun — something that played into this standard that I’m trying to create for myself and my work called the Lo Harris Universe.

I feel like there's a universal aspect to my work and my style. Like: I am a Black woman. I am a Black artist. I do draw Black people. But so many different people from different walks of life can see themselves in my work — it almost has a Simpsons-like quality to it. Through this Lo Harris Universe, I have a playground that I can expand on, where I can create an entirely different reality. These aesthetics will build on top of themselves and develop over the years into something that covers a great gamut of everything.

“My website reflects the potential that I see in myself.”

Let’s take a closer look at three of your key design choices.

1. Collages

I like the way that different elements pop up on top of each other; even if I just have four pictures on there, when they're overlapping it feels like so much more is going on. It almost forces you to visually engage — not just with the images themselves and their individual boxes, but also with how all of these things relate to each other. With very little scrolling, you can understand: “She's an animator. She works with a wide variety of brands. She creates things that are pretty and feminine. Sometimes her work manifests in a commercial setting. This is what she looks like; maybe we could put her on camera.” It’s a great, safe space-saver, and I love the maximalism.

2. Animated header

I wanted something that felt immediate and put people in the thick of it, like, Welcome to my room. All the toys are everywhere. Something full.

3. Colors + font.

Raydene said, “Let’s make it full, but also make sure it’s accessible.” There are a bunch of bright colors, and the text [set in the font Poppins] is big and juicy, but she did the work to make sure that it was also easy on the eyes, and easy to read. It gets my personality across.

Follow Lo Harris on Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

Portfolio tips from Lo: