H A R L E Y J E S S U P

P R O D U C T I O N D E S I G N E R R E V I E W
 PRODUCTION DESIGNER

HARLEY JESSUP

Born in 1954 – Corvallis, Oregon

Having been creative from a young age with supporting
encouraging parents, Harley Jessup decided to pursue
education in Graphic Design and ended up graduating from
Oregon State University in 1976 with a BFA. He then went on
to get his MFA in Graphic Designer from Stanford University in
1978.
Initially after graduating from Stanford, Jessup joined Korty
Films and worked his way up the production line until he
reached Production Designer for ‘Twice Upon a Time’. It was
limited release and was deemed a failure. After this Jessup
decided to move away from the animation field to work on live
action films with Lucasfilm as an Art Director.
 OTHER WORKS
Other works that Jessup would go on to
work on during his time at ILM would include
Ghostbusters 2 (1989), The Hunt for Red
October (1990), Joe Versus the Volcano
(1990), The Public Eye (1992), Fire in the
Sky (1993) and Eye on the Sparrow (1997).
INNERSPACE
(1987)
After working with Lucasfilm,
Jessup joined Industrial Light and
Magic (ILM) in 1986 and worked
on Innerspace which he then
won an Academy Award for as
well as another nomination for
his work on ‘Hook’.
 PIXAR

HARLEY JESSUP

Joined in 1996

After a brief spell at Disney to work on ‘James

and the Giant Peach’, Jessup was offered a
position at Pixar to work on ‘A Bug’s Life’ (1998)
and ‘Toy Story 2’ (1999).

Jessup would continue to stay at Pixar for over 2

decades providing assistance as both art director
and production designer on several projects
including, Monsters, Inc. (2001), Ratatouille
(2007), Presto (2008), Up (2009), Cars 2 (2012),
The Good Dinosaur (2015) and Coco (2017).
 HARLEY JESSUP

COCO (2017)

I N S P I R AT I O N
Jessup joined the project before it was even greenlit. He travelled to Mexico with a
small group to get inspiration for a ‘land of the dead’, Mexican themed project and
the architecture and colours he came across there fueled the ideas for the film. He
would end up returning a few more times for research, including spending time
with a Mexican family whilst they prepared for their celebrations of Dia De Los
Muertos.

The ‘Miracle Bridge’ that leads into the land of the dead in the film was built from
cascading marigold petals, this came from the Mexican tradition to spread petals
outside doorways as an invitation to visitors and their ancestors during the
celebrations. Jessup was also heavily inspired by the smoky atmosphere created
in the cemetery's with the incense burners and candle-light.

CHALLENGES

Because of the size of the sets and the hundreds of different skeletons with over
1000 different costume combinations, it was a difficult film to put together. All the
details including textures from tiles on the roofs to cobblestones in the streets
meant that it was challenging to render the animations. But this details gave the
film a richness to the environments.
COCO (2017)