Talk:Visual Guide: Tips On Designing Your Character/@comment-26958589-20160614151756

i'm surprised the idea of motfis wasn't touched on here, since it's a very important part of mattel's process of designing characters. it's what makes your character recognisable no matter what line they're in - blondie has bears/locks/keys, briar has roses/thornes, ashlynn has animals/flowers/shoes, etc.

this post also doesn't mention the typical. uh. process? mattel uses to design characters. each (female) character typically has: an outfit, a head accessory (crown, headband, hat), wrist/arm accessories (could be a bracelet, parts of their glove or arm warmers like kitty), a ring, earrings, a bag (or other carriable items like an archery kit for cupid, a mirror for daring, and a wand for farrah), a necklace (or neck accessory, like raven's collar or cupid's wings), tights/socks/leggings used to be a common staple (or shoes that covered a lot of the leg, like with ashlynn) and, ofc, shoes.

like i mentioned, each character has a motif that is repeated in their design and the characters all usually have a certain style/aesthetic. apple enjoys poofy skirts and little jackets, where as raven enjoys tighter fitting things that give her a powerful appearance. duchess enjoys ballet, so a lot of her outfits are inspired by just that. kitty's outfits often feature a dropped waist. holly's often feature high-low skirts. that sorta thing.

hidden touched on this a bit better in the other comment so i won't get into it too much, but i think it'd be worth mentioning in the guide because, for me, these are the most important things when designing eah ocs and i think they play a huge role in mattel's designing of characters.