A formal process to design visual archetypes based on character taxonomies

Abstract

While there are many professional examples of successful character designs, there seems to be little academic formalization in standardizing a process to achieve consistent visual results. In this work, we present such a formal process to construct visual designs for character archetypes that are given by "verbal descriptions". This process is based on visual semiotics that are used for creating clear meaning behind design choices while still retaining a sense of aesthetic through principles of artistic design. Using this process, we have developed a set of encyclopedic references for a wide variety of psychology and literary archetypes to demonstrate the power of this approach. We also used this process successfully in a visual storytelling class.