Superhero Design Research+

Before starting my designs, I thought it might be worth looking at opinions of comic book critics and artists who design for comics, and I found two helpful articles that applied to what I am doing.

Comicbookresource's article STEWART, MCKELVIE & MORE TALK COSTUME DESIGN IN MODERN COMICS gave me the following quotes:

McKelvie said he feels, "The costume comes from the character and the costume should reflect the character."

Rodriguez called spandex superhero costumes "dated." When developing the look for Spider-Gwen, he said that writer Jason Latour wanted to pursue a traditional Spider-Man inspired look. Rodriguez, however, wanted the character to "look like she just stepped out of a Kanye West video.

Tarr made it clear that even for supporting and background characters, fashion is an important look into their personality. "I have a Pinterest board for every character [in Batgirl] that matches their particular style," she said. "We dress all of the characters; they're all in 'costumes' because we're creating these worlds."

All of the panelists agreed that costumes for superheroes and even background civilians should reflect contemporary fashions. "If you try to make them look timeless," McKelvie advised, "then you'll just end up with something boring."

IGN's BETWEEN THE PANELS: WHAT MAKES A GOOD SUPERHERO COSTUME? Article says:

"As I see it, there are a few essential qualities. They need to be striking but simple. Superheroes appeal to our innate love of the human form."
"Understanding Comics. The more detail and realism you bring to an image, the less universally relatable and iconic it becomes."

"The eye is naturally drawn to the bright hues and contrasting colors that superheroes have in abundance."
In conversation about Superman's Man of Steel design; "The problem is that ditching the trunks throws off the color balance of the costume. It's not simply the contrasting red and blue colors that make Superman's costume so eye-catching. it's also the carefully honed balance of red and blue. Superman's body is covered mostly in blue, but between his trunks, boots and cape, there's just enough red to bring everything into balance. Losing any one of those elements throws the whole thing off. "

"As long as you pay careful attention to color balance and shapes, you can design a terrific costume without the need for capes or trunks"

These articles give me some interesting point to consider. I like the idea of keeping characters contemporary rather than trying to design a classic; relatability in comic characters is getting more popular, and many of the popular newer characters are portrayed much more as being the average, every day person who may make/design their own costume and wear something much more like them, as opposed to Greek god-like Superman and billionaire hi-tech Batman gear. Spiderman was one of the earliest and most well known characters for being like this, except he still dressed in a lot of spandex, as was the trend for superheros at the time.

Taking into consideration the colours and balance of those colours will be very important; colours already have a big impact on peoples' impressions of characters, but just choosing the right colours won't make a character look good. Designs need to be readable to be memorable, so it is important that I think about what colours would be more dominant, and what areas of the outfit might need to be simplified/have less or more colours depending on where I want the audience's eyes to draw to.