Character Design - Ella

Part of the Stepford Inc. project.

An AI personal assistant to the Stepford CEO, Ella tends to take on the most important missions herself, as her body is replaceable. Ella has recently gained sentience, and is very frustrated with being treated no more than a machine. She would like some paid time off.

Heavily inspired by 1950s housewives.

Like all designs in this series, I incorporated hearts into the shape language.

PROCESS

Initial silhouettes! I couldn't decide whether I wanted Ella to be intimidating or cute.
I overlaid photos I took to breakdown the internal details of the silhouettes in hopes of breaking out of usual patterns of design.
Drawovers of those photo overlays.
More detailed value breakdowns as I worked to settle on the final design.