Character Design and Cosplay: Breaking Down the Appeal

Have you ever been on the internet and seen someone say something like, "wow, those designers hate cosplayers!"... paired with a picture of a sick looking character? I've seen dozens! But what about the character designers that love cosplayers – the ones that have dozens of people dressed up as their characters at an event? What's the draw? What makes someone look at a character and go, "yeah I'm going to spend hours of my life working to dress up as this character"?

Putting on our maker hats, this workshop is a deep dive into what makes different types of character designs appealing to cosplayers, and how they might interpret design elements into the physical space.

About the facilitator

Lal is the social media manager for Fine Feathered Fiends. They are a cosplayer of over a decade, living under the funny umbrella of maker, and wrote their honours thesis on transgender and GNC cosplayers. Please come talk to them about making things!