>>775746Well if we're talking about stuff like that again, I'm still of the mind that there doesn't necessarily need to be a super overt design motif stapled onto every design for everything to fit together.
Having a consistent artist interpret design concepts I feel would be enough to make them feel part of the same idea. Plus, now that there's also the idea of a 'Natural' form and a 'Cyborg' form, that too also gives the whole thing it's own unique identity anyways.
I think a good example of sheer flexibility designs can have in a single series is SMT. For the majority of it, Kaneko was the artist for it. And the designs vary wildly, be they very standard depictions of the figure it's meant to represent, more subtle design aspects to tie an otherwise looser design to the source material, some even make very overt pop culture references. And yet it all works because it was all the interpretations and designs of one artist.
Even with Doi taking over as SMT's main artist, and the differences in design philosophy are very evident, he still on occasion does things like mix aspects of both traditional designs for a figure, and pop culture references. Even if they might clash with Kaneko's designs, they are fairly consistent with themselves, being my main point that a singular artist is the key for design consistency and identity.
