Galactic Style Guide – Designing Foundational Characters: part 2

Welcome back to the Galactic Style Guide, the series where we break down the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’ in order to help you create a more authentic ‘outer persona’! Continuing on from our last entry, we’re trying something a little different. As we said last time, the first requirement for a great character is an iconic design – i.e. like computer icons, Star Wars characters and character types should be recognizable by their silhouettes and largely not be mistaken for each other. What exactly makes each of those character archetypes unique is the question we’re discussing right now!

-As we’ve seen before, upper-class characters (like politicians, diplomats, etc.) typically wear less tailored garments, relying instead on more voluminous robes and cloaks made of lushly draped fabrics often more colorful than what the average citizen wears. While still rare overall, patterns are somewhat more frequently seen among this group, but silly hats are well represented!

–As we’ve seen, mechanics & technicians typically wear a one-piece coverall (creating a cohesive look where the top and bottom half match) with or without the pants tucked into boots. Toolbelts are a necessity!

-Like Tatooine locals, Imperial brass may wear thigh-length overlapped jackets or tunics, but these are much more crisply tailored and of a higher-quality material (think fine suiting wool instead of slubby linen); jodhpurs and dress boots on the lower half solidify the old-school militaristic, 1930s Germany influence. Reflecting the material wealth of the Empire, these tend to have the least weathering…but they are still issued uniforms and would be worn day-to-day and still show wear: without any weathering, they would look like costumes, but with very light weathering, they look like clothes.

-Speaking of baddies, those aligned with the dark side of the Force often pair the vestments of the Force-user class with armor of the combat class, and robes of the political class – but in dark color palettes to make their alignment clear! If you’re interested in creating a darkside OC, I suggest avoiding true BLACK fabric in your soft kit – as without studio lighting, you’ll likely just look like a black blob, but using shades of really dark gray will give the desired result!

–Pilots have probably the most detailed character designs. Chiefly hearkening to a WW2 archetype, pilots pair flightsuits of one style or another with flight caps and lots of necessary accessories – flak vests, ejection/parachute webbing, flight gloves, emergency life support box, etc.:

-The outfits of true scum and villany—the ‘mooks’ of the galactic underworld —tend to be a little more random: these are the nameless thugs and bandits who exist to get mowed down by our heroes. In Earth cinema, the extras would probably come from the ‘global south’, but in the GFFA these tend to be non-human species like Nikto, Weequay, Klatooinians, etc – picture Jabba’s skiff guards, the folks at the compound in Mando s1e1, or the forest gang in S1e4. Their truly ragtag styles often veer closer to ‘Mad Max‘ than we typically see in Star Wars: while the rest of the Galaxy may be a “used universe”, for this class, it’s an “abused universe”. Elements often seen include wide quilting, bandoleers, homegrown armor, ‘crotch flaps’ or fur ‘battle capes’, cap sleeves, and leather jerkins.

OBVIOUSLY there are always exceptions to the above (the various customizable outfits from Outlaws or the Cal Kestis games come to mind!), but with these foundations in place, I hope you can see how trying to shoehorn one character type into another’s style (or mix elements from several) is a good way to sabotage what is otherwise a good character design – which is right where we’ll pick up next time!
Is there some archetype I’ve completely overlooked or should have included? Let me know down below with a comment, or come discuss with us at the SWLH facebook group. See you next time!

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