Y'all mind if a gal makes a post on eeveelution designs? Cool.
I love eeveelution designs. They slap. They look good, and flesh out a neat concept. Everyone likes making fakemon eeveelutions, myself included. I've seen so many! But I couldn't seem to nail down the construction of them until I saw someone make a specific video about Sylveon's design in particular.
The YouTube short by TBSkyenShorts takes a look at Sylveon's design, and calls it "very, VERY a little bit too much." And by all means, it makes sense. Of all the eeveelutions, sylveon has the most elaborate design. It's patterns and color palette variation are the widest, only matched with Vaporeon for detail. Yet it acknowledges how much the design works.
It made me think "Yeah, why does it work? Why does it fit?"
It's because the eeveelutions seem to be built on index and symbol rather than the icons of their respective typings. They invoke the "idea" of their type without deriving directly from it.
To better explain what an icon, index, and symbol are, I'll use an eeveelution that can show this the clearest: Glaceon.
An icon is the closest to what it represents, such as a picture of a chicken used to represent a chicken. In the case of glaceon's ice type, an icon would be the use of actual ice in the design. As you can see, there is no ice visible on glaceon.
An index (unlike an icon) relates to what it represents, such as using a plug to represent an outlet, since plugs go into outlets. In the case of glaceon, I'd say an index of its ice typing would be its pointed ears and tail, as well as its diamond patterns; as those sharp shapes are tied to the idea of how ice crystals take shape in nature.
A symbol has its relation to what it represents entirely based on what society has decided for it, such as the word "ice" being used to represent ice. There's no inherent connection— it's just been decided that those letters make that word, and the word means "ice." In the case of glaceon, I would say its desaturated blue-green color palette is a symbol of its ice-typing, even though ice is clear and only appears white in nature.
Back to the breif: These ideas apply to all the eeveelutions— even little eevee itself! By designing them this way, they feel more naturally integrated. Flareon isn't a dog made of fire— it's fluffy, and uses a warm color palette. It's the fire type. A sylveon isn't a fairy— it's graceful and delicate. It's the fairy type. With that logic, a steel type eeveelution can't just be made of steel. It needs to be sturdy and sharp.
blakekathryn
vaporwave
romaincrisis
yousharknotpass
2087
prguitarman
jacobvanloon
discoholicmusic
