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bentknife · 14 hours ago

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Uhhh, hey y'all, I found this in my drafts and it's basically completely done(I think?). So I've decided to let it loose.

This is also from approximately two years ago? So I think some of my opinions have changed, but whatever.

Anyway my here are my opinions on the usage of color and color psychology in the ever after high kids outfits! This is gonna be unreasonably long, so sorry ahead of time <3

Sorting them by their primary colors btw!

Let's start with warm colors!

Warm colors are ment to be exciting and stimulate reactions. Warm colors are stronger, bolder and more powerful, they're essentially the main characters of colors.

Red- power, sensuality, anger, urgency, heat, passion, confidence, warning, and danger

Apple white: to be honest I don't think using red as her primary color was the go. Red is a very strong passionate color and the feelings the color is ment to evoke aren't super present in Apple? I understand why the choice was made to give her red, as the apple in snow white is red. And often red is used to represent royalty and power, which are things snow white is shown to have, And Apple aspire to have. White is another one of her primary colors. White usually represents elegance, purity, and goodness and I feel like it could've good color for her to lean into it! Her last color is gold, gold is usually used as visual shorthand for wealth, wisdom or courage. Another color I feel is more in tune with Apple's personality. It's a color that can have two very vastly different meaning and I feel like that could be a fun thing to explore with her!

Cerise hood: it is very obvious why red is Cerise's primarily color lol, But it's a very good choice nonetheless. She very much represents a lot of red's traits, and honestly that's pretty interesting considering she has one of the more subdued personalities in eah. Despite this Cerise shown to be very confident in her abilities and genuinely a strong and confident character without being super gaudy about it. Her other main color is black, and to be honest before going back to check her character design I thought it was brown? Anyway, black is also color Cerise does a good job of representing. She has the dark intrigue and mystery of black while also encapsulating the strength and resilience! Her color pallet is definitely one of the more straightforward ones haha. Both colors also work when considering about her wolf side too. Cerise is just a very well rounded character, which is a little odd for eah lmao.

Lizzie hearts: yeah, she absolutely embodies red. As the future queen of hearts Lizzie has shown almost all these qualities, and because of the nature of the character she's Destined to be red fits(she also has love and heart motifs which I think really sell it). Overall lizzie is a very passionate and headstrong character, leading to her ability to embody such a bold color. Black is her other predominant color. black is most promently used to symbolize evil, and it definitely works in the context that she is In fact her mother’s daughter leading to her antagonistic spot in her story. Lizzie is not evil though, and a part that can come through in black is mystery! Lizzie herself is not particularly mysterious, but with wonderland being a place not super readily available there's a sense of mystery that comes from that.

Orange- excitement, confidence, vitality, energy, hope, wit, concentration, encouragement, and caution

Holly o'hair: Ok, so yeah, maybe orange isn't the most present color in her pallet, but I feel like it does a good job at representing her! Holly's character isn't the most fleshed out, overall both the o'hair twin were treated more like a unit as apposed to separate characters, but from what we got she does give orange vibes. Holly is the more outgoing, energetic twin and she is shown to be incredibly supportive of her sister and friends. She's also a very passionate fan fic author storyteller, and clearly pays a lot of attention to the things she's passionate about. Which is why I felt she fit here best! Another one of her colors is pink, pink is usually associated with softness, care, and femininity. A choice I think was very interesting is giving Holly (& Poppy) a stronger pink, stronger and brighter pinks give vastly different emotions from softer ones. For Holly specifically I think this was more so used to show her friendly nature, and seeming exitable nature. Lastly purple! The usage of purple in Holly is probably once again to tie her in with Poppy (they're the only two-piece siblings set with different sides chosen, so they were definitely going for a royal/rebel thing they have with Apple and Raven's color pallets; but more low-key), but it still can work in her color pallet. Overall the purple can be used to symbolize Holly's ambition, creativity, and royalty.

Yellow/gold- vibrant, energetic, joy, optimism, childish, attention, irresponsible, and unstable/ compassion, wisdom, charisma, wealth, success, tradition, greed, and extravagance

Daring charming: dude manages to completely encapsulate every trait of yellow AND gold, and you know what, good for him. Daring has got to be one of the only characters that manages to so blatantly represent their main color. He's the school's golden boy, and yellow/gold definitely encapsulates the energy and emotions a character who is held on such a high pedestal should. One thing that was done pretty well, but I feel could be done better, would probably be the extravagance and showsman-ship of Daring's character. Like, I feel like Daring would be very into the whole outward performance of the prince charming persona, if that makes any sense? His other main color is blue; out of the three charming siblings, Daring wears it the least. This could be used to show the separation of the other two, and more specifically, the higher level Daring is held, too. His lack of blue could also be used to his lack of empathy and self centered-ness or the lack of acknowledging his own true feelings. Dispite being incredibly self centered, often when the story centered on him Daring is shown to not be a bad person, he can be empathetic and vulnerable it's just hidden under layers of shitty lessonand morals he was taught. I haven't mentioned this so far, but another thing blue represents is masculinity. Daring is basically the masculine ideal, both at his school and the wider society of ever after, so its fitting.

Rosabella beauty: something I always found interesting about Rosabella's color choices is that her color palette is completely warm. So I find it strange thats she's such a dull character. I just think diving into a part of her that's more strong and charismatic could've worked? Anyway, there's potential in both yellow and gold for Rosabella. Yellow is very energetic, attention grabbing, and vibrant, gold is a color of success, wealth, and charisma. Both have surprisingly contrasting meanings, and both sides were used very little in her character. Side note but I absolutely hate how Rosabella's epic winter outfit is an absolute betrayal of her color pallet AND style direction! Most of the other central characters from epic winter have colder color palettes so the winter them lends more naturally to them. But they still could've done a better job on Rosabella's epic winter outfit!!! Her other color is brown, which I feel her charcter leans into a little bit more. Brown is a color of stability and honesty, which were communicated pretty well with the characterization we got, but brown can also be very boring and unmoving. Again, i feel that was shown, but over all I feel like her characterization was overall very boring and uninventive, Much like brown. Rosabella could've all around been done better, and I feel her connections to her main colors show that. I'm also 100% neglecting mentioning that stupid rose color they gave her on purpose. Just give her red you cowards!!! Are you scared of a girlboss or something mattel???

Neutrals!

Neutral colors are usually thought of as boring, they're used to tone down or bridge the warmer and colder colors of a pallet. Neutrals are often the safest choice went it comes to color as they are very uncontroversial and traditional.

Green- growth, hope, healing, balance, relaxation, safety, abundance, jealousy, cyclical, and guilt

Green is usually considered a cold color but personally I think it's a bit more of a neutral. It takes way to much of both Yellow and blue to be anything else.

Bunny blanc: having bunny here Is really funny to me for some reason?? Anyhow, her primary color is green, I thought it was blue, but that's not the point- Green! in general, Bunny doesn't really seem to fit in (visually) as well with the other Wonderlandians. It's probably because she uses the meekest form of green, compared to the other Wonderlandians who have very bold and present colors. Being completely honest, I don't actually like bunny in green? It seems like a weird choice, kinda. I understand the connection, but it results with bunny sticking out like a sore thumb. Also, bunny doesn't really represent green all that well? She doesn't really have much of a personality to begin with, but most of the secondary characters don't either, I work with what I have. Wow, look who created themselves a segway! Onto grey! Grey is everything conventional and boring, grey is the color of giving up, the visual representation of bla. of course, only when it's used wrong. Using it well isn't all that exiting(or revolutionary) either, but it has its caveats. More positively, it can mean; neutrality, balance, respect, wisdom, my hate for sportswear , and... sensibility? Yeah, grey isn't really a fun color, but it's a good accent color. It has the ability to look good when put in the spotlight, but I'm firm on my stance that it wasn't the go for bunny. Lastly, white! I'm of the opinion that white was criminally underutilized for bunny. She meant to be the next WHITE rabbit,so why white wasn't used more is a mystery. Not that much of a mystery because this was in fact a kids show, and using white as a main color is basically a no go for kids shows, but my point still stands, white would've been a better choice. So I conducted a little ✨️experiment✨️ to test it, and low and behold, I was right, white looked better. All this to say, I don't hate bunny or anything. I just think her portrayal was bland and underdone, and it happened that part of that stems from her color(and clothing) choices.

Hunter huntsman: green/tan/brown

Sparrow hood: green/black

Brown- earth, comfort, warmth, reliable, genuine, wholesome, boring, dull, and conservative

There's no brown font color, so forgive me.

Ginger breadhouse: ok, so idk If this is a controversial opinion but ginger should've had a brighter color pallet. Like I love her, but she definitely needed a brighter pallet. Anyway, brown! Its an earthly color that signifies nostalgia and warmth. Much like grey it's a safe choice, doesn't rock the boat much, like Ginger. She's very shy and generally trys to not be noticed much. And the way brown is used in her color pallet could be used to show that. Generally the use of brown in her encapsulates all of browns significance. it's a boring ordinary color, it very much contrasts one of her most noticeable traits; her bright pink hair! Yes, we're talking about pink next. Pink! It's another color that she manages to fully encapsulate. Pink is (more modernly) used to show vulnerability, and sensitivity, and weakness. It's a color heavily associated with feminity, often it's used to be unalarming (or innocent). So the fact that pink is one of her most prominent color makes such a fun little oxymoron when you remember she's ment to be the next candy witch! Another thing that I mentioned before is that brighter warmer pinks often are associated with louder, bolder, things. and Ginger is quite frankly, is none of that. Pastels probably would've fit her better, they would've also create a nice contrast to her hair! Idk I just think Ginger would rock pastels, that's all lol.

The cold ones!

Cold colors are often characterized as being mopey or sad, and too often people forget the power cold colors can hold. Historically cold colors have been seen as regal or holy.

Blue-greens/ teal- renewal, individuality, clarity, friendliness, protection, envy, morality

Didn't know where to put these two bc they have very mid-toned blues. Having them in the blue section would've also made it wayyyy to long for my liking.

Faybelle thorn: tbh Faybelle's color pallet is definitely one of my favorites purely for how visually appealing it is lol. It's a very different take on the dark fairy too. Usually the dark fairy has a more traditional villain-type color scheme, so giving her tones of blue was a very interesting choice. Also, putting her in blues and similar jewel tones puts her in direct opposition to Farrah, which is really smart tbh. Faybelle and Farrah are the two only prominent fairy characters, so putting them in direct opposition creates a, honestly, beautiful visual divide between "good and evil". I also find it funny that they're a royal and a rebel, which again creates another royal/rebel divide. Faybelle definitely embodies both the good and bad of teal, it's very fun putting characters that are ment to be villainous in traditionally un-villainous colors. It gives a very indivalistic look, which is often is more memorable. I'm also tired of seeing the same four colors being used for antagonistic characters. like, come on dude, I'm sooo tired of meeting a series' mega-villain and them being dressed in black??? It's so boring and makes otherwise non-threatening characters even more unlikable. like, ok edgelord, we get it, you want to destroy the word or whatever, maybe stop dressing like a stagehand and we'll take you seriously. Faybelle just manages to be a good charcters through and through, what else can I say.

Madeline 'maddie' hatter: teal/magenta/yellow.

Blue- tranquility, sincerity, intelligence, trust, empathetic, loyalty, coldness, fear, masculinity

Alistair wonderland: blue/brown

Ashlynn ella: blue/pink/gold

Blondie locks: blue/yellow

Dexter charming: Something overall the character designers did a surprisingly good job at, was making the Charming siblings look very distinct dispite other characters still wearing blue. That being said, Dexter's color choices are actually super interesting. Him having the most "technically royal" choices of blue is very interesting... Dexter is definitely middle child syndrome personified, being constantly treated as second fiddle(or third rather). Overall Dexter somehow hits almost every meaning blue has, It's really fascinating tbh. It really depends on the portrayal though, usually the show shows him more unremarkable and wimpy way. Whereas the books tend show him being overlooked dispite being as physically talented as Daring. Both do a good job at shining light on certain meanings of blue while still showing other more dimly. Next color is grey! Grey is a color of boredom, neutrality, balance, formality, practicality and innovation. I've said my peace on grey, but I think Dexter manages to be a good example of greys usage. It highlights his position in his family as resident second choice and nerd. Meanwhile not making Dexter stick out that much, it's nice to see grey being used in a less after thought-y way. And overall Dexter's character design is surprisingly well thought out.

Darling charming: Using a lighter pastel view was such a good choice for Darling! Like I said before lighter colors often emote children and innocence. So with Darling being Darling it creates such a fantastic oxymoron!!! And during dragon games her main outfit being a darker blue is just soooo, *chefs kiss*. Light blue is a also classic choice when designing princess characters, both because of blues connection to royalty and innocence, it's the quintessential classic damsel in distress color. Dispite this Darling is also very good at representing blues good qualities. She's shown to be very smart, insightful, and fiercely loyalty. Darling also represents a lot of masculine ideals in ways Daring does, and because of this she later becomes the white knight. Connecting to this, Darling's other color is silver. Silver representing glamor, grace, dreams, strength, and insincerity. This is facet of Darling character I feel could've been explored more. Because of the way Darling was, raised she is shown to bottle her feelings to show a constant perfect facade. The way silver is used in Darling could be used to show the image of perfection and glamor the Charming are supposed to represent, Along with Darling's more negative traits. Again, silver could've definitely been used more, but something I've noticed a lot is the kinda phenomenon(?) Of making Darling sway too far one way or the other. Darling manages to be a strangely middle ground character in a way? I probably can't explain it all that well, but an aspect I feel gets kinda ignored about Darling is that she enjoys certain aspects of the "performance" that comes with being a princess? Of course I'm not trying to ignore the heroic and knightly side of her, I just want to mention the lapse of inclusion when it comes to Darling's portrayals I guess? One of the better examples is probably her destiny. She's placed in a traditionally masculine role, but in the end still gets her heroism and prince(ss)- hood. She really gets the best of both worlds lol.

Purple- creative, independent, wise, ambitious, mysterious, magic, sophisticated, royalty, arrogant

Cedar wood: although purple is Cedar's most prominent color in her main outfit, pink is actually the color she wears most promently in other outfits. And tbh she absolutely rocks both. Anyway, Cedar does a fantastic job at representing purple! I think inherently, pinocchio is a story that matches purple, like, incredibly well. She's a character that has a lot of growing to do narratively, so her also being able to grow into the color goes great with her story. Let's talk pink next! Pink as a color represents generally very good things. It's a color that can have a lot of nuance, and like Cedar isn't often taken seriously. Again, pink lends very well to her story. it's a color that's often thought to be immature, fragile, and feminine, so it can be a good stand in for the more negative traits pinocchio has in the beginning of the story. A little off-topic, but Cedar as a character isn't a great Pinocchio? Which definitely leads to some questions regarding how she's supposed to complete her destiny. Cedar's kinda narrative fucked in a distinctly different way than the others... a detail I didn't mention before, is most of Cedar's colors are secondary colors. The reason I mention this is to point out the pink Cedar uses is actually peach! Which again, lends very well to Cedar and pinocchio as a story. It shares more meaning with pink than it does orange, and once again, was a great opportunity for Cedar to have a more dynamic character!!!

Duchess swan: her color pallet includes the usage of the lightest purples, which helps create the illusion of innocence as lighter baby shades are often associated with children. As the white swan she's supposed to represent a lot of the positive traits purple is meant to show. Purple has historical been a color that is hard to create and get as it doesn't naturally occur often. So the fact that Duchess wears purple, but only lighter shades, is ment to represent her 'not princess princess' status. Not to mention, she is the only royal with purple as a predominant color. The other predominant color she uses is white. Like I mentioned before, white is a shade that mean innocence, purity and elegance. White is chic and easy to soil, both things Duchess can represent, But she doesn't show many traits white is associated with too. I think its a little weird white isn't as prominent in her color pallet as she's quite literally ment to be the WHITE swan. Then again, it's a kids show and using white as a primary color for a character probably wouldn't pop as much. The last color of Duchess' I wanna talk about is black. Its actually not prominent at all in her clothes, but is in her overall color pallet because of her hair and often her accessories. Black mostly prominently means evil, death, and mystery. All things that Duchess' character heavily alludes too. The mystery of the whereabouts of the black swan, the possible near-death in her future, and Duchess' not so nice demeanor and the fact that she was put In General villainy, and what's associated with that...

Kitty cheshire: purple/grey/back

Poppy o'hair: purple/pink

Raven queen: I really love the use of purple for Raven. She has the darkest purples and it apposes the use of purple in Duchess, and the use of red in Apple. which create some funky little parallels i love so dearly. Raven is partially ment to represent the regal evil of purple. The evil queen is meant to be menacing and evil but still regal and classy. In reality Raven shows the more positive traits of purple, she's very independent, ambitious, and creative! Raven is also the only character with purple as a main color to show the mopey-ness of the color being cold. Her other main color is black! Black again, like I said before, is used to represent evil, death, and mystery. Black can be both nothing and everything at once, back is incredibly versatile. It's a very classic choice and can show things like Power, drama, and elegance. All traits Raven doesn't really have, leading to another fun oxymoron in her color choices. Raven obviously had a lot of thought put into her considering she's one of the two main characters. So I don't really have all that much to say lol.

Pink- love, caring, sweet, playful, beauty, inspiration, sensitive, weak, immature, feminine

Pink is actually a warm color but I realized a little too late that I placed it wrong lmao. I also don't feel like fixing it, this is taking me way too long to write already

Briar beauty: pink/black briar has such a different pallet from the other royals and princess'. like, they were definitely going ham with the (not so subtle), "she doesn't actually want her destiny, she's just going with it because it's what's expected of her," idea. Through and through briar is a character filled to the brim with life. So her color pallet being relatively limited is honestly very interesting. Like i mentioned, like three sentences ago, briar's color story is more reminiscent of the villain students than the princesses, and that's really fun! Anyways, colors! Again, we're going to mention brighter pinks. they have different feelings and emotions associated with them, and bla bla bla... y'all have heard this like five times already, so let's get to the point. Hot pink and similar bright pinks are big staples of some alternative styles. as y'all may or may not already know, (most) alt styles are birthed from rebelion and upset. funny enough, briar is mention to be very experimental with her fashion. So her color pallet being oriented in a sorta, rebellious(?) Path makes yet another, funky oxymoron! And also ties in with her character journey. Now onto, black! Most of what I said about the usage of pink can apply here, mostly because, the usage of black is similar to the usage of pink in briar. But there also are some things that can only be expressed through black, Primarily, tragedy! Briar is one of the three royals who wears black. (not so) coincidentally these three are the ones with the most, inherently, tragic stories and(or) ends. Her reasons to be dissatisfied with her destiny can be considered another inherently tragic aspect. Generally I see briar's style going down a very untraditional route. Maybe veering into a non-mainstream type style like... gyaru perhaps?

C.A. Cupid: pink/cream I love that both of the characters in this category have such contracting styles and color pallets. Like, that is beyond entertaining to me. Anyhow, I feel like a lot of Cupid's original charm was lost in her main outfit, overall her outfits really don't feel cohesive to me? It's probably because it seems they gave up on her original character directon early, and with that her color palette became a bit of a mess. But it kept its core color, pink! Cupid is apparently the only main character that uses light pink? But that definitely goes towards making her more distinct among the other characters. It's very fitting that she is very visually different, considering she's the only outsider, and the only character without a destiny to follow. This is actually a super great choice that managed to stay the same in both her monster high and ever after high appearances. Keeping with lighter pinks was a great choice as Cupid is a very sweet kind character. She intentionally keeps her personality very soft as to better understand the vast topic of love her life centers around, and obviously pink ties in with the whole theme of love. There's really not much to say about pink that isn't restating what I already said lmao. But Cupid was kinda done dirty is the main take away here.

Final thoughts~

Overall, this was just the tip of the iceberg in regards to my opinions on the design choices in ever after high. I've spent what is years at this point developing my ideas on what these kids would wear, and am very deeply passionate about this now lmao. But this was a very stupid thought exercise I spent way too long on haha. One of my favorite ways of visual storytelling is color, because it doesn't take a genius to figure it out. Usually my go to for visual storytelling lies in clothing silhouettes, but it's often not really a thing that your average person would pay attention to, and/or understand :/ leading into my love for color psychology! in general I'm just super fascinated with the idea that different colors can evoke different things! I love using color on characters considering I essentially only wear black and white irl haha. As a very visual person the choices in a characters colors can affect a lot, so I tend to pay more attention to it! I also have a weird interest in the human experience, more so in the emotions aspect? I really have no other way to explain it other, than like, a scientist studying bacteria and seeing what makes it react lmao?

Moving on... For the most part the colors choices the eah design team made are good, but I feel that there are some bigger tweaks i would've made. Them Being~

adding yellow and green to Apple's color pallet. Both are common apple colors and I feel would suit Apple's personality and character better. I still feel like red could still be included just not as prominently.

Having orange be more prominent in Holly's color pallet, I think this could work both as a means to make the O'hair twins more distinct from each and to show Holly's personality better, also tuning down the purple for a warmer color.

Making red a more prominent part of Rosabella's color pallet. this goes again with my idea of making Rosabella lean more into the inherent strong, and charismatic, parts of her character. red is brighter than the other colors she frequents, but I feel like it adds the necessary contrast while still being very visually appealing, it also would make for a more striking look which I feel would suit Rosabella's potential new characterization better. It also suits her better that that stupid pinky-rose color she has in her main outfit.

And the last two changes being!

making Duchess lean more into the white and black of her character. this, of course, coming to show more of her internal struggle with good and evil. By addition, maybe including grey? grey is the color of cygnets and the middle of black and white, it could be used to show a type of rebirth in her character or be used as the beginning point before her internal struggles to show a blank slate.

And finally! using the transition from black and purple to show the journey Raven goes through as she finds herself. while separating herself from her mother, and forging her own path as she denounces her legacy (Also maybe expanding her limited pallet a bit to?). Both of course, are more narrative focused than the others, but I still feel could add a layer of depth to these characters!

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