Major Project I
PRJ64904 Major Project I / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Task 1 - Proposal Development
Task 2 - Design Proposition
Task 3 - Concept Presentation
INSTRUCTION
Task 1 - Proposal Development
Task 2 - Design Proposition
The Design Proposition documents the creative development of INNERA: Emotion Academy, an original blind box collectible IP inspired by colour psychology and emotional awareness.
This section records the evolution of the project from initial research and concept exploration to character design, world-building, packaging development, and the first stage of 3D production. Each stage demonstrates how research findings were translated into visual design decisions, resulting in a cohesive and emotionally engaging collectible experience.
01_Research
The project began with research into colour psychology, emotional storytelling, and the designer toy market. Existing blind box brands, animation character design, and audience preferences were analysed to establish a strong conceptual foundation for the project.
The research findings informed the emotional identities, visual language, and overall design direction of INNERA.
Research Summary
The research explored how colour psychology influences emotional perception in character design and how this can be applied to the development of an original blind box collectible IP. Existing designer toy brands, animated films, and audience preferences were analysed to understand current market trends and visual expectations. The findings showed that colour is one of the strongest visual elements for communicating personality, emotion, and brand identity. These insights formed the foundation for the development of INNERA, guiding the character designs, world-building, packaging, and overall visual direction.
Colour Psychology
Colour psychology plays a central role in the visual identity of INNERA. Each character is represented by a carefully selected colour palette that reflects a specific emotional state. Warm colours communicate feelings such as happiness, passion, and energy, while cool colours represent calmness, sadness, fear, and emotional distance. By combining colour theory with character design, each emotion becomes immediately recognisable, helping audiences build an emotional connection with the characters while maintaining a cohesive visual identity across the entire IP.
Target Audience
The primary target audience consists of teenagers and young adults aged between 15 and 30 who are interested in designer toys, animation, character design, and pop culture collectibles. This audience values emotional storytelling, unique visual aesthetics, and collectible experiences. INNERA is designed to appeal to both casual consumers and blind box collectors by combining meaningful emotional themes with a cute fantasy art style inspired by contemporary collectible toy brands.
Existing Product Analysis
A study of existing designer toy brands and animated character IPs was conducted to identify successful approaches to character design, branding, and product presentation. Brands such as POP MART demonstrated the importance of consistent visual identity, expressive character personalities, and attractive packaging design. Animated works such as Inside Out further illustrated how colour and character design can effectively communicate complex emotions. These references inspired the development of INNERA while encouraging the creation of a distinctive original visual identity rather than direct imitation.
02_Moodboard
The moodboard explores the visual direction of INNERA through references from fantasy animation, collectible toys, academy aesthetics, and soft geometric design.
The selected references helped establish the project's Sweet-Cool visual style, colour palette, environment design, and overall emotional atmosphere.
03_World Building
INNERA takes place within Emotion Realm, a magical world hidden inside every human mind. At its centre stands Emotion Academy, where emotion spirits learn to understand themselves and coexist with one another.
The world-building establishes the narrative foundation of the IP, connecting the characters, environments, branding, and future product development into one cohesive universe.
World Overview
INNERA takes place within Emotion Realm, a magical world hidden inside every human mind. At its centre stands Emotion Academy, where emotion spirits are born, learn, and grow together.
Rather than separating emotions into "good" or "bad," the academy teaches that every emotion has its own purpose. True emotional balance can only be achieved when all emotions are understood, accepted, and allowed to coexist.
The core philosophy of INNERA is:
Every Emotion Belongs.
Emotion Academy
Emotion Academy is the heart of the Emotion Realm and the home of every emotion spirit.
Here, students develop their personalities, learn from one another, and discover how different emotions work together to create emotional balance.
The academy is designed as a warm and magical environment filled with floating architecture, dreamy landscapes, symbolic emblems, and colourful spaces that reflect the emotional diversity of its students.
Character System
The IP consists of seven emotion spirits.
Six regular characters represent different emotional states:
Lumi - Joy, Mira - Sadness, Pyro - Anger, Vex - Fear, Vera - Disgust, and Hush - Numbness.
The hidden character, Eon, represents the True Self, symbolising emotional balance and self-acceptance.
Together, they create a complete emotional ecosystem within Emotion Academy.
The Legend of Eon
Among the stories passed down within Emotion Academy, none is more mysterious than the legend of Eon.
Known as the academy's most outstanding graduate, Eon disappeared after completing her journey and gradually became a symbol of emotional balance.
Few students have ever seen her, and no one knows where she is. It is said that Eon only appears when every emotion has learned to coexist in harmony.
Whether legend or reality, Eon inspires every student to pursue balance rather than perfection.
Visual Language
INNERA follows a Sweet-Cool visual style that combines soft silhouettes, vibrant colour palettes, and fantasy-inspired design elements.
The visual identity is unified through academy uniforms, symbolic motifs, pastel environments, and consistent branding across characters, packaging, and promotional materials.
This cohesive design language strengthens both the storytelling and collectible appeal of the IP.
04_Character Design
Seven original emotion characters were designed to represent different emotional states through colour, silhouette, costume, and personality.
Each character follows a unified visual language while maintaining distinctive identities that support both storytelling and blind box collectibility.
05_Packaging Design
The packaging system was designed to strengthen the visual identity of INNERA while enhancing the blind box collecting experience.
Both the individual blind box and display box incorporate the Emotion Academy world through consistent branding, colour application, and environmental illustrations.
06_3D Sculpture
The project has entered the first stage of 3D production.
The initial sculpt focuses on accurately translating the 2D character design into a three-dimensional collectible figure while maintaining the original proportions, costume details, and personality.
This stage provides the foundation for the complete blind box series that will be developed during Major Project II.
Task 3 - Concept Presentation
REFLECTION
Major Project I has been one of the most rewarding and challenging projects I have completed so far. At the beginning of the semester, my goal was simply to create an original blind box IP inspired by human emotions. However, as the project developed, I realised that creating an IP involves much more than designing attractive characters. It requires a complete visual identity, a believable world, consistent branding, and a clear understanding of the target audience.
One of the biggest challenges throughout this project was character design. My original designs were visually similar, and during several consultations my supervisor pointed out that the characters lacked individuality. Their costumes, silhouettes and poses were too alike, making it difficult for viewers to distinguish them at first glance. I also received feedback that my colours looked "too washed" and lacked visual impact. At first, I was hesitant to increase the colour saturation because I wanted to maintain a soft pastel aesthetic. However, after researching successful designer toy brands such as POP MART, Skullpanda and Pixar's Inside Out, I realised that strong visual contrast is essential for creating memorable characters. I therefore refined each character by introducing more distinctive costume details, stronger silhouettes, and one highly saturated signature colour that reflects each emotion while still keeping the overall palette harmonious.
Another important lesson came from developing the project as a complete IP rather than as individual illustrations. Before this module, I tended to focus mainly on drawing characters. Through this project, I learned that branding is equally important. Designing the logo, academy emblem, packaging, character cards and visual identity helped me understand how consistency strengthens an IP. Every design decision, from typography to colour palettes and graphic elements, contributes to creating a recognisable brand experience.
Creating the packaging also changed the way I think about design. Initially, I only considered how the packaging looked from the front. As the project progressed, I had to design the entire unfolded box layout, organise product information, create warning labels, and ensure the graphics remained consistent across every panel. This experience taught me that packaging design is not just decoration, but also communication and user experience.
Throughout the semester, I also became more comfortable accepting feedback. At first, it was difficult to make major changes after spending so much time on a design. However, I gradually realised that every round of feedback improved the project. Instead of seeing revisions as setbacks, I began treating them as part of the design process. This shift in mindset allowed me to create stronger designs and helped me develop a more professional approach to creative work.
Looking ahead to Major Project II, my goal is to transform INNERA into a physical collectible product. I plan to sculpt all seven characters in 3D, produce 3D-printed prototypes, refine the packaging, and prepare the project for the final exhibition. I also hope to expand the world-building and storytelling aspects of INNERA so that the characters feel like they belong to a living emotional universe rather than existing as standalone figures.
Overall, this project has strengthened not only my technical skills in illustration, branding and packaging design, but also my ability to think systematically when developing an original IP. More importantly, it has taught me the value of research, iteration and constructive feedback. I am proud of how much the project has evolved since the proposal stage, and I look forward to continuing its development in Major Project II.
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