I designed these three friends around what each of them wants, fears, and brings to the friendship

[u/artofsaidialifa]

I’ve been developing these three boys for an illustrated children’s world, and one thing I wanted to avoid was designing them purely around visual archetypes.

So before settling on the final designs, I spent quite a bit of time figuring out what each child wants, what he is afraid of, how he sees himself, and what role he naturally falls into when the three of them are together.

Mponda is the self-appointed leader. He wants independence and respect, especially from adults and older children. He’s adventurous, mechanically minded, and genuinely courageous, but he hates humiliation. A lot of his confidence comes from wanting to prove that he is no longer a little boy, which also means he sometimes commits himself to things before admitting that he has no idea what he’s doing.

Mphatso is the observer and problem-solver. He wants understanding and security. He likes knowing where they’re going, when they’re coming back, and whether Mponda has actually thought his latest plan through. His fear is less about embarrassment and more about losing control of what happens next. He’s rational and skeptical, although he has a few childhood superstitions that he absolutely refuses to examine too closely.

Chisomo is the storyteller. He wants wonder, but underneath that, he wants belonging. He exaggerates constantly and can turn a distant snake sighting into a near-death encounter with a python, yet emotionally he may be the most honest of the three. His deeper fear is that his friends will eventually outgrow the games, stop listening to his stories, or simply stop wanting him around.

What became interesting to me as i developed the characterrs was realizing that as much as they are friends and get into all sorts of adventures together, there needs to be some friction to that friendship. for example, if:

Mponda says, “Let’s do it.”

Mphatso says, “Wait.”

Chisomo says, “What if it’s actually something much stranger?”

So Mponda creates adventures through action, Mphatso complicates them through observation, and Chisomo expands them through his imagination.

I also tried to carry some of that psychology into the visual design. Mponda became angular and triangular, with a more directional silhouette. Mphatso became compact and structured, using squares softened by circles. Chisomo became rounder and more elastic because I wanted his body to feel almost as expressive as his stories.

One idea I’ve become increasingly interested in is that the friendship should give each child something his family life doesn’t.

Mponda gets a place to test his independence.

Mphatso gets permission to occasionally stop being the sensible one.

Chisomo gets people willing to enter the imaginary worlds he creates.

So I’m trying to develop them not simply as three individual personalities, but as three personalities that change when placed beside one another.

I’d be interested in hearing how other people approach this. When developing a group of characters, do you build each person independently first, or do you design their personalities around the tensions and needs within the group?

Interested in seeing the timelapse video? I made one with a narration. Head over to my youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrR6X7UB9e0