How do you measure the impact and success of your character designs?

1 Define your goals

Before you start designing your characters, you need to define your goals and expectations for them. What is the purpose of your character design? What message or emotion do you want to convey? Who is your target audience and what are their preferences and needs? How do you want your character to stand out from the crowd? By answering these questions, you can establish clear criteria and benchmarks for your character design process and outcome.

2 Analyze your audience

Once you have defined your goals, you need to analyze your audience and their reactions to your character designs. How do they respond to your characters? Do they like them, relate to them, or empathize with them? Do they understand their personalities, motivations, and roles? Do they remember them and talk about them? You can use various methods to gather audience feedback, such as surveys, interviews, reviews, comments, ratings, or social media engagement.

3 Compare with competitors

Another way to measure the impact and success of your character designs is to compare them with your competitors and peers. How do your characters compare with other similar or popular characters in your genre, style, or market? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What are their unique or distinctive features? How do they fit or differ from the current trends and expectations? You can use various sources to research and analyze your competitors, such as awards, publications, exhibitions, or online platforms.

4 Test and iterate

One of the best ways to measure the impact and success of your character designs is to test and iterate them. Testing means exposing your character designs to different situations, contexts, and audiences, and observing how they perform and adapt. Iterating means making changes and improvements to your character designs based on the results of your testing and feedback. By testing and iterating your character designs, you can refine and optimize them for your goals and audience.

5 Track your results

Finally, you need to track your results and evaluate your progress and achievements. How do you measure the impact and success of your character designs in terms of numbers, metrics, or indicators? How do you document and showcase your character design process and outcome? How do you celebrate and share your character design success with others? You can use various tools and methods to track your results, such as portfolios, case studies, testimonials, or awards.

6 Learn and grow

Measuring the impact and success of your character designs is not a one-time event, but a continuous learning and growing process. By measuring your character designs, you can identify your strengths and weaknesses, learn from your mistakes and successes, and discover new opportunities and challenges. You can also use your measurements to set new goals, plan new projects, and seek new feedback. By learning and growing from your character design measurements, you can become a better and more confident illustrator.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?