User blog comment:Vanakita/What makes a good original vocaloid design?/@comment-5051846-20140909155042

Interestingly, I've seen with Vocaloid contests designs getting rejected for the opposite of being too stereotypical – for diverging too much from current Vocaloid designs. With ALYS they were looking for balance, i.e: not a Crypton recolour, but they wanted something with light cyber elements; which is the most common route for Vocaloid designs to take. Rejected designs often had more traditional musical themes, which weren't common in Vocaloid.

These trends are probably due to companies wanting an element of safety; by choosing styles that are already popular, there is less risk of alienating the fandom and you are recognisable to current fans as a Vocaloid. However there is also a downside to this, it can lead to accusations of plagarism and designs which just don't stand out. So there's pros and cons to almost every aspect of character design.

In some cases another choice that has to be made is: do you want the design to be well-accepted by current fans, or to you want to forge new ground and bring different people into the fandom? Yahama has tried the latter various times, with the VYs designed to appeal to professionals, Mew, and arguably ZOLA too. All of these different design approaches have also been quite dividing in the fandom, as they are very different from what the average Vocaloid fan is used to. The best thing for a company of course, is to appeal to old fans and bring in current fans, but this is a difficult balance to strike. I personally don't think Yahama has had complete success with any of their attempts yet, but I hope they don't stop trying.

Sorry, I could ramble about Vocaloid designs for ages.