The Simpsons

One of the longest running television shows to date is The Simpsons. It tells the many stories of a suburban family who run into problems or wreak havoc in their hometown of Springfield. Just looking at the picture below you can see their different personalities shining through.

A picture of the main family

All five family members are quite stereotypical; Homer, the man of the house, blunders his way through life trying to support his family. Marge is the mother who keeps the family together, she is empathetic and takes good care of her children and husband. Bart is the troublemaker of the class, he skateboards, pulls off a lot of pranks and gets himself into detention (as seen in the title sequence). Lisa is a bright eight year old who enjoys music and gets excellent grades - the classic "geek". Maggie is the baby of the family, she is unable to talk due to her age but she seems to have a good idea of what is happening.

Homer Simpson

The style of the characters designs are reflected throughout the whole of their universe, so they seem normal compared with the background characters. Saying this their designs in particular are unique; for example with Homer, he has a big round stomach, a grey area around his mouth and a few hairs on top of and around his head.

Observing the picture, he isn't drawn with many straight lines (those next to his ear), which I believe is a tac tick to make his character look more appealing to the audience and represent his enjoyment of food and beer as he grows older.

This is the same with every member of the family; Marge's hair is blue and put up, which is unique and stands out compared to the background characters; Bart has a round stomach just like his dad, and with straight up spiky hair, suggesting his troublesome nature. Lisa and Maggie both have the same hair style, which suggests it runs through the families generic line, but Lisa's necklace shows that she has taken inspiration from her mother.

During the Simpsons episodes, the main characters come across a lot of fellow townspeople, who all have personalities in their own right and add some humour when it's needed.

There are subtle differences in the general designs of the town, such as all of the women have eye lashes, whereas the men don't, which is traditionally a feature that females take more care of. Apart from these, they have all been templated on the same visual style and colour scheme, which I believe works well for keeping their universe the same.