K-pop visuals often rely heavily on fashion, silhouette design, and lighting language. How did real-world K-pop aesthetics influence the costume, color, and staging choices for the I-D group?
Nathan Romero, Potion Projects: Funny enough, internally we never referred to I-D as a K-pop group. To us, they were always a band. With bands, you tend to see a lot more individuality with each member’s sense of style. The character’s backstories and original designs helped inform their individuality, which was expressed through a unifying rock aesthetic. This meant torn garments, belts, spray paint, stuff a band might use to throw together an outfit in a garage.
Viranda Tantula, Potion Projects: I’m glad Nathan mentioned that thing about us not referring to it as a K-pop band. Funny enough, it was a concept I brought over from my time being on the creative leadership team of K/DA of the original K/DA. While I think most people might refer to K/DA as a K-pop group, we always saw it as a general love letter to pop music, rather than just being a K-pop thing.
K-pop pulls references from a lot of different sources, and that’s something we’ve always found to be cool. You should have seen our Miro mood boards for this project, lol, they were huge. They were absolutely bananas, and while they did feature a lot of K-pop references, it actually spanned way wider, including a ton of fashion references (everything from Vivienne Westwood, to Rick Owens, and a bunch of indie designers).
Simon and Romain, Ninoc Studio: We looked extensively at K-pop culture and staging references early in production. But we also had to remember that I-D is ultimately a virtual group born from a fantasy video game universe.
Each character already came with their own lore, abilities, and visual identity, which we couldn’t ignore. Because of that, the final designs probably feel a bit more individualized and specific than what you’d typically find in a traditional K-pop group.
The goal was really to find a balance between recognizable K-pop energy and the unique personality of the DFO universe.