Upcycle Project: Dark Cyber

For this project I was inspired by designers that I enjoy to follow and some things from my childhood.

I want to create a helmet that is made of cardboard and resembles the brutalist and cyber aesthetics. My first source of inspiration comes from Japanese manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori. He is the one who created the idea and design for the Power Rangers. Growing up I felt very inspired by the sleek and stealthy looking design of the characters. I remember dressing as them for Halloween whenever I could and the helmet was the most important part. I am hoping to draw inspiration from the clean and simple lines and creating distinct futuristic looking details.

Looking at this image you can see how simple details add so much personality. I enjoy the pink and blue helmets due to the interesting visors and the chrome looking mouths make them so human looking. Also the bright colors that command attention just makes you drawn in and what to know more about what is below mask.

My next source of inspiration comes from a young designer I have been following for a few years. He goes by @yalocaloffgod on instagram or just Off God in short. He recently worked with Bape and also helped popularize headphone attachments on the new Apple over-ear headphones.

In this example you can see how he uses 3D printing to create these very organic shapes and an eccentric silhouette. For my project I want to take that elaborate and outrageous approach to my helmet. Adding some organic shapes and eccentricities to the outside of my helmet almost representing headwear worn by Pharos.

My next source of inspiration comes from another manga artist Kentaro Miura who created Berserk. This is an epic/dark fantasy filled with crazy depictions of stylized armor.

For these images I want to focus on what is going on around the helmets. The raised surfaces and ridges create a grungy feel that really inspires me and I hope to be able to create a silhouette that is similar. On the contrary the middle image shows something similar to the Power rangers so I will have to play with both styles and see what feels right. Overall this gives me a lot of direction and shows me that anythings is really game when it comes to the style of a helmet. I see now that both examples have the mouth missing for most of the depictions so maybe I can incorporate that too.

Lastly I want to look at a work created in 1926 by Serbian sculptor Mihailo Milovanović. The sculptor is called the “Monument to the Fallen Soldiers of the Kosmaj Detachment” and it “commemorates the Partisan regiment from the Kosmaj area and Sava region (Posavina) and honors those who died during the National Liberation War (WWII).” (Spomenikdatabase).

I chose this sculptor because the feeling of it in the fog is something I want to try to recreate. Seeing this large spines standing tall in the wispy fog creates a very mysterious and almost frightening feeling. Adding this brutalist style to a helmet will make anyone going against you feel something similar. Maybe adding these large spikes to the side of the helmet maybe even coming from the visor. I am going to play with each of these organic/orate forms and see where the dark and mysterious feeling comes out.

Work Cited:

(1): Wikimedia Foundation. (2024, January 30). Power rangers. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Rangers

(2): Instagram. (n.d.). https://www.instagram.com/yalocaloffgod/?hl=en

(3): Wikimedia Foundation. (2024b, January 31). Berserk (manga). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berserk_(manga)

(4): Spomenik database: Kosmaj memorial complex. spomenikdatabase. (n.d.). https://www.spomenikdatabase.org/kosmaj