History Main / DistinctiveAppearances

[[folder:ComicBooks]]
* PlayedForLaughs in the Canadian ''Stevie Diamond'' book series by Linda Bailey. The titular character has distinctive frizzy hair, and she becomes incredibly self-conscious about it when the lifeguard at the local pool tells he to get out of the pool by yelling "Hey You! The kid with the hair!" That' right, ''the'' hair.
[[/folder]]

** Van Helsing of...''Van Helsing'' has a similar NiceHat for similar reasons, as Stephen Sommers has said: makes it very easy to tell who he is, even in a long shot.

* In early SuperHero comics, colorful costumes and iconography where often the only way to tell heroes apart due to level of art (and quality of the color printing) produced at the time. This is why Batman and Superman were able to pass as each other when needed for the longest time.

* In early SuperHero comics, colorful costumes and iconography where often the only way to tell heroes apart due to level of art produced at the time. This is why Batman and Superman were able to pass as each other when needed for the longest time.

* ''{{Scrubs}}'' had all the people in the hospital separated into colors: white lab coats or blue scrubs for medical doctors, green scrubs for surgeons, pink (or purple) scrubs for nurses and the maintenance crew were black. Even then J.D. usually wears a different shade of blue than most of the other doctors (or at least Elliot, who is also a medical doctor). The Todd always has his sleeves ripped off to show his "guns." Doug wears a much lighter shade of blue along with a red fanny-pack.
** You can also look at the ethnicity and general size of the characters. J.D. is very skinny and dark hair, Turk is black, Carla is [[strike:Puerto Rican]] ''Dominican'', Dr. Cox has curly hair and is muscular, Elliot has HairOfGold, Dr. Kelso is short and heavy set, and The Janitor is tall and looming.

* ''StarTrek'' had a habit of introducing a special captain's uniform to make them different from the command officers who otherwise wear the same uniform besides the hard to notice collar pips. Kirk had the green wraparound tunic (acknowledged with ''Enterprise's'' MirrorUniverse episode). Picard had a two layer outfit with a velvet jacket over a gray shirt. ''StarTrekFirstContact'' introduced the Starfleet uniform change with a black and gray jumpsuit with color coded turtleneck undershirts, but Picard spent most of the film wearing a red shirt under a vest. That same outfit was later worn by Sisko in ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine.''
** ''StarTrekEnterprise'' had unique admirals' uniforms, surprising fans by also having a necktie.

* This is probably one reason why the main character in a ''{{Gundam}}'' show always pilots a Gundam- to stand out from the crowd (and sell more model kits). Only 08th MS Team subverts this by giving Shiro the same MS as his comrades... until its badly damaged and he gets a costumized unit.

* Isumi of ''HayateTheCombatButler'' doesn't wear the standard girl's uniform at their school. This is even lampshaded when Nagi invites her to come see the new kitten, and she says she needs to go home first and change out of her school uniform, Nagi responds that she's wearing a kimono already. The Hakuou girl's uniform is already similar to a kimono, but Isumi says it's too breezy.

* IndianaJones and his NiceHat. He walks into a room and you know it is him. You see his shadow and you know it is him, and just to be on the safe side he carries a whip on his belt in case of other hat wearing characters. You can see him in a crowd and know which one he is on a bridge. So much so that the filmmakers eventually decided that his hat would only come off if there was a darn good reason. Note the footage of Harrison Ford jokingly offering to staple the hat to his head.

** The lightsaber colors were meant to be easily distinctive between Jedi and Sith. And in a literal vein, Luke's new lightsaber in ''Return of the Jedi'' was supposed to be blue but with most of the Sarlacc pit battle being outside against the blue sky they changed it to green to stand out.

** You can also look at the ethnicity and general size of the characters. J.D. is very skinny and dark hair, Turk is black, Carla is [[strike:Puerto Rican]] ''Dominican'', Dr. Cox has curly hair and is muscular, Elliot has HairOfGold, Dr. Kelso is short and heavy set and The Janitor is tall and looming.

* ''StarTrek'' had a habit of introducing a special Captains uniform to make them different from the command officers who otherwise wear the same uniform besides the hard to notice collar pips. Kirk had the green wraparound tunic (acknowledged with ''Enterprise's'' MirrorUniverse episode). Picard had a two layer outfit with a velvet jacket over a gray shirt. ''StarTrekFirstContact'' introduced the Starfleet uniform change with a black and gray jumpsuit with color coded turtleneck undershirts, but Picard spent most of the film wearing a red shirt under a vest. That same outfit was later worn by Sisko in ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine.''
** ''StarTrekEnterprise'' had unique Admiral uniforms, surprising fans by also having a necktie.

* Valve deliberately invoked this when designing the characters in ''TeamFortress2''. Every class has a [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_J0eGLzEI-8A/STxVcIj2jjI/AAAAAAAAADw/wr8UGwQmva0/s320/TF2ManicanBreakdown.jpg very distinct shape]] which helps a lot to identify what's coming after you. This also makes it easy to spot snipers by looking for their hat...
* ''MassEffect 2'' gives [[spoiler: geth]] party member Legion a massive hole through his chest, visible from almost all angles, so the player can distinguish him from his hostile cousins at a glance and avoid friendly fire incidents.

* Despite being very much a PinkBishoujoGhetto, it's possible to tell nearly every member of the ''{{Touhou}}'' cast apart by their sillhouette, as demonstrated in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3C-VevI36s this video]].

** It should be noted that the "law" of Prime design has been averted on three occasions; once, in Armada, where he was a long nosed cab and instead his grill formed his chest, and then later in his Alternators and Alternity incarnations, in which he was portrayed as having a chest formed from the front end of a truck and car, respectively.

* Isumi of ''{{Hayate no Gotoku}}'' doesn't wear the standard girl's uniform at their school. This is even lampshaded when Nagi invites her to come see the new kitten, and she says she needs to go home first and change out of her school uniform, Nagi responds that she's wearing a kimono already. The Hakuou girl's uniform is already similar to a kimono, but Isumi says it's too breezy.

* This trope can be difficult to pull off well in war comics. Every character generally must be a young male, wears the same uniform (usually including a helmet or other headgear), often necessarily of the same ethnic background, etc. Giving characters distinctive appearances without [[YouFailBasicTrainingForever violating basic military realities]] presents a lot of challenges - particularly if the artist already has OnlySixFaces tendencies. Joe Kubert's character designs for ''[[{{Comicbook/SgtRock}} Sgt. Rock]]'''s Easy Company are a good example of an artist successfully giving soldiers Distinctive Appearances despite all those obstacles.

And compare/contrast any number of tropes, including CastOfSnowflakes, OnlySixFaces, PaletteSwap, LimitedWardrobe.

* This is probably one reason why the main character in a Gundam show always pilots a Gundam- to stand out from the crowd (and sell more model kits). Only 08th MS Team subverts this by giving Shiro the same MS as his comrades... until its badly damaged and he gets a costumized unit.

* Isumi of {{Hayate no Gotoku}} doesn't wear the standard girl's uniform at their school. This is even lampshaded when Nagi invites her to come see the new kitten, and she says she needs to go home first and change out of her school uniform, Nagi responds that she's wearing a kimono already. The Hakuou girl's uniform is already similar to a kimono, but Isumi says it's too breezy.

* Isumi of {{Hayate no Gotoku}} doesn't wear the standard girl's uniform at their school. This is even lampshaded when Nagi invites her to come see the new kitten, and she says she needs to go home first and change out of her school uniform, Nagi responds that she's wearing a kimono already. The Haukuou girl's uniform is already similar to a kimono, but Isumi says it's too breezy.

* This is probably one reason why the main character in a Gundam show always pilots a Gundam- to stand out from the crowd (and sell more model kits). Only 08th MS Team subverts this by giving Shiro the same MS as his comrades, until its badly damaged and he gets a costumized unit.

!!Examples

<<|PersonalAppearanceTropes|>>

<<|OmnipresentTropes|>>

[[AC:{{Anime}}]]

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

[[AC:WebComics]]
* Due to their unique accessories, and the careful design of their fur and tails, no two characters in ''BittersweetCandyBowl'' have the same silhouette.

[[AC:WebOriginal]]

[[AC:NewspaperComics]]

* This trope can be difficult to pull off well in war comics. Every character generally must be a young male, wears the same uniform (usually including a helmet or other headgear), often necessarily of the same ethnic background, etc. Giving characters distinctive appearances without [[YouFailBasicTrainingForever violating basic military realities]] presents a lot of challenges - particularly if the artist already has OnlySixFaces tendencies. Joe Kubert's character designs for SergeantRock's Easy Company are a good example of an artist successfully giving soldiers Distinctive Appearances despite all those obstacles.

* ''{{Gargoyles}}'' come in all shapes and sizes. None of the main crew have the same color scheme, same wing design, or even the same face. In fact, seeing that Angela had Goliath's coloring but Demona's appearance tipped Elisa off that she was Goliath's daughter.