Characterization

The character design of Super Mario marks the success of the entire Super Mario franchise; he is an iconic figure in our society and is easily recognizable as Disney’s Mickey Mouse.  Creator Minorou Arakawa and graphic artist Shigeru Miyamato designed Super Mario, Arakawa’s original intentions of the naming Super Mario “The Jumpman”, however Arakawa felt the name would not appeal to the North American market.  The break through came when Arakawa’s landlord, Mario Segali burst into his board meeting demanding his overdue rent.  As an effect the overall graphic design was based around the characterization of Arakawa’s Italian-American landlord Mario Segali. This consequently gave graphic artist Shigneru Miyamatao a platform to design Mario as a character; Mario is introduced to game-players as a pudgy Italian plumber with overalls, thick mustache, hat and a bulbous nose.  In addition, Mario is accented with a simple but bold primary color palette of red, yellow and blue, allowing good contrast and emphasis to Mario in any game environment he enters. In conjunction to the use of color, the chracter of Super Mario also changes color when he is about to die (primary colors, to black and white) and when he gains points by catching a star (primary colors to yellow and white) Nonetheless the primary color palette, and distinct features such as his nose, thick mustache and hat offers a very friendly appeal, thus making his character quite memorable to game-players.

http://blog.ocad.ca/wordpress/vism2b15-fw2011-01/2011/10/super-mario-character-and-environment-design-how-effective-are-they-a-closed-reading/