“The suit needs flexibility, so I added spacing between these thick armor ribbings so they are less restrictive. “So as I more sketches, I implementing this 'ribbing' design on the suit with long thick horizontal armor strips, rather than conventional armor plates,” he says. “How well would that work to fit the theme? It might convey an interesting rugged look, yet something that I normally wouldn't go for. “But what if I this 'boring' repetition as a motif, a visual language of sorts on the suit?” he asked himself. Lao’s final design for the suit came together when he challenged himself to work with repeating sci-fi motifs that he traditionally found quite boring things like exhaust vents that are often used to fill in the blank spaces on a design. However, the idea of having the HUD on Isaac's back came soon after from the team, and the spine then went through dramatic changes to implement that HUD afterwards.” It was mostly for visual and fictional purposes at that point. 'It was a prominent functional and visible element of the Eva design, and got me to implement a similar emphasis of a very prominent spine and a life support system of sorts on the back of the suit at its early stage. “One unusual candidate that was the most influential to me at the very beginning stage of designing the suit was the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion, particularly the spine and the Entry Plug design of the Eva,” he reveals.

As Lao refined his concept, he turned to pop culture to inspire the details, specifically a beloved Japanese mecha anime.

Dead space helmet concept art