The (many) designs of SONiKA
1st Design / Unknown Artist
In her original boxart, SONiKA was depicted as a CGI model with short green hair, green eyes, a yellow vest, a beaded necklace and pink nails. In typical Vocaloid fashion she has an arm tattoo, however, unlike characters like Kasane Teto and Hatsune Miku - Sonika's arm tattoo features her name written in katakana (ソニカ). This design was heavily criticized and would later be replaced.
2nd Design / Mario Wibisono
Around late 2009, Mario Wibisono was commissioned to design new box art for SONiKA. This version of SONiKA features her wearing star-shaped earrings, a yellow jacket & top, black arm warmers, a necklace, a navel piercing, black shorts, and a floral tattoo. Mario's design would also plant the seed for all future SONiKA redesigns.
Chinese Design / Unknown Artist
SONiKA would receive a slight redesign for her release in China. Design-wise this version is almost identical to Mario's, with the only difference being that it has been redrawn in a 'moe' art style, perhaps to appeal to the otaku crowd.
Taiwanese Design / Shinia
Just like with her Chinese version. SONiKA would also be redesigned for her release in Taiwan. This version is also based off Mario's design and drawn in a 'moe' art style, however it features some changes - most notably the removal of her floral tattoo. Other big changes include her boots, which are also now gold instead of brown, her star-shaped headphones, her bracelets, the replacement of her arm warmers with black fingerless elbow gloves, a complete redesign of her original yellow top, a star necklace and a black collar with yellow lights.
As demonstrated before with characters like Tonio, Prima, Sweet Ann and Big AL, the Taiwanese redesigns are typically ignored within the community. However, this doesn't seem to be the case with SONiKA's redesign, as this has became not only a fan-favorite but also her most popular design.
Contest Winning Design / Kjbionicle
Following the negative reception to SONiKA's original design, a contest was held in late 2009 for fans to create their own redesigns of the character. However, Zero-G never actually clarified what these designs would be used for, leaving people to speculate that they would be used for a new box illustration. The winner was a KEI-inspired design by Kjbionicle, which would only be used as the Twitter avatar for SONiKA's account.
VOCALOID4 Design / Lia Henson
In 2018, Lia Henson would be commissioned by Zero-G to create the boxart for SONiKA's VOCALOID 4 upgrade. This design borrows some of the characteristic traits introduced by Mario Wibisiono's design. In Lia's own words "We were going for an 80's glam kind of look". SONiKA V4 would later be revealed to have been cancelled following the unexpected release of VOCALOID 5.
Sources:
Engloids BlogVocaloidfactoftheday on Tumblr
Lia Henson on ArtStation
Bonus: Contest Designs
While writing this page I came across a video compiling all the submissions to the 'Sonika's New Look' competition. You can watch it right here.