When Star Trek: The Next Generation came out they tried to introduce a new villain in the form of the Ferengi. They were kind of cool at first, but soon became a joke. I came across these concept drawings by Andrew Probert and have to say he did an amazing job. I wish some of his ideas, like the Babylonian style beard had made it in, but such is the life of a concept artist I guess.
"I wanted us to loathe them, and despise them, and fear them, and also think they were ridiculous." Probert said. "We played around with a bunch of concepts. I kind of scrunched up my face, and popped my eyeballs, and bared my teeth, and put my hands up behind my ears. It was probably the most grotesque thing you could get. We always fear the thing that doesn't look like us. In this case, the idea was to take them away from looking like us, but of course they do look like us in some ways. They're weird, but they are still humanoid."
http://www.probertdesigns.com/
"I wanted us to loathe them, and despise them, and fear them, and also think they were ridiculous." Probert said. "We played around with a bunch of concepts. I kind of scrunched up my face, and popped my eyeballs, and bared my teeth, and put my hands up behind my ears. It was probably the most grotesque thing you could get. We always fear the thing that doesn't look like us. In this case, the idea was to take them away from looking like us, but of course they do look like us in some ways. They're weird, but they are still humanoid."
