Introducing SpongeBob: Style icon in the making

Generating US$2 billion a year in global retail sales is nothing to sneeze at, but Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products' flagship property SpongeBob SquarePants is about to hit one of the more important milestones in the lifespan of a character, and the company felt it was time to shake things up on the merchandising front.

As hard as it may be to believe, SpongeBob is turning 10 in 2009. And the team at NVCP is taking the opportunity to inject new life into the pineapple-dweller's consumer products program, with a top-to-bottom rethink of SpongeBob's style. "We've sold billions at retail," says NVCP president Leigh Anne Brodsky. "In order to keep selling...you need to get the attention of fans and retail buyers and present them with something fresh and exciting." Yep, the iconic yellow character's design aesthetic and style guide are going where no sponge has gone before - the unprecedented new looks are rooted both in the worlds of Bikini Bottom and fine art.

Led by Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group SVP of creative strategy Gary Bonilla, NVCP's creative group is ushering in a new era of SpongeBob, having distilled the property's design guidelines into four key equities that will drive consumer products production for at least the next two years. The company is also heading to market in spring 2009 with goods built around four new design directions derived from the core equities. But before delving into the new looks, the "Aha!" moment that led to the revamp bears recounting.

Nothing less than the overhaul of SpongeBob's consumer products creative was Bonilla's first task when he joined NVCP at the beginning of the year. His team got started by conducting research into what SpongeBob meant to consumers. The words that resonated most were happiness, optimism and positivity (anyone who's ever seen the TV series would find it hard to disagree). Bonilla's challenge lay in figuring out how to make those qualities shine through in graphic design.

At this time, Bonilla was also doing a lot of field research, visiting museums and art galleries in search of inspiration. As it happened, he took in Richard Prince's "Spiritual America" exhibit at the Guggenheim in New York. The US contemporary artist comes from the world of advertising and is known for applying advertising forms to fine art. One of his most well-known tacks is creating huge billboard-sized canvases, applying decoupage and collage techniques to make up their backgrounds, and then painting provocative quotes from media sources such as New York magazine on top to fill the canvas. While the quotes Prince uses are often depressing, Bonilla saw people passing one work at the exhibit that always elicited smiles. As he got closer, he realized that Prince had used bank checks printed with SpongeBob and Patrick to wallpaper the canvas. "You couldn't see all of SpongeBob, but parts of him," says Bonilla. "To me, it meant that he's become iconic - you didn't need to see all of him to know that he was there; his personality is evident in just seeing his eye or leg, and that was the premise of the new designs."