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Entertainment

Sticky Monster Lab Creates Colorful, Playfully Dark Animations

A creative studio that not only creates characters, but brings them to life.

What would you get if you took the plot from Star Wars or your favorite sci-fi action flick, fused it with the bright, cartoon-style aesthetic of FriendsWithYou, and set it to a soundtrack by DJ Soulscape. Probably something akin to the delightfully dark short film above from Korean-based creative studio, Sticky Monster Lab.

Founded in 2007 by three friends who all specialized in different aspects of animation—illustration, graphic design, and motion graphics—Sticky Monster Lab has gone on to give us a cast of memorable, Gumby-esque characters for their “Monsters” series. Now with a figure artist on their staff, the lab collaborates with other local creative talent to create their playful films, including calling upon the maestro of Korean soul and disco, DJ Soulscape, to pen the soundtrack for their work.

The lab embraces a concept of total character production as each monster is born first through intimate planning, 2D rendering, then animated and figured into a three-dimensional personality. Boasting clients like Nike and Cartoon Network, Sticky Monster Lab has established a reputation far and wide as a studio with a unique sense of style and character creation.

Finding inspiration from music and friends, the lab often includes the Beatles' infamous (and, at times, overdone) Abbey Road shot in their animations, as well as works involved with Seoul's finest DJ crew 360 Sounds (founded by DJ Soulscape). Their simple and neat design work paired with their fine execution makes Sticky Monster Lab an important and inspirational facet of the contemporary creative scene in Seoul.