Mutant Lagoon’s Corey Thomas on crafting creative for Minions, Mario and more

Corey, it’s great to connect. Talk me through the Mutant Lagoon origin story. How did you come to launch a creative studio?
I was doing freelance graphic design for a long time in the music industry, and then Covid happened and entertainment shut down. That gave me the opportunity to launch as a studio, which I’d always wanted to do – to work with other creatives.

So after Covid, I went from Corey Thomas Design to presenting myself as Mutant Lagoon. Clients responded well to that and we soon had enough work to be able to bring Brandon Thompson on full time as our Art Director. I met Brandon back in college – we were both in the graphic design programme and got to be really good friends. That’s also where I met my wife, who actually came up with the name Mutant Lagoon, because we’re from Florida and so it has that old-school vintage Florida vibe.

And then we hired Avery Francois. I knew Avery from back when he was a project manager at Illumination and then he had gone to Universal. We worked on some projects together and then we brought him in as our Creative Project Manager – and it has been one of the best things I’ve ever done. He keeps us organised and reaches out to people. He’s been great.

Over time we’ve slowly left the music industry behind and fully moved into entertainment, toys and video games.

Had you worked on things like style guides back when you were freelancing? Or was the world of licensing new?
I was working freelance for a company called Mad Engine and they would give us style guides to work with, so that exposed me to how the licensing industry handles this stuff. And they looked like fun things to put together! And compared to the freelance graphic design work, style guides are bigger projects and you get to have more creative control – or at least creative control on a broader scale – which is more how I like to work.

And now we’re producing consumer product graphics – from product mock-ups to patterns and badges – so it’s a much wider scope than, say, graphics for a band t-shirt. It really felt like an evolution of what we were previously doing.

“I think you can look at a guide and tell if the creative agency is a fan of the brand in question.”

Does it help being a fan of the brands you’re creating for?
I think it helps – and it has landed us work before because as fans, we can throw in those Easter eggs into the guides. I think you can look at a guide and tell if the creative agency is a fan of the brand in question.

We did the Super Mario Galaxy Movie style guide and being a fan of the brand was one of the reasons we got to work on it. The creative director knew we understood the brand and would respect and protect the IP. So it definitely helps.

Yes, let’s dive into your work on that guide. How did that come about?
I was approached to put the guide together – so initially I wasn’t going to do the graphics. I was just the guy who was going to take all the graphics, compile everything and, as vendors started creating things, I would be someone on hand to approve or deny products as they came in. Eventually the creative director asked if I could help come up with concepts.

While doing that, we realised we were absolutely on the same wavelength and so I got a little bit more control. And then the leash kept getting longer and longer to the point where we did the first guide. And it was a huge collaboration between us and another designer on their team who did the Princess section of the guide. I love what we created – it’s ones of the best thing we’ve been a part of.

Amazing. And sticking with big movies, you also handled the guide for Mattel’s Masters of the Universe movie.
We’ve worked with Mattel for a long time. They were one the first entertainment companies we worked with. The creative director was from the music industry, so when she moved over to that world I thought: ‘Hey, I want do this too!’ So we’ve worked together on other Mattel IP, like Hot Wheels and we had done a He-Man guide a while back, so were very familiar with the brand. And yes, around a year ago they approached us to do two photo-based style guides for Masters of the Universe using photography assets.

We’re working with them on something else right now, and they’ve told us: ‘If we need something done correct and we need it done quick, we come to you guys.’ And I’ll take that!

Absolutely – get that on a t-shirt! And I wanted to also ask you about your work with Illumination on Minions style guides. When we caught up at Licensing Expo, you showed me some of the work there and it looks like a fun IP to create for.
Absolutely; Minions is an interesting one. The characters are so ‘simplified’, but there are still plenty of rules to adhere to in order to get them right. And it’s a fun, vibrant colour palette.

We did a fun guide that was centred on a day in the life of a Minion, and we also did on that actually had a super minimal colour palette – very yellow as you’d expect! And we also worked on a packaging guide for the Minions & Monsters movie. It’s been great seeing product out there that utilises that.

And what, for you, makes for an effective brief?
There’s two or three ways that I really like to get a brief. Number one: if you’re an art director with a very specific vision, give that to me. I can follow directions. It’s good to know what they want.

Other times what’ll end up happening – like with Mario and Minions – is we’ll get a mood board that highlights the vibe they want to go for. And as long as it’s a solid mood, that’s great because sometimes they’ll be some creative freedom there as we almost finalise the brief together.

Then the route that can be amazing – or terrible! – is if they say: “Do whatever you think is going to work”. I love that trust and I want to have that trust, but we also show work early so that we don’t go down the rabbit hole with the wrong approach. But with all three approaches we’ve set up some good safeguards to ensure we rarely turn in a round that a client feel is utter nonsense!

I want to talk about your own branding, because Mutant Lagoon has a strong identity and it looks like something you take seriously?
It’s something we’re heavily investing in. We’ve moved into a new office space in downtown Sarasota this month and even for that, brand has been key.

We want our creative studio to stand out and having a strong sense of brand is key to that. We did t-shirts for Licensing Expo and the Do Not Disturb door hangers, because our branding is inspired by this idea of an old motel. One of the ideas behind the brand identity for Mutant Lagoon is an oasis for mutants and misfits – a creative retreat for them!

Are you having an old neon motel sign outside the office?
We should! If I had all the money in the world, I would find an old run-down motel and make that our headquarters! We could have a design room, we can have an art room… We would have a pool! My hope is that, in 20 years, we’ll be operating out of a motel.

Ha! I want that dream to come true for you. Now, you mentioned working with entertainment brands. Are you looking to stay in that line, or are you open to doing creative work with other types of IP?
We would love to work with heritage brands, like a Coca-Cola. I grew up outside of Atlanta, where Coca-Cola is from and at this stage, we’re targeting brands that we have a personal connection with. Ford had their plant in Atlanta and I knew a bunch kids whose parents worked at the Ford plant – so that’s another brand we’d love to work with. NASCAR is another one. But yes, we’d love to do more with other types of IP.

And before we wrap up, what fuels your creativity? What helps you have ideas?
Well, first of all, if I were to ever hit a slump, I would just ask my wife because she has a billion ideas. That’s why she’s our art director. But for me… I’m almost like a ‘reverse creative’ because I like to problem solve. If you present me with a problem, I can creatively solve it. And then it also helps to think about the licensees and how they can utilize the work. That always helps to spark ideas.

And we work differently in that sense across the team. Brandon can go to a museum and come back extremely inspired by specific pieces. Whereas I would go to the same museum and be inspired by the layout of the venue, or how they moved us around the space. We have different approaches and that helps us.

Last question! How can people contact you?
It’s [email protected]. Or head to https://www.mutantlagoon.com/ to see more of what we’re up to!

Thanks Corey! Let’s tie-in again soon!