In a 2016 interview with The Guardian, Tom Kenny, the voice of SpongeBob, described the show as having “comedic archetypes [of human behavior] that

have worked for hundreds of years, further back than Shakespeare”. Because in it, you have SpongeBob,

the idealist, confronted with archetypes of cynicism (Squidward) and chaos (Patrick). SpongeBob approaches life with a bright, bubbly attitude. His overly optimistic,

sunshine-ey “I’m ready!” personality is what breathes life into the show, and his personality actually stems directly from series creator Stephen Hillenburg.

Stephen Hillenburg has been described by colleagues as possessing the same bright, colorful optimism found in SpongeBob, and that’s because, like any great artist,

he injected much of himself into his show. From childhood, Hillenburg was instilled with a profound sense of curiosity, a curiosity that was informed by his

obsession with the 1966 television show: The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.

Hillenburg described the show as being given a lens through which to peer into a whole nother world, and this wide-eyed fascination with exploration and finding

new worlds is what led him to study marine biology, eventually becoming a marine biology teacher at the Orange County Marine Institute in Dana Point, California.

[Me at the Marine Institute]: "All right, so, uh... here we are at the Marine Institute in Dana Point, California, since renamed to the Ocean [trails off...]

Since renamed to the Ocean Institute. This is where Stephen Hillenburg taught as a marine biology teacher before he became

an animator. And so you can come here to... learn about the ocean!

(laughs) ...all right, yeah!" It was here at the Marine Institute that Hillenburg created “The Intertidal Zone”,

a comic book aimed at educating children that also contained a prototype character of SpongeBob called “Bob the Sponge”.

And it was this comic book that impressed Jules Engel, a former Disney animator turned university professor, who then invited Hillenburg to study at CalArts.

And it was at CalArts that Hillenburg studied experimental animation under Jules Engel, and then

eventually released his thesis film “Worm Holes” at the 1992 Ottawa International Film Festival.

And it was at this film festival that Hillenburg was noticed by Nickelodeon animator, Joe Murray,

who then invited Hillenburg to work with him on Rocko’s Modern Life. And after working on Rocko’s Modern Life, Stephen Hillenburg went on of course to create SpongeBob.

And so that’s the story of how Stephen Hillenburg created SpongeBob…but it all started with an interest in marine biology inspired by Jacques Cousteau.

The importance of Jacques Cousteau’s influence on Stephen Hillenburg cannot be understated. In SpongeBob, the very first words of the pilot episode are uttered by The French Narrator,

a character who Hillenburg has directly stated as being based on Jacques Cousteau.

And, just as much as Jacques Cousteau invited 1960s children to view new, inspiring oceanic underwater worlds in his television show…Stephen Hillenburg

strove to build a vivid, flourishing world in the city of Bikini Bottom. Because one of my favorite aspects of SpongeBob in its first three seasons is the very distinct and

unique audiovisual identity Hillenburg set out to create with Bikini Bottom: A rock, a pineapple, and an Easter Island Head sitting

on the same street as the primary basis for the entire show… Who thinks of that? At first, it seems like such a random assortment of objects put together. But one could also point

out that this single setting roughly represents the California surfer culture Hillenburg grew up in as a child, a culture which itself derived primarily from Polynesian and Hawaiian influences.

And the rock is, well, a rock. Hillenburg also stated that he wanted to use a pineapple because it seemed fun,

while an Easter Island head felt more stoic. And a rock was, well, stupid.

But beyond this street, Hillenburg and his animators put so much effort into developing a unique tropical, oceanic identity in Bikini Bottom. And one of the most innovative ways they

do so that I love is…the drawings of flower clouds in the sky that are ubiquitous in every episode:

There is no basis in reality for flowers appearing in the ocean or sky, but whoever came up with this idea is a genius because these simple flower clouds,

if seen anywhere, are immediately recognizable as uniquely and unequivocally SpongeBob.

Even Kenny Pittenger, one of the artists working on SpongeBob as a layout supervisor, stated that even he had no idea what the flowers actually were. But apparently

Hillenburg came up with them to evoke the look of a flower-print Hawaiian shirt. Another visual element I love is the constant use of bespeckled paint splatters to give a sandy,

oceanic texture over every surface, and how with the sand specifically, multi-colored speckles are

used for an almost colorful confetti-like coral effect, adding a subtle hint of fun.

And lastly, one of the most ingenious methods SpongeBob uses in setting atmosphere is, I urge you to watch any SpongeBob episode and during any scene, if you ignore the voices of

characters speaking in the foreground…you’ll begin to notice you can hear sounds like these: