Say it with Buddy Buddies, a squidgy sticker pack for Messenger

We've made a few Messenger sticker packs over the years, and every time it's an absolute treat. With Buddy Buddies, we've homed in on the squidgy cuteness in the form of bread, fruit and animals.

Buddy Buddies is the sixth sticker pack we've created with Meta, and this time we were asked to design 20 squishy little characters that you feel you could reach out and hug. Using some common search terms as a starting point we designed this tactile bunch, each one bulging with personality.

Buddies Happy
Buddies Hehe
Buddies Lol

When it came to refining the designs, there was a big emphasis on softness, 'squishability' and three-dimensionality. So we brought that level of detail in the little creases, or the way that two things push together – like the leaf and stem on the pear.

The palette is fun and varied, but we made sure there was a little warmth running through the whole pack. So even though there's a lot of different colours, they all sit together as a family.

If you're chatting to someone in Messenger, it's often easier to use a sticker that doesn't change too much. That was our thought process behind some characters – like the pear – when designing motion, but for those expressive moments we have more complex animations like the waving sushi, which jumps up and then rolls away.

Buddies Awkward
Buddies Hi
Buddies Shy

Below: Sketches and rough colours for the 20 selected designs.

Buddies sketches

Below: Rough 2D versions of the animations. Doing this helps maintain a traditional feel to the animation, even though it's all digital.

Coffee Rough
Pig Rough
Thank You Rough

We all have our personal favourites in the team. Find the Buddy Buddies sticker pack in the Messenger Sticker store to find your pick of the bunch and share the squish!

Blank
Buddies Bye
Blank 2

Services

Concepting and refinement, Design, Animation production, Render & delivery, Project leadership, Creative direction, Production, Account management

Deliverables

Animation 20 x Stickers, Json file for each sticker at 60fps, Export with transparent PNG-24 sequence, GIF file for each sticker, Pack thumbnails (static version of each sticker), Relevant tagging suggestions for each sticker

Credits

Client

Meta

Executive Creative Director

Mike Davies

Design & Animation

Sam Stoney

Animation

Ed Barrett, Robert Duncan

Executive Producer

Jen Judd

Producer

Meg Shipton

Related projects

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