Jesse Stagg
Encyclopedia
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
, design
Design
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
, guerilla marketing.
Born in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, educated in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
, he was raised in a commune in England.
A third-generation Creative in the entertainment industry, he began his career in advertising at Ogilvy & Mather
Ogilvy & Mather
Ogilvy & Mather is an international advertising, marketing and public relations agency based in Manhattan and owned by the WPP Group. The company operates 497 offices in 125 countries with approximately 16,000 employees.-History:...
RSTM in Cape Town, South Africa.
After leaving Ogilvy & Mather, Stagg founded UFO with partner Carl Mason, an agency focused on event marketing, building large scale events around music. in 1991 UFO created the influential dance club Club Eden
Club Eden
Club Eden was the first electronic dance music club in Africa. Located at 54 Waterkant street in Cape Town, South Africa.Eden opened 1990 on Friday 29th of November and ran for only one successful season, introducing a new era in nightlife for South Africa...
, followed by a second club "Uforia". UFO's numerous events and venues helped lay the foundation for the emerging South African Electronica
Electronica
Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...
scene, and the indigenous forms of Techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
known as Kwaito
Kwaito
Kwaito is a music genre that emerged in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the 1990s. It is a variant of house music featuring the use of African sounds and samples. Typically at a slower tempo range than other styles of house music, Kwaito often contains catchy melodic and percussive loop samples,...
and played a small part in the early social re-integration of the Post-Apartheid Rave Generation.
During the 90s Stagg produced and created events throughout South Africa and the United States. Beginning with the World Peace Party
World Peace Party
It is a widely held belief that the World Peace Party was the first warehouse Rave in Africa. The date was Friday, 13th of September, 1990.The event was produced in South Africa, by Cape Town based UFO productions. Founders Carl Mason and Jesse Stagg teamed up to start UFO...
(1990), the first rave in Africa, and ending with Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. He has received many awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator , and has been nominated by the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television...
's millennium party in 2000.
He returned to the design business in 1994 as a senior art-director at Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...
and Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
studios overseeing the launches of Dexter's Lab, Johnny Bravo
Johnny Bravo
Johnny Bravo is an American animated television series created by Van Partible for Cartoon Network. The series stars a muscular beefcake young man named Johnny Bravo who dons a pompadour hairstyle and an Elvis Presley-like voice and has a forward, woman-chasing personality...
, Cow and Chicken
Cow and Chicken
Cow and Chicken is an American animated series, created by David Feiss. The series shows the surreal adventures of a cow, named Cow, and her chicken brother, named Chicken. They are often antagonized by "The Red Guy", who poses as various characters to scam or hurt them...
, Powerpuff Girls and others of the Emmy winning World Premiere Toons on Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
.
Stagg went on to work as an Art-Director at Disney Online then moved to Paramount Studios as Creative Services Manager. He later joined Burbank based FTM (Feed The Monster), as senior Art-Director producing award winning web sites for CBS/Infinity radio stations KROQ-FM
KROQ-FM
KROQ-FM — branded 106.7 KROQ — is a commercial modern rock radio station licensed to Pasadena, California serving the Greater Los Angeles. The call sign is pronounced "kay rock." It is the flagship station of Loveline hosted by Dr...
/LA, KCBS-FM
KCBS-FM
KCBS-FM is a radio station in Los Angeles, California broadcasting to the Greater Los Angeles area on 93.1 FM. KCBS-FM airs an adult hits music format branded as "Jack-FM"....
, and LIVE105.
In 1999 Stagg's cartoon The 7th Portal was produced by Stan Lee
Stan Lee
Stan Lee is an American comic book writer, editor, actor, producer, publisher, television personality, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics....
, high profile editor of Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
. On its release in 2000, it broke records for an online series, coining the phrase "webisode
Webisode
A webisode is a short episode which airs initially as Internet television, either download or stream as opposed to first airing on broadcast or cable television. The format can be used as a preview, a promotion, as part of a collection of shorts, or a commercial.A webisode can be an episode...
". The 7th Portal virtual theme park ride later broke attendance records at Paramount Parks.
From 2003 to 2005, Stagg was the communications chair of the Graphic Arts Council of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). During his tenure, the council inaugurated "Into The Pixel", the first video game art awards, and commissioned works by artists Shepard Fairey
Shepard Fairey
Frank Shepard Fairey is an American contemporary graphic designer, and illustrator who emerged from the skateboarding scene. He first became known for his "André the Giant Has a Posse" sticker campaign, in which he appropriated images from the comedic supermarket tabloid Weekly World News. His...
, Artemio Rodriguez, Salomón Huerta
Salomón huerta
Salomón Huerta is a painter based in Los Angeles, California who comes from Tijuana, Mexico and grew up in the Boyle Heights Projects in East Los Angeles. Salomón Huerta received a full scholarship to attend the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, and completed is MFA at UCLA in 1998...
, and Kenny Scharf
Kenny Scharf
Kenny Scharf is an American painter who lives in Brooklyn, New York. The artist received his B.F.A in 1980 at the School of Visual Arts located in New York City. Scharf's works consist of popular culture based shows with made up science-related backgrounds...
.
in 2006 Stagg was US consultant on Banksy
Banksy
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter.His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine irreverent dark humour with graffiti done in a distinctive stencilling technique...
's critically acclaimed Barely Legal
Barely Legal
Barely Legal may refer to:*Barely Legal , pornographic magazine*National Lampoon's Barely Legal, a 2003 film starring Erik von Detten*Barely Legal , a sex comedy.-Music:*Barely Legal , by The Hives...
show in Los Angeles. The show ignited a firestorm of controversy due to the inclusion of a live hand-painted Indian elephant centerpiece. Barely Legal was a breakthrough for the UK artist and was attended by 30,000 people over 3 days and featured heavily in all mass media.
Jesse Stagg lives in Los Angeles, California, where he consults and lectures on the intersection of design, entertainment and technology.