Fitting the world into a box: Branding “collaboration” to enable first-of-its-kind global alliance

LOS ANGELES (October, 2008)-
The creative minds at jungle [8] aim to change the world. Social, economic, and environmental movements beat the heart of jungle [8]. It goes without saying that when it came to branding something as paramount as the unified global voice of The Global Summit, jungle [8] aimed to find its message a home in the heart and intellect of the world community.

jungle [8] provided (gratis) brand development services to The Global Summit, creating their brand platform, brand messaging, and identity. In keeping with the guiding principles of the company, jungle [8] founder and principal, Lainie Liberti, annually welcomes pro bono work for non-profits that feature unique social and environmental consciousness.

“jungle [8] hopes to inspire others by setting an example of stewardship, going beyond merely expressing a desire for engaged and socially responsible communities, and directly help co-create them,” says Liberti.

The Global Summit and jungle [8] ask for your voice, your experiences, your visions, and your collective hopes for the future. The future demands that we become the active instruments of change today.

The Global Summit will echo the voices of global leaders, community representatives, environmental change makers, artists, and business leaders worldwide. We all are now the active participants in world history where social responsibility is no longer a future ideal, but a sought after milestone. Largely due to the marketing efforts within the green movement, non-profit and government organizations, the dire need for social awareness and individual responsibility has taken its place at the head of a worldwide table of conscious empowerment. There is no easy means by which to address the world and remind it that without a definitive drive toward change, we will stall and be consumed by global demise.

The Global Summit and its branding agency, jungle [8], have come together to fuel this drive. Both have brought the socially conscious movement to the forefront of the minds of all the people it affects – namely, everyone. If The Global Summit is recreating an entire business system – blowing the top right off the proverbial box – then jungle [8]’s challenge was to put The Global Summit right back into one, packaged for the world to embrace.

The Global Summit was created out of a need for a unified, integral structure to connect worldwide movements working toward social justice, environmental sustainability and global security. Overcoming logistical and political hurdles, The Global Summit coordinates efforts, facilitates cooperative sharing, and provides a platform for collaboration through an online community and eight-year global conference series to begin this November in San Francisco.

This year’s three-day symposium will launch seven forthcoming annual events in seven world regions from 2009 – 2015. The Global Summit will focus on creating a shift from representative to participative democracy. Simply stated by Melanie St. James, founder and director of The Global Summit, The Global Summit is “a once in a millennium opportunity to change the world.”

Congratulations to Chip Jacobs, an ongoing jungle[8] client for the rave review in the September 1st edition of Booklist. Praising the 1950s, Creature-from-the-Black-Lagoon feel of the book, David Pitt gave an enthusiastic review of Smogtown and Jacob’s chronicle of what has become a staple of the LA skyline.

The “First Fridays” 2008 event series “Discovery in the Age of Mammals” explores brains and minds of mammals, including humans. Six prominent scholars, writers and speakers explored the highly evolved mammalian brain, and its ability to orchestrate amazingly complex behaviors. Additionally, the event series featured the performances of 12 different indie musical acts in the diorama halls.

jungle[8], created a memorable brand and a complete series graphics package for the 2008 season that helped attract a younger, hipper crowd to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. The promotional materials successfully complimented the museum’s current branding initiative while connecting with a new audience, making “First Fridays” at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles the place to be each first Friday of the month.

”First Fridays is a complex series and has a long run each year,” said Julia Rivera, Director of Marketing at NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY. jungle[8] gave us a creative platform versatile enough to be the message for six different events but also provided a memorable over-arching brand for the entire program. The 2008 campaign was intellectual but whimsical at the same time which is just what we were looking for.”

About jungle[8]
jungle[8] is a creative design agency specializing in brand strategy, conscious messaging and intelligent design. jungle[8]’s organic approach helps other businesses thrive by leading them to visual solutions that maximize operation efficiencies, lower their costs and improve the delivery of services. The agency applies its award winning brand communications and graphic design talents to the advancement of eco-friendly and sustainable business, social causes, non-profits and arts organizations. Their unique approach begins with the brand and progresses outward, uncovering the soul of the brand, building strategic bridges between corporate goals and defining a clear marketing strategy, producing compelling results and memorable designs with connective meanings.

So why not go on a Friday night?
The First Fridays events, launched by the Natural History Museum of LA in an attempt to cross breed visitor demographic between parents and children, hipsters and professors, beers and lectures, live music and stuffed animal installations, was a great schmorgasboard. In a cool unfolding of fate, NHM hired the jungle[8] crew to establish a savvy and effective design to promote for First Fridays, and the jungle represented- our ad down below. (Sweet cause then we were VIP all over the place!)

This last evening of FFs began with a lecture on the parallels between dolphins and apes, a most interesting parallel. The professors who gave the lecture were sensitive to the attention spans of the diverse group, and gave nothing but quirky comments and interesting tidbits, just enough to make you want to check out the academic studies a bit further on your own.

As a museum, it was typical: the skeletal structures of a T Rex and a Triceratops duking it out in a large marble lobby- but as a music event with casual socializing, it was totally sheik. Impressive darks halls, flooded with bumping beats, lined with the diorama habitats of margays, wolverines, bongos, oryxs, guerezas, and many other alien-esque mammals that live on earth. You kinda felt like the museum had what every dance club in the world was missing: hot stuffed animals in their environments, while the humans perused and got drunk on the scene.
It was a great balance of seemingly disparate worlds, children ran through the large halls decked with glowstick jewelry, and the hipsters were dressed up as bizarrely fashionable as some of the taxidermied animals. ‘The Mountain Goats,’ a band that was playing in one of the halls, could be heard throughout the museum, whether you happened to be on the 2nd floor looking through the various habitats of marine life, or the Thomas the T Rex exhibit, or the life work of Ralph W. Schreiber’s, a huge semi-eerie hall of birds of all kind.
When disparate worlds come together in the interest of fun and curiosity, an anomaly occurs. Look out for next year babies, when the First Fridays series begins again.

Come Celebrate With RENT
AND HELP BUILD A THEATRE IN SOUTH AFRICA

Honoring Jonathan Larson and RENT in South Africa

On May 14th, 2008, RENT on Broadway will host a benefit event at The Canal Room for Ubuntu Education Fund as part of RENT’s ‘Seasons of Love: Big Give’. As RENT moves towards its final performance, their ‘Seasons of Love” Big Give’ is an exciting farewell project between RENT on Broadway and Ubuntu Education Fund to honor the legacy of RENT’s writer and creator, Jonathon Larson. The partnership will continue his mission to celebrate life amongst poverty, HIV and AIDS, by fundraising for the children of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Tickets can be purchased at www.ubuntufund.org

This is an exclusive charity event. All donations are tax-deductible and will help transfrom a community for of love and hope.

Founded in 1999, Ubuntu Education Fund’s 56 person staff based in the townships in Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, serves 24,000 impoverished and vulnerable children and 15,000 families with life-saving HIV services and essential educational resources. Ubuntu Education Fund is based on the African philosophy of ‘ubuntu’, a spirit of common humanity, mutual responsibility and interdependence.

The cast of RENT was inspired to support Ubuntu Education Fund following a recent visit to South Africa by original cast member, Anthony Rapp, and current cast member, Philip McAdoo. While in South Africa, Anthony and Philip conducted a RENT workshop in Johannesburg for Ubuntu youth. The high-end cocktail party on May 14th will feature AKOYA AFROBEAT, a live afrobeat band at THE CANAL ROOM one of New York’s top A-list party destinations. Guests will include past and present RENT stars. An online auction and on-the-night silent auction promise exclusive prizes and once-in-a-lifetime experiences with the RENT cast.

The goal of the evening is to raise $500,000 to build a multi-purpose hall and theater that will be part of The Ubuntu Centre. Set to open in 2010, The Ubuntu Centre will be a state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly, multi-purpose community center and education and health complex. It will be the first of its kind in these township communities of Port Elizabeth, where 40,000 orphaned and vulnerable children have been devastated by the AIDS pandemic and the HIV prevalence rate is almost 40%. The theatre will provide a community meeting space for up to 250 people that will allow for gatherings for musical or theater performances and provide critical safe space for these children during after school, holiday and night time hours – when they are most vulnerable to abuse.
So, in the spirit of ubuntu – a person is a person through other people – come party with RENT and Ubuntu Education Fund at this exciting event, while continuing Jonathon’s Larson’s belief that the arts can help people overcome deprivation through love, hope and healing.

You must RSVP by purchasing your tickets before the event or just make a donation to help us reach our goal.

VIP tickets can be purchased from Ubuntu Education Fund directly. 2 private tables with bottle service for 4 people are available for $2,000 each and 4 VIP tables with bottle service for 10 people are available for $5,000 each. Become a corporate sponsor for a $10,000 or more. Contact Nomatola at 646 827 1190.

If you are unavailable to attend, click here DONATE for alternative ways to donate to Ubuntu Education Fund. Follow the link that reads, GIVE A GIFT IN SOMEONE”S NAME and make the donation in honor of RENT and Jonathan Larson. It is important when you donate online to make the contribution in honor of RENT and Jonathan so we can keep track of the money we raise.

To bid on items in the exclusive online auction that will take place leading up to the event, go to www.charityfolks.com Auction powered by CharityFolks.com.

Thank you so much
Philip McAdoo
Rent Cast Member ’02 – ’08

jungle[8] kin PlanJam got front page billing at CampusCircle.com! The article tells the story of how college students, Kristen and Garret, attendees of USC and UCLA respectively, overcame their schools’ bitter rivalry, snuck behind enemy lines, and planned successful dates with PlanJam. Wanna read the article from a pdf, that’s good too. Either way, check it out!