It used to be said that most fine artists were doomed to a subsistence life, but the new media explosion of the 1990s blew away that age-old “truism” in just half a decade. For proof, look no further than Lainie Siegel, creative director and co-founder of Interactive Jungle, an interactive design agency. A fine arts graduate of Long Beach State, Lainie’s career skyrocketed with the explosion of the Web. Over the last seven years, Lainie took on increasingly key creative roles in some of the most prominent, groundbreaking – and notorious – entertainment sites on the Web. In February, she and a creative partner took the big leap to entrepreneurship, and are already enjoying some top-shelf clients. Lainie shares her thoughts on her current projects, creativity, and her amazing journey through the Internet high-life.

You’ve been overseeing the creative aspects of large-scale Web sites for seven years. How did you spend the time between when you graduated from art school and when the Web broke? Did you work for big agencies or were you more of a fine artist?

I was a fine artist. I actually only got involved with the Web as a fluke. I was working as an artist assistant, I was doing all sorts of stuff including waiting on tables. Basically after almost ten years of doing that, I was waitressing next door to this brand new startup called Boxtop, and they were dealing with something really strange called the Internet. At the time, I had never turned on a computer in my life, but my Boxtop customers were telling me about [the Web] and I was getting very excited.

At the time Boxtop had about 12-15 employees. I talked my way into an interview, and I actually created a position for myself as the first unpaid intern. I basically learned on the job. I did that for three months, and after that I was offered a full-time job as a production artist. From there I worked my way up to designer, then to senior designer, and then to art director.

At this point I should back up and say that I really came from a place of conceptual art. I was always really interested in the process. It’s truly the core of everything we do. None of it is about decoration, it’s about concept, it’s about a strong foundation. It’s creativity first, and we apply that through the design and programming. We don’t just make something that is pretty and hope that we can program it, it’s really about the core.

How would you describe your visual style, and who or what are your biggest influences?

My visual style is not something that duplicates somebody else. It’s inspired by everything around me, by life. I get extremely inspired by what other artists are doing on the Web, on canvas, on video, on film — and what people are doing in life. To me that’s inspiration.

I suppose when I first started I was more focused on styles of design because I was never formally trained as a designer. I knew the fundamentals of color theory and composition, but I never learned design in an academic way. So I sort of had to learn by observing. But creativity doesn’t happen by duplicating, creativity happens by inspiration.

Once I’ve got the entire creative story worked out for a project, when I sit down to work on the creative visuals, it’s only one small element of the overall design. I just let it happen. Sometimes I just move things around, sometimes I start from an old design and take elements out, and start thinking about where we’re going with this concept. Sometimes I start with color and see what happens. I never have an intention when I start, so the design happens, it’s not me that’s designing. It’s really not about me. Because I did work my way up through the ranks in this industry, I learned really quick to separate my ego from my design.

When you’re doing fine art, you’re doing fine art for yourself. Fine art is really about exploring yourself through the power of creativity. Design is really about exploring a concept and finding a visual solution, so you’re separating your ego.

Doing what I’m doing now as a company, I’ve hooked up with a very dear friend as my partner, and he and I really established the creative foundation. He is a writer, he is a creative genius, we bounce off each other and we have a flow. We met back at the Boxtop days. We don’t challenge each other in our own disciplines, we complement each other. And when we sit down to create anything for a client, we do a creative brainstorming — and it’s usually over a couple of glasses of wine — and we really get into the brand as a concept. It’s really the brand that drives the design. So even if the brand is not established — which is what we prefer by the way — we can come up with an identity and translate the idea into the writing, the design, the feel… these are only extensions of the brand.

One of the reasons why we decided to start our own firm was because [my partner] Michael and I worked for a large companies that had such stringent methodologies, and we found more often than not that the creative process got lost. So our only choice was to create decorative things (designs) to put on top of what already existed. [Wanting to start our own firm] didn’t have to do with the ownernship, it had to do with the creative process. If you’re creating something decorative (unless that’s the intention), it’s not really from the creative core. So when we started Interactive Jungle, what we observed was that the methodology at all those big firms was really watering down the process. We got away from that.

One of the projects we just launched is the “3rd Rock From The Sun” site. It’s a well-known brand and they [Carsey-Werner-Mandabach] needed a redo of the current site that served the fan core. So we had a specific creative challenge, and by the way all creativity and design really deals with problems and solutions. So we assessed who are we creating for, what is the core brand, what do we want to say. We did a lot of brainstorming and we came up wtih something that would be absolutely, totally engaging. We came up with a fan site that had all the core components like past episodes, cast and show info. The brainstorming included the architecture, the functionality, the design and the programming.

We came up with a look and feel that accentuated the show without duplicating it. And we came up with the creative for a game, not exactly a game but we called it the Journey. It’s a journey that runs for a 30-day period featuring trivia, factoids gallery images that is competely database driven. You choose a character and move forward down a linear path, however the path is different for every person.

In terms of the entire package, and the creative concept and the identity, we really branded this as something very different from the show. Its own online identity complements the show.

Since 1996 you’ve designed sites for some of the highest-profile names in entertainment. Many creatives don’t have what it takes to manage a team, a large project, or a budget. What skills do you have that enable you to handle these projects so successfully?

It’s interesting, you know my background starts from the bottom and works its way up so in terms of dealing with creatives, I know how I like to be spoken to and I know how I like to be managed. So it’s taking those lessons and applying them to my management skills.

In terms of dealing with clients, it’s really odd, my partner and I have talked about this, most creatives don’t really manage that well but I’ve found that I have some sort of niche for doing that. I’m good at listening and I’m good at managing client expectations, and I’m good at communicating, and I’m good at laying out what their responsibilities are. Generally we do hire a project manager, because we know it’s important. However when we first bid on a project and sell the project, Michael and I are the ones who go in and sell it, so we’re doing a lot of everything.

I noticed you did a site for Marilyn Manson a few years ago. You mention in your portfolio that you worked closely with him on it. What was that like?

It was really great. I had to sort of push aside all my preconceived notions of who I thought he was and listen to him and see what he really had to say. He turned out to be a very creative, articulate man. What I presented to him were concepts that dealt with his album that had just come out, and how it would translate to an interactive experience. When we finally pushed forward and created the site for him, it was amazing, it was pretty great. Because I wasn’t dealing with Marilyn Manson the persona, I was dealing with Brian whatever-his-name-was. It was pretty much like one artist speaking to another artist; there was a great amount of respect. And that was his first Web site.

I want to ask you about DEN. The company got a lot of flack after its high-profile flameout. As a former insider, do you think all the criticism is fair? Or are there some good things about what DEN was doing that have been overlooked?

If you’re talking about how much money they lost, can’t you say that about every Web venture at his point?

I can tell you working for DEN was an amazing experience. I learned a lot. There were some shitty days but also some great accomplishments. I can also tell you managing a team of 35 artists, I was not designing, that was the only bad thing about it. On the other hand, I was in on the site architecture, I was in on every creative aspect of the company at a management level. It was an amazing experience for me personally.

At the time when I was hired I was five months pregnant, and I made great money. So I probably have a very different perspective than a lot of people. I thought it was a great company to work for, and I loved the fact that it was notoroious and I loved the fact that it was groundbreaking. We did things that other companies wished they did or dreamt they did. There were a lot of politics but I wouldn’t trade those days for anything.

OK, tell me about the birth of Interactive Jungle. When and how did your company get started?

It officially started in March of this year. I was laid off from my job [when we ran out of funding]. I had the ideal job, I couldn’t have been happier. I left DEN three months before they folded, and I started working for a company called Spongelab. Spongelab was an e-learning company that dealt with the arts. So it was like melding all my interests into one. Plus I was getting paid great money. For me it was amazing.

So I went from that job to thinking OK, I’ve been in original content programming for three years, do I want to go back to client services… to technology… what do I want to do with my career? I was really at a dead end and the industry was taking a dive and quite a few of my peers were out of work at the time. One of my close friends, Michael, and I decided to open our own company.

I know that’s really simplistic, but… we had long and hard conversations about what we liked to do, and we realized that client services could be really challenging again in a good way, because suddenly we realized that the large firm methodologies were not our obstacles anymore. We could create our own “methodology”, we could get back to creativity for creativity’s sake, vs. time and hours and budget. We started bidding on jobs as a team in February and we started doing our own brand identity and launched our site in March. And actually our version 2.0 is launching in January. How exciting!!

Since then we’ve really resonated as a company, we really established our voice and we know that it’s not a one-person effort, it’s a team effort. When we started Interactive Jungle, we really saw it as a design firm focused on interactive, but we also do identity / branding and print work. We also have an amazing technology team. We’ve got two guys, one guy’s a front-end guy who’s amazing with HTML, DHTML, XML, Flash, you name it, then the backend guy is a database extraodinaire. Their solution has always been ‘you dream it, we’ll figure out how to make it.’ So there have never been any obstacles, technology-wise.

The interntion is to keep it as a small company and one of the benefits is that you get close client interaction and you don’t have to deal with the big-firm red tape. Our prices are amazing, we’re great to work with, and we deliver on time as promised.

What project is nearest and dearest to you right now?

Oy! [laughter] Well, we’re working on a project right now that’s going to launch in the beginning of January, it’s called the Insight Group. We’ve been in negotiations with them since August and we finally kicked off the project with them a month ago. They checked out some of the top firms in San Francisco and LA and they ended up going with us because they liked our portfolio, they liked our personality, and they liked our price. They had no brand identity, they had no logo. They only had an idea about what they were. They go to four-star hotels and they sit down and rate things … they’re really against the word “secret shopper” — they’re really classy, on the Ian Schrager level.

To me, the reason why this project is so dear is because they are so willing to take a risk and trust us with their identity. They thought they were one thing, and when we started developing their brand, they realized they were much more bleeding edge and much more… they can communicate their brand through more progressive design than they thought. So what we’re doing for them is pretty amazing. We did a couple of traditional comps of what they thought they wanted, and couple of far-out artist comps that you would find in a painting. And we presented to them and they sat with them for four or five days, and they chose the number-one far-est out concept! It was a shot in the dark but they went for it, so we’re developing their site for high bandwidth, and we’re using pretty amazing technology, bleeding-edge design, really sharp. In terms of money it’s kind of less than, a far cry from what we earned for 3rd Rock, but it was for ourselves. And I do need to add that I recently have turned down a creative director position at another firm that scouted me because I believe so strongly in what we are doing. The risks are far more rewarding than earning a lot of money at a place where my creativity is stifled.

The site I thought was the most touching in your portfolio was the one you built for the birth of your son. How do you find the time to do this?

I don’t know! I never updated it after one year so that tells you a little about my time! My son Miro, however is my inspiration to make Interactive Jungle work!

For my last question, I’d like you to look to the future. Where you do hope to be in five years with your business and your career?

Same place.

You sound like you’re in a good place right now.

I am in a good place right now. Financially, the company will be earning more, but in time. I know if we keep doing what we’re doing, the money will be greater.

Probably the last thing I want to say is, anytime you’re building a business my advice is to surround yourself with folks who do what you don’t do, whose strengths are your weaknesses. Separate what you do from your ego, and surround yourself with talented people, and come from a place of creativity and heart and you will never fail. I mean it’s failproof, you can’t fail!

Erica Oh is Chapter Leader for DigitalEve Los Angeles

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.”

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.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, Internet blogging has a larger role these days than simply venting rants and raves. Bloggers are now “opinion-shapers” and dictators of consumer trends. The article tells a story of a small business’s success story, and how that success was catalyzed by publicity within the blogosphere exclusively. A worthy read, the article begs to ask whether this new marketing trend will hurt the integrity of blogging as a new free speech medium, or if this will signal the coming of a new profitable trade, among other questions.

A Few Words With The Recently Re-named Artist Lainie Liberti

By: Scott Silverman, Special Correspondent to Coagula – Really, Really Special

SS: Okay. I’m very busy. I’ve got an interview at quarter of four with this new guy everybody’s raving about. Wunderkind, apparently. Recreating the entire Monet oeuvre, one dot per canvas.

LAINIE LIBERTI: Fascinating.

SS: And just yesterday, I met a woman who sells only her negative space! It was really something. Her nothing. Was.

LAINIE LIBERTI: Uh-huh.

SS: So. Let’s get right down to it. Who the Hell are you, why did you change your name to Lainie Liberti and why should I care?

LAINIE LIBERTI: If you don’t mind, I’d like to take those in reverse order–

SS: Artists!

LAINIE LIBERTI: You should care because our government continues to seize our personal liberties like they were only ours on loan. From them.

SS: But they’re not on loan! It’s our government. We own these freedoms!

LAINIE LIBERTI: Quite right. And you should care because this administration has premeditatedly waged, like never before in U.S. history, a propaganda campaign, a war and, ironically, an all-out terrorization of the American people.

SS: Aha! I knew it! Irony didn’t die after 9-11. Letterman was just a little taken aback. It’s okay. He’s back to his old goofy self now.

LAINIE LIBERTI: You should care because freedom isn’t just the foundation of this country; it’s the birthright and sustenance of every living soul.

SS: Heavy shit. You should’ve changed your name to Deepak!

LAINIE LIBERTI: In the face of a neocon initiated war and a savagely beaten constitution, the wonks wonk and we marchers march, but the travesty endures. I filed the paperwork and appeared in court. I changed my name. Not a heroic act. Maybe not even an inspirational action. But I did it. It’s mine.

As for who I am, well, Downtown LA Art Fag pretty much sums me up. I’m a conceptual artist. That is what you wanted to do, yeah? Sum me up?

SS: I’m not the one who changed my name.

LAINIE LIBERTI: That’s true. And you’re not the one who stood in the courtroom while holding a flaming torch in my left hand and a copy of Art Now tucked under my right.

SS: Art Now?

LAINIE LIBERTI: Well, I wanted 137 artists there with me to witness my liberation. Seemed fitting. Mike Kelly, Jeff Coons, Paul McCarthy, Cindy Sherman…their names will forever be synonymous with my personal transformation, in my mind.

SS: Okay, but why a name change? Why not, say, a Liberty Medallion from the Franklin Mint? Or a vanity license plate?

LAINIE LIBERTI: What’s that? What was the experience like? So glad you asked. It was actually quite easy. You fill out some paperwork. They do a background check. A few months later, you get a letter informing you when to appear before the judge. In the gallery I met a Chechnyan family and a Mexican family. Neither had torches but I didn’t rub it in their faces or anything. Then, in the courtroom, I was the seventh to be called forward. When the judge asked if there were any objections, only one person did.

SS: Somebody objected to you changing your name to Lainie Liberti?

LAINIE LIBERTI: Yeah, my son. But he wasn’t really objecting. Just being his typical silly self.

SS: But what’s really in a name? And don’t give me any of that Shakespeare crap. Last I heard he was actually three women and a cockatiel.

LAINIE LIBERTI: The name itself is of little consequence. Although, I suppose, I like the idea of raising my son with a heightened awareness of what his mother and this country are about. The act. That’s what’s important. At least to me. Proclaim, do, document – these are my reasons for being.

And being liberty! What an awesome responsibility, and yet, what an exhilarating experience! Think about it.

SS: So, okay, it’s just us here. Just you and me and the tape recorder I have already told you is tragically broken and is present only for reasons relating to my emotional security. Now, you sure you don’t want to tell me the name change was just an attempt to dodge creditors?

LAINIE LIBERTI: I’d take the Fifth except I’m not sure if we’ve still got that one.

SS: Okay. Let’s now turn to the more pivotal matter. That’s right. The spelling.

LAINIE LIBERTI: No “I” in teamwork. Mostly because now I’ve got them all. Seriously, though, I liked stripping the word down to its root. The final “I” an homage to all things Italian, from daVinci and straight on through to manicotti. Plus, there’s simply an aesthetic there I found myself responding to.

SS: Alright. This wouldn’t be a legit art interview if I didn’t let you prattle on about your early influences. Prattle away.

LL: Wow. You really are a jerk.

SS: I tried to warn you.

LAINIE LIBERTI: My influences run the gamut. Huge Miro freak, hence my son’s name. As a commercial designer and owner of a successful brand marketing firm, I have always been drawn to the conceptual. But I find inspiration everywhere – fine art, new art, non-art. I still perform and will always surround myself with those who live passionately, purposefully and, uh, hopefully not as pretentiously as I am sounding at this very moment.

SS: Artful living. Can anyone do it or do you have to be invited like old gmail?

LAINIE LIBERTI: Can’t make the change. Gotta be the change. I changed my name and became the liberty they are so ferociously and tenaciously usurping.

SS: Interesting. Now you’ve got me wondering, Would you be willing to do it again?

LL: Why again?

SS: I’ve got this space over my sofa and I am just at a total loss…

I grew up in Southern California, in Walnut, just east of LA proper. To me, it was an ordinary middle class community and on the verge of massive growth. The adjacent city, Diamond Bar, was also growing so the two communities were tied to each other’s students. Needless to say, it was crowded. Good thing was, high school bored me, as did the small town vibe. Because of the overcrowding, I was able to take accelerated courses and graduate in almost two years. At 16, I started college (Mt. SAC, for those in the know) and then transferred to Cal State Long Beach to study fine art. Long Beach had a thriving artistic community and, I found, it was a wonderful place to be young and creative. After some years in Long Beach, I announced I was going to see the world! Anyway, Europe, at least. So, I jumped on an airplane and headed to London. I loved traveling, the freedom of the wind, the abundance of creativity and the rich diversity of cultures. I traveled through Europe and England for over a year then returned to the States. In 1989, I settled in Los Angeles.

Who were your main influences growing up?

Early influences included Gandhi, John Lennon and many various liberal icons (my parents were hippies). As a child, I was highly creative but my grade school experience with “art” was tragic. Looking back, it was a clear indication of how public schools “support” a child’s creativity. I felt discouraged time and time again. Discouraged from being free form with my creativity; drawing patterns, swirls, abstracts, at the constant disapproval and criticism of my teachers. I remember being told that what I was coloring “was not art”. Told my “abstracts” should look like “something”. I can hear it now, “A tree should look like a tree! A house should look like a house!”. Or the devastating, “What is that?”.

Eventually it shut me down. In 6th grade, I remember I crossed my arms and said, “Art is stupid”. In 7th grade, I recall being forced to go on a field-trip with my class to the Getty (the one in Malibu). I hated it, hated art, and hated being forced to go. I remember, I was in the back of the class and refused to listen to the museum’s docent as she told whimsical tales about the Degas and Cézannes. However, on a far wall, in the same gallery, I noticed a small, framed, print by some strange woman named Joan Miro. I looked long at her painting. It spoke to me in a way I had never experienced. Her visual vocabulary was abstract and emotional, it resonated so deeply inside of me. I was excited. I wrote the artist’s name on my hand so I wouldn’t forget her. From that day forward, my experience with Miro profoundly changed my life. I was suddenly excited about art again and began a journey in educating myself on contemporary art history. Creativity was once again a part of my life. Oh, and I learned that Miro was not she, but he.

For many years I focused primarily on fine art, which led me to an exploration of conceptual and performance art, both of which I am still very involved with.

Okay, to bring this story present, and to the topic of design…we all know the “artists are supposed to starve” concept. In my opinion, I was a conceptual artist but, in reality, I was a waitress. After almost ten years at various jobs I just happened to be a waitress right next door to a brand new startup company called BoxTop. BoxTop designed for this strange thing called the “Internet”. At the time, I’d never even turned on a computer but the customers from BoxTop kept telling me stories about “the Web” and whatever that was, it sounded very exciting.

I talked my way into an interview. They liked me and created a position for me as their first intern. That was my introduction, education and indoctrination to computers, design and “the Web”. After three months at a non-paid position, they offered me a full-time job as a production artist. I worked for BoxTop for three years and rode the initial blips of the dot-com bubble. During that period, BoxTop was acquired by iXL (as part of said bubble) and in that bubble, I worked my way up from production artist to designer to senior designer to art director. Okay?

In the bubble and outside of it, I have worked for high profile companies and equally high profile brands. During the height of the dot-com wave, I helped launch the infamous DEN (Digital Entertainment Network) as their sole Art Director, managing a team of over 35 artists.

Today, I lead the show at the agency, jungle [8] (formerly Interactive Jungle). jungle [8] maintains a top tier client list that includes: Carsey Warner Mandabach, Korbel Champagne, Fox Home Entertainment, Triage Entertainment, Mandalay Entertainment, and Big Idea. Our focus has included entertainment, consumer brands, and non-profit entities.

During my education, at large, I have always held to the “conceptual art” influence. To this day, I dig deeper and deeper and, in as much, have discovered the art of brand identity and usability. Whatever the project or task required, I’ve always looked into the conceptual foundation through which I define the core creative; the seed from which “a project” will grow.

My visual style does not duplicate anyone else, though it’s inspired by everything around me. I am extremely inspired by what other artists do on “La Web”, but also on canvas, video, film – whatever people are doing. I look to world affairs, spirituality, my son, and the human condition for inspiration; I look at everything.

Why jungle [8]?

For me, “Jungle” is everything: organic, chaotic, predictable. It’s the dichotomy of life: Separation, yes, but also everything that is one experience too. Jungle simply “is”.

8 is a magical number, and:

Most importantly:

jungle [8] is all possibilities without lacking – Natural as evolution, itself.

What has been the most rewarding and challenging project you have worked on?

Given what I have said? They all are. I feel a surge of excitement when any new project starts, no matter the scope or budget. Each project brings its own set of challenges and limitations. Given both of those, my job is to push those boundaries as creatively and successfully as I can while I communicate the core message. Really.

My current passion is brand identity and positioning, creative campaign development and usability design. Oh yeah, and I still love graphic design!

From your portfolio, what is your favorite piece? Why?

All projects at jungle [8] are like children. From conception to birth, to them leaving the nest, so to speak, we pour our blood, sweat and tears into each of them equally. For me, the creative process is a labor of love, which is why I guess it never matters if the budget is high-dollar or not. It’s the process, the anticipation of giving birth, that keeps me energized. And just like a parent with many children, we love them all for different reasons and they’re all favorites, for different reasons.

Now granted, some projects have more exciting “gestation periods”. I tend to favor experiences where clients trust us with their brand identity and are willing to take some risk. More often than not, they find they can communicate their brand through more progressive design than they thought. When that happens, it’s an amazing experience all around!

Are you working on any new projects that you can tell us about?

Oh, come on. You know I can’t talk about stuff in development for clients. I assure you, you’ll be the first to know

IJ: That quote is one of many taglines we created to support a particular ad campaign developed when IJ was first born. If you go to the homepage and hit refresh (we’re sure you have nothing better to do) you’ll see the many others, all equally bold, brave and even obnoxious. The tags were in no way a move to keep anyone away but to make a statement about our identity, sense of humor and, in fact, a call to the IJ native within everyone – all are indeed welcome!

What has surprised us most have been the occasions where we’ve had clients we perceived as “conservative” and designed to our idea of that concept only to have them come back and say, “No. This doesn’t look like what you do. Dial it up!” Those situations always make us happy. We’re also happy to go to the opposite end. Loud can be quiet and economical if you’re power of perception is in tune, ours is. The one thing we have learned is design based on ideas or concepts, like the one called: conservative, can lead to inorganic creation. Better to address the values and story of an organization and create from there, not box it in by idea or preconceived labels.

Our solutions do require a level of bold, brave and unprecedented mojo but that’s more in reference to what we ask from ourselves and our process than anything else. Nothing need be mediocre. We insist on challenging ourselves to be bold even in our so-called “conservatism.” Conservative can be bold, it can be brave but at IJ it cannot be mediocre. That boldness you speak of is the level of quality we ask of ourselves as creators.

FL: How important is storytelling to the interactive experience? Are all websites about telling a story?

IJ: Story is everything. Everything tells a story from web site to doorknob if you are willing to see, hear, feel and experience it. IJ is based on that principle. We either discover the story or create it based on a client’s past, values and branding position and then all design is based upon it. This provides an awesome checks and balances in that if we know the story we can measure all things in accordance with it. Does this design tell the story?

It’s one of the core principles IJ was founded on because we found we’d gotten away from it with bigger company mentality and creativity suffered. When creativity suffers, fun suffers and then what’s the point? So yes, story is everything. A rock is just a rock but how did it get here? Has it eroded in this very location? For how many years? Did someone throw it here? Who threw it? Why? What’s their story? A rock is just a rock without a story. Design is just design without a story – we’re not interested in that. Whether literal or abstract everything we do tells a story.

FL: Having started designing websites in the early days of the web, how much of your decision to start Interactive Jungle came from that early experience & business environment that was the web? If you were just getting into the web today (or even a year ago) would you still be driven to start your own firm today?

IJ: IJ was born by Lainie Siegel & Michael Walsh with a distinct intention towards trying to recreate, in our own vision, the culture and passion we experienced when we met at BoxTop, Interactive back in 1996. BoxTop’s creator, Kevin Wall was insistent that the culture be loud, bold and empowering to the individual. It was an exciting time where anyone was free to learn and take on as much as they desired. We were supported to be exactly who we were no matter what the wrapping was: tattooed, pierced, yuppie, transvestite, loud, silly, gay, straight… sky was the limit. The music always blasted and there was a definite sense of community that fostered great passion, commitment and creativity. We wanted that back. We also thought we could create a different environment with clients than some of the larger houses we worked at did. Back then, this was after BoxTop had been swallowed up by a larger house, it was all about the dog and pony show to seal the deal, product was barely a second thought. They’d agree to anything, dogs flying out of your monitor, if it meant they could seal that deal. Needless to say, disappointment and disillusionment were inherent in that mentality. With IJ we wanted to get back to some old aesthetics like passion, quality of life, creativity but create new ones too, i.e., quality of relationships. We also thought we could offer great prices for quality of product without all the bloated overhead. We run IJ as a team, no top – heavy layers upon layers of management. Yuck – been there done it! We all roll up our sleeves and work hard – a definite group moment.

Thing is, if we hadn’t had the experience we had from, say 1995 to now, what we would be working uphill against are all the amazing contacts we’ve amassed. They’ve been invaluable to the success of IJ from potential clients to business alliances to the hugely creative pool of talent we draw from. So yes, we might be as driven but perhaps not as blessed.

FL: Though it seems to almost be required to have a firm which offers the widest possible range of services, which are the core service offerings of Interactive Jungle? What are the elements of the greater whole which seem to attract your clients to you?

IJ: This question delves directly into the philosophy behind the name Interactive Jungle. Interactive represents our desire to play with anyone and everyone. Interaction with clients, employees, each other, artists, natives… it also refers to the wide array of tool-sets we find in the diverse world of: the jungle. The Jungle is a reference to the many mediums we play in: digital, print, video, film, wireless, etc. As we evolve (mind you IJ is a mere 1 year, 7months old) we constantly recognize the need to redefine who we are and what those core services are. We’re currently working on new ad campaigns with a potential tag: Interactive Jungle, an executable firm. To execute, to put completely into effect. We realize there’s a whole 360 thing here and there’s no reason, with our talent pool, to pigeon hole ourselves into one or two services. There’s just too much talent and opportunity. That’s a little tease of things to come, but it refers to our skill set and talent which becomes more and more diverse all the time.

Our core services for the first year were definitely digital, interactive services (aka web sites) as well as some print and a bit of brand & identity. We still find those services in full force, especially brand & identity which we have become very, very good at. Lately we have also expanded to more diverse marketing solutions that help bridge the digital and brick & mortar worlds including wireless, broadcast design, DVD authoring, e-learning and even industrial and commercial production. The latter are some of the newer projects we’ve had with Franklin Covey and Mandalay Entertainment’s E-Media Division and they open up a whole new core competency that makes living in the entertainment industry’s back yard quite enticing for IJ. Very exciting for us! The minute we’re sure we’ve nailed our identity, something happens and we realize we’ve already outgrown it. The equation we’re currently tinkering with is: IJ < Identity + Creativity = Innovation. How’s that for some strange math?

FL: Your firm is full of an eclectic collection of talent. Does Interactive Jungle actively seek out employees who have interesting and diverse backgrounds (both work & personal) or does working at Interactive Jungle just draw that out of people? Does your firm seek it out or simply help draw it out of your employees?

IJ: Both. We’re always looking for someone who blows us away, can teach us something new because that’s what keeps us highly “executable.” The thing that meant so much to us about BoxTop was that it was this huge sandbox in which we could cultivate talents and recreate ourselves without boundaries. Lainie began, actually created, her position as a non-paid intern in 1995 to learn the medium. Previous to BoxTop she waited tables next door. She went from non-paid intern to Sr. Designer and was highly pivotal in establishing the culture at BoxTop. From there she went to being one of the first seven people hired at DEN, as Art Director responsible for all 35 artists. Michael started at BoxTop as Kevin Wall’s assistant. The industry was wide open. You couldn’t pay for the kind of education we got in those early years at BoxTop & DEN. We were encouraged to grow and we’d like to keep that a high priority at IJ. So, we seek out the so-called eclectic & diverse in new talent and draw it out of existing talent as well. This also feeds upon itself just like in the old days – new talent always brings new stuff out of even veteran players, it breeds passion and creative results.

FL: Being in Southern California makes it almost inevitable that you’ll have done sites related to the entertainment industry, but it seems as if your firm has worked on some really exciting projects including “That 70′s Show” and “3rd Rock from the Sun.” Do these types of projects really allow for any more fun & creativity than sites for more traditional businesses?

IJ: Tough question. We see every project as a creative puzzle to solve. And yes, they’re all exciting. With industry clients we never really know what the expectations or limitations are going to be. Hollywood is a very well-oiled wheel. Sometimes it can see outside of its own box sometimes it cannot and sometimes it just comes down to how creative we can be within a given budget. On “3rd Rock” & “That ’70s Show” the fun is coming up with new, interactive functionality that plays with the show’s themes and keeps the fan base engaged. That part is highly creative. In that respect, most traditional business are not looking for games and gadgetry so these sites are a lot of fun and they open the creative spectrum for us. On the other hand, Hollywood is a business and these projects have their share of politics, process and mad turn-around schedules just like any other client. All the same, we’re ready for that one financial organization who’s gonna get it and call for some Flash game or crazy interactive piece for their users to play with – we’re ready, bring it on!

FL: Interactive Jungle offers print as well as web design. What is the balance of your workload between those two mediums? Have you seen any changes or shifts in the type of work that you’ve done in the last year or two?

IJ: Um… well, the web design portion is healthier than ever. That’s just the solid, core service we first came to the table with. We have seen a sizeable shift in our brand & identity business. Truth be told, we did not know how good we were at it. We offered it and as we began to delve into it Lainie really saw a hidden gift for logo design & brand identity come to life. We also realized how powerful and how much fun we had applying the Interactive Jungle approach to this medium. We decided to approach everything from the point of view of story and creativity. In doing so, we put together a process for branding & identity that embodies all of that in a fun but also provocative way. We get all the players points of view out on the table and really dissect and explore them to make sure one isn’t talking about apples and the other oranges. Or if they are, how do we create the apples and oranges brand.

Currently we’ve seen a real shift towards marketing that incorporates many services from print to digital to wireless… we have to stay ahead of that game, its what’s going to take us to yet another level which is something we don’t want to stop.

FL: The monkey seems to be a popular presence on the web. What do you think is the fascination that the web as a whole has with monkeys? What is your firm’s fascination with monkeys?

IJ: Is the web fascinated with monkeys? Hm… not sure we knew that. Well, first of all the monkey fits right into the jungle theme in a literal sense. I think our own obsession with monkeys came when we were creating titles for ourselves. In an effort not to get too into the hierarchy moment we create alias titles for everyone, we still do. The “a.k.a.” titles are on our business cards and range from Code Monkey to Word Ho to Pixel Pimp to Whip Cracker to Sales Dawg. It’s just our sense of humor, our desire to have fun and not take ourselves too seriously. The elephant also plays into this but more on that in a bit.

FL: What was the origins of the name Interactive Jungle? Do the members of your firm get issued machetes when they report for their first day of work?

IJ: Lainie Siegel is responsible for the name. It came to her in what she calls, “a cosmic moment.” Lainie was the Creative Director at her last job before Interactive Jungle, an organization called Spongelab. The name came to her in a flash – she interrupted an extremely important board meeting with big wigs, venture capitalists, the whole nine yards. She got up and asked everyone to stop, hold everything! She ran over to her computer, pulled up Internic or some such outfit to see if the name was registered and… IT WASN’T! She swiftly registered it, ran back and called the meeting to order. Okay, so the whole “power meeting” scenario is pure fantasy, there really isn’t anything outlandish about the name other than it came to Lainie out of the blue – and way before we decided to create this particular business.

Quite simply, she liked the name, snagged it and that was that. At the time, she had no idea it would become what it is today. She even offered the name to partner Michael Walsh to use when he was thinking of creating a writer’s cooperative in Summer 2000. Little did either Michael or Lainie know some six months later their industry would hit the skids big time and they’d end up putting the name to its ultimate use.

As for machetes, no. We do however offer snake byte kits, monkey alias’ and bottomless glasses of jungle juice to induce psychedelic inspiration and passionate vision.

FL: Some firms wouldn’t be caught dead showing anything the least bit outlandish or controversial on their site, but Interactive Jungle lets people send Elephant Poo postcards. What does this say about your firm and how have your clients reacted to it?

IJ: IJ loves both the outlandish and controversial. Again, its our sense of humor at work. We want to create a fun environment, a silly one, a place where ideas are welcome, silliness is encouraged and quality of work and culture are highly revered. Hey, this interview kind of leaves off where it began because the elephant poo thing goes back to that first ad campaign. One of the taglines was: “Watch Where You Step. Elephant Poo!” It was silliness mixed into a myriad of tags meant to get someone’s attention. When we designed our business cards and created the alias titles we also asked each employee to pick a tagline for the back of their card. One of our programmers picked the elephant poo tag and in doing so gave life to elephant poo like he’d never imagined. When it came time for ideas to recreate our site and add an IJ “cultural” area, this was one of the ideas. We all thought it was hysterical. We still do. Send someone poo! It was a funny play on the Andy Warhol Campbell’s Soup moment meets the Emperor’s New Clothes: who’s to say what art is? Frankly, we think the delicacies of this world are perverse enough to allow for a “poo as art,” even a “poo as commodity” fad, why not?

The only real client feedback we got was from an employee at Franklin Covey who thought it was hysterical, called us up laughing himself mad. We are who we are, no apologies and that’s at the core of what the “e-poo cards” are about; the core of what IJ is about. Are we done? I have to poo. Hehehehe…