Jesse Stagg

eden membership card 1990

Jesse Stagg (born New York 1970) is a trafficker in pop culture with a background in advertising, design, guerilla marketing.

Born in New York, educated in London and Cape Town, 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 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, followed by a second club "Uforia". UFO's numerous events and venues helped lay the foundation for the emerging South African Electronica scene, and the indigenous forms of Techno known as Kwaito 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 (1990), the first rave in Africa, and ending with Leonardo DiCaprio's millennium party in 2000.

He returned to the design business in 1994 as a senior art-director at Hanna-Barbera and Cartoon Network studios overseeing the launches of Dexter's Lab, Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, Powerpuff Girls and others of the Emmy winning World Premiere Toons on Cartoon Network.

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/LA, KCBS-FM, and LIVE105.

In 1999 Stagg's cartoon The 7th Portal was produced by Stan Lee, high profile editor of Marvel Comics. On its release in 2000, it broke records for an online series, coining the phrase "webisode". 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, Artemio Rodriguez, Salomón Huerta, and Kenny Scharf.

in 2006 Stagg was US consultant on Banksy's critically acclaimed Barely Legal 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.

External links

• ucla D|MA
• no easy rave to freedom
• African Electronica
• Iraq war billboard protest
• Cartoon Network campaign
• Banksy

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Name	Stagg, Jesse
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Date of birth	1970
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