Global Gumbo
Global Gumbo was an edutainment concept for a musical children’s program pitched to PBS Kids by musician and healer Amikayla Gaston. The episodic format centered around musician Mama Ami and the Wisdom Tree as central characters. Accompanied by a curious crew of kids and animals, the unique cast of characters learned fun facts about new cultures from around the world.
Global Gumbo engaged Nicknox Communications to lead identification of illustration and animation resources. In this capacity, Nicknox guided a selection process that involved guiding the creative development process that brought characters and secondary elements from concept to life as envisioned by three potential artists. Subsequently, Nicknox also helped develop program briefs, positioning and summaries to support the pitch process with PBS Kids.
SECTORS
Media, Entertainment
Early Childhood Education
Performing Arts, Design
PRIMARY LEADERS
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Amikaeyla Gaston, Founder
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Susan Callender
ENGAGEMENT
Fractional CMO, 6 Months
AREAS OF FOCUS
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Concept Ideation
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Illustrator / Animator Selection
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Development of Detailed Creative Briefs
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Guidance of Creative Development Process
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Pitch Development
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
BRAND
Vision casting and storytelling in support of a proposed PBS children's series that outline themes, characters, series structure and creative elements.
WEB PRESENCE
Creative direction of a decentralized, international team of artists to inform character and environment development and move concepts from ideas to finished artwork.
PORTFOLIO
Nuanced message strategy and design of a pitch deck to present overall show creative concepts in compelling and memorable ways that resonated with a broad audience.
SCOPE & WORK
Artist Vetting & Selection
Artist and performer Amikaeyla Gaston envisioned the cast, characters and format for a children's series called Global Gumbo. To cast the vision for the program for PBS Kids, they engaged Nicknox as a partner. In this capacity, Nicknox identified, vetted and selected three illustrators to take key elements of the show from concept to creative.
Creative Development
Nicknox guided a comprehensive creative development process involving three talented illustrators from around the world. In partnership with an animation management representative, the intention was to engage artists that would bring the vision of Global Gumbo to life in unique and distinctively different styles for audience testing.
Imaginative Creative Input
Developing thoughtful and comprehensive creative input that cast an imaginative and vibrant vision was essential to helping artists visualize concepts. Global Gumbo embodied a diverse and unique array of characters including adults, children and inanimate objects brought to life to become central storytelling elements.
KEEP BROWSING
More in Education
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HealthNet, TTUHSC
Other Sectors
Development of Secondary Elements
Within the world of Global Gumbo, environments and secondary elements become significant characters within the story. Some, like the Wisdom Tree, were designed to be recurring touch points. Others changed with each episode to represent culturally unique locations and communities. An important facet of the process was evaluating each artist's ability to creatively envision a broad range of environments and elements in dynamic ways that set the stage for the series.