Meet Professor Jamz and the Spin Machine, a new brand that kitestring has created for another great client! Professor Jamz and the Spin Machine provides dance-a-thons that take FUNraising to a new, healthy and groovy level by combining the super scientific study of moveology, funistry and dancematics. 
Who is Professor Jamz? Professor Jamz has a PhD in Keeping It Real. The Professor leads the dance-a-thon with lively enthusiasm while demonstrating to kids that they can have fun while learning new dance moves. Professor Jamz is pretty whimsical and comical, kind of like a scientific clown who gets really excited about rhythm and beats! Professor Jamz knows that moving to the music and having fun is what powers the Spin Machine, and that this is the goal of the dance-a-thon! Professor Jamz is renowned throughout the super-scientific world for the intelligent invention of The Spin Machine, which is powered by the ultimate discovery of the FUNraising equation.
What is the Spin Machine? The Spin Machine is powered by FUN! Professor Jamz brings the Spin Machine to every dance-a-thon where the student’s dancing and overall fun “raise the roof” to power the Spin Machine. The Spin Machine’s antennas, buttons, springs, lights, gears, and dials measures the achievement of movements Professor Jamz demonstrates, participation levels and amounts of super-fun had by all! The science behind the Spin Machine combines the study of moveology, funistry and danceamatics. The logic behind the way the Spin Machine turns a school’s gravitational dance-a-thon into far out fuel can be explained with this easy-peasy equation:
Visual identity Architecture: The style of the Professor Jamz and the Spin Machine visual identity was created to appear zany, whimsical, comical, scientific and action-packed. The visual identity was created with the underlying idea that the logo could almost “be” the Spin Machine, as if it were something like a transformer. You can see that the visual identity houses all the levers, gears, buttons and gauges that the Spin Machine has, just in a different arrangement.
The name of the brand, Professor Jamz and the Spin Machine, came from hours of character generation but began with a creative meeting where the word “Spin” was front and centre on the team’s radar because it referenced dancing and the act of DJ-ing.
However, we wanted the brand’s name to be an introduction into a universe of personality and activity that the target audiences (Children, Teachers, Parents) could tour while getting lost in the fun and come out surprised at how much they learned. Then after a few days of more trend research amongst the first target audience, concentrating especially on the elusive aged 7 to 12 age group, we knew that the brand needed to have a tailored, appealing story.
The brand name is a balancing act between education and ultimate dance floor fun. “Professor Jamz” was our idea of a hilarious DJ name that brought academics (Professor) and fun through dance (Jamz) together. “Spin Machine” is also constructed in the same way, using “Spin” as the fun word referencing dancing or wacky movement and “Machine” connoting mechanical sciences.
At first glance, the name is an introduction to those two concepts in a marriage: Education and Dancing. But once within the brand, the other components (health, community, professionalism, learning) come out and really impress the adult target audience. For kids, they are originally attracted to the wacky words that make the brand name a jumble of fun to say, but are then rewarded within the brand experience with more communications that offer a spoonful of sugar to help the FUNraising go down.
