“Juicebox in the words of” is a series that highlights JB community members in interview form. Learn about members’ roles at JB and what makes them tick.
If Banny had a cool mom who went on wild adventures with him across the country, it would be Sage. The resident artist who created the iconic Banny, along with a whole cornucopia of descendant-Bannies, Sage’s role at JB goes way beyond branding. You can find her artistic fingerprints in the UI, in real-world designs and marketing materials, and in amazing infographs designed to streamline difficult concepts in a fun and digestible way. Read on to learn a bit about what Sage is up to nowadays and her journey to JB!
Hi Sage! What’re you up to right now?
I just ate a frozen burrito. My boyfriend’s sister owned a little sundry shop which just went outta business so they had groceries for free! Yesterday we went and got like 700 bucks worth of bougie groceries. I have a big thing for frozen burritos.
Haha. I’m reminded of the story of the plumber in France. People are standing at the cathedral admiring the art and architecture, and the plumber just wants to go into the catacombs to see how they laid and routed their pipes. You can have anything, and yet the frozen burrito seems to be the winner!
In addition to everything else! I also like frozen chicken nuggets, which I’m actually eating right now. Usually I eat pretty healthy but… when you have the option to eat gourmet chicken nuggets—
Walk me through “gourmet” chicken nuggets!
Well they’re “organic” so yeah, whatever that means. I would never buy frozen chicken nuggets, but they were there so I figured I may as well grab them. The bougiest thing I got was, hmm… I got a free thing of 15 dollar fig pomegranate jam.
You know, I was once gifted a 40 dollar peanut butter jar.
Holy shit.
Actually by a JB contributor— do you want to guess who?
Hmm, filipv?
Filipv, yes!
He buys 40 dollar jars of peanut butter?
He claims he got it as a gift… I feel kinda guilty opening it truth be told…
In what world could a bottle of PB be worth 40 dollars?
Haha. I looked up the brand, it was a nice hipstery kind of homepage, lots of flowery language, but when I delved in I saw the process was exactly the same. I mean it’s just mashing peanuts.
Maybe they mash them with their feet…
Haha, that would be hilarious. How’s it going work-wise? I know you’re working on a lot of designs at the moment.
It’s been really fun, right now working on the Peri’s Pringlecream ice cream Banny, and doing more fun little drawings for the Morgenstern collaboration.
That’s awesome. How’d you get started with JB, anyway?
I started back when jango and peri were planning on calling it fountain. It was a similar analogy to JB— a fountain creates overflow. So I was doing a lot of drawings of fountains at first, not full time but juat when I had a chance. Then they decided to change the name to “JuiceBox” and then it started to get really fun. We were spit balling about how web3 is kind of outlawish and definitely not mainstream, so we started thinking about juice, fruit, and little punk fruit, and that turned into Banny being a weird little coding BDSM banana.
I always wondered about the chokers…
Yeah! I guess he’s also more punk in the 90s punk sense with studded everything.
Fascinating. If you met Banny IRL, would you guys get along?
I think most people would get along with him, except for the squares in the world. He seems pretty chill.
So the punk thing is not confrontational?
No he’s just living his authentic life.
What’s a day in the life of Banny, in an authentic life?
He probably parties, gets a lot of work done, does some crazy shit— just literally anything he wants to do. He dresses weird. He may not even be a he, he could be a she, an anything, it’s really just a banana.
He sounds like a fun banana to hang with. What’s something people may be surprised to learn about you?
Hmm. I was a ballet dancer for 18 years, I did a lot of ballet and pointe work— that was fun. I’m really bad at like listening/remembering dance moves and routines/sequences, so I wasn’t ever super competitive but I enjoyed it a lot. I also do like to listen to music really loud and dance in my house.
What kind of music are you into?
I basically solely listen to country music.
Favorite artist?
So many! If I had to pick a top three, hmm… Waylon Jennings, Garth Brook, Sturgill Simpson.
Awesome. What’s something you’re looking forward to?
Oh man, well one huge thing is that we’re working on the Bannyverse and that everyone at Wagmi is killing it! Burtula is making super sick backgrounds and animations. You’re writing amazing backstories for all the bannies! Tank and Natasha are building and making the site awesome! And Mieos is doing a killer job directing everything! I can’t wait to launch the site and for everyone to meet and make all the hilarious bannies we’ve got in store!
Another thing on a IRL level, maybe when gas prices go down, is that my boyfriend and I are planning to take our van out to do a tour and go see some friends in Utah and Idaho and Oregon, and do a dirtbiking trip. It’ll probably go for like a month, but we have some work to do on the van first. The best thing about working for JB is that I can do these things because I work remotely.