Austin is the live music capital of the world, or so we claim despite a city sound ordinance that goes into effect at 10:00PM. Our unofficial motto is “Keep Austin Weird”. We have a semi-famous homeless person, Leslie, who has his own Facebook page. Celebrities who call, or have called, Austin home include Sandra Bullock, Lance Armstrong, Andy Roddick, Richard Linklater and Matthew McConaughey, among others. Through little to no effort on our part (and actually because of the lack of effort) we were known as a laid back place where celebrities could live or hang out and not be accosted by overly-enthused, snap-happy fans.

But just like in the Notebook, Ryan Gosling changes everything. This link takes you to a website, the sole purpose of which is to post pictures of Ryan Gosling at Fun Fun Fun Fest, as evidenced by the website name, Ryan Gosling at Fun Fun Fun Fest. This is indeed sad, but I can’t say it’s unexpected. Gawker.com points out that smart phones have promoted everyone to the ranks of paparazzi. And sooner or later all good things must end. Everything has a season and it looks like Austin may be in late summer, with Fall fast approaching. So what do we do?

This photo labeled, “Ryan Gosling’s butt” is a sample of what you’ll see if you go there — although most of them clearly show his face.

I have a suggestion; we do nothing. In fact doing nothing is exactly what we need to do. The next time you see Angelina Jolie at Whole Foods, just walk on by and mind your own business. Sandra Bullock is at Zilker Park with her baby boy — so what? Is that Jake Gyllenhaal at Shady Grove? It doesn’t matter; pretend like you don’t see him. Robert Rodriguez is spoted buying a gallon of milk at HEB; leave the man alone. Jack Black is sitting at a table next to you at Guerro’s…  Okay if I am sitting that close to Jack Black I am totally making a fool of myself.

But for the love of Willie Nelson, Austin, can we please just relax a little and live up to the reputation we put so little effort into?

It’s that time of year again. The time of year when men put their razors away and let the natural facial hair take over their face. Families will be put off at first, wondering why anyone would let such an adorable, baby face sprout such awkward growth. But these brave men are putting vanity aside, this is to change the face of men’s health. It’s Movember, people.

In their 3rd participating, Team Mopack is back and ready to grow the stashiest of moustaches. This year the team includes some veterans like Captain Jefferson Burruss and last year’s Best Costume winner Bill Bayne. But newbies like Tyler Schultz, Stephen Rockwood and Cory McCollum are already talking a big game about what their upper lips are capable of.

While the money Team Mopack is raising goes towards spreading awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men, there are Mo Sistas too. Tiffany Dixon is leading the females and raising money in honor of her grandfather who is rocking a Mo to be admired in her profile picture.

I’ll be updating you all month – who has a full stash after week one, who was spotted using Propecia on their face and whose wives are making them sleep on the couch. It’s going to be a fun month.

Ladies & Gentlemen, meet the MOPACK.

If you’d like to donate to Team Mopack, you can donate here: http://us.movember.com/mospace/219405/

Thanks for your support!

**Note: Prefontaine is not actually a member of Team Mopack, but he is an inspiration.

The traditional preface to any discussion about FunFunFunFest is to remark upon the saturated music festival market here in Austin and question the need for another outdoor, multi-day, indie music love-in. However, if SXSW is the world-dominating industry-driven behemoth of Austin festivals and ACL the family-friendly big-name-attracting mainstream darling, FunFunFun gives us wannabe (and legit) hipsters 3 days packed full of underground treats, all in one manageable lake-side location. Running the gamut from crushing metal noise, through reggae-dancehall influenced dub-electro and indie local-boys-done-good, we end up at a middle-eastern wedding troubadour and a sure to be unforgettable weekend.

So to help make sense of the seemingly endless choice this weekend, here are a few acts we suggest looking out for. Starting with a little bit of something you may already know and ending with a couple of picks that, perhaps, you don’t.

Four Tet

If you were asked to pick an electronic musician working today who could lay claim to being both one of the top producers and top DJs in the world – at the same time – you could do a lot worse than to look to Four Tet. London-born and recently NYC-based ex-Fridge member Kieran Hebden has been recording and DJing under the Four Tet pseudonym since the late 90′s when he kicked off the “folktronica” movement that has recently brought huge success to such names as Bibio and Caribou. Spanning nearly every urban-centric genre you can think of, Four Tet has gained a devout following that straddles scenes as diverse as underground hip-hop, dubstep, techno and post-rock. If you’re new to the Four Tet party, don’t race to try and identify all the influences in his tracks – there are just too many to mention. Instead, congratulate yourself on happening upon one of the most exciting electronic musicians working on redefining independent music today.

Get ready for wobbly bass-lines and jazzy breakbeats over on the Blue Stage at 7:30PM on Friday.

M83

Starting out a decade ago as a duo with an ambitious, soaring self-titled debut, M83 has since streamlined into the moniker of French button-twiddler extraordinaire Anthony Gonzalez. Taking a heavily shoegaze-influenced electronic sound and refining it into the soundtrack for the best 80′s teen movie you’ve never seen, M83 have succeeded in ramping up their mass appeal throughout the 00′s culminating in this summer’s epic “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming”. First single “Midnight City” fuses dreamy synths with a more vocal-driven sound and couples this to one of the creepiest/best-produced music videos of recent times.

See you at 5:30PM on Saturday on the Orange Stage for some quality eyes-closed swaying and head nodding.

We Were Promised Jetpacks

You would think that there may only be room for one thickly-accented Scottish acoustic indie rock band to breakthrough in the late 00′s, but alongside label-mates Frightened Rabbit, We Were Promised Jetpacks are representing the Edinburgh-Glasgow corridor admirably. Proving that there is no substitute for an almighty injection of raw emotion into a catchy, guitar-centric LP, We Were Promised Jetpacks have been successfully plying their heart-on-sleeve trade across the world, not just in support of a number of big-ticket acts but also well within their own right. Simultaneously wrenchingly emotional and pop-idol catchy, We Were Promised Jetpacks will have you in full anthemic singalong mode before the end of their set.

Bring any and all memories of lost loves and broken relationships to the Orange stage on Sunday at 2:30PM for some much-needed catharsis.

If the above 3 daily picks aren’t enough to get you started, may I interest you in teddy-boy San Franciscan revivalists Girls and their timeless mix of surf-guitar riffs and sneering, harmony-backed vocals? Or how about some dueling boy/girl vocals from veteran synth pioneers Mates of State? Then there is always Anticon Records’ own Baths - a warm, electronic mix of Toro Y Moi style chillwave backed by cut-up and crunchy Flying Lotus inspired hip-hop beats.

All the musical shenanigans getting a bit much for you? Then pull up the nearest camp-chair and enjoy some fine spoken word from ex-Black Flag legend Henry Rollins or some video-based comedic mockery from the Alamo Drafthouse’s own Master Pancake. And none of this even touches on the numerous free FFF Nites after-parties going on every night of the festival at your favorite Red River locations. Wanting even more? What are you, a monster?

Sometimes, tweets are much more than just 140-character messages. Yesterday Twitter launched Twitter Stories – an interesting new site that explores the ways Twitter has affected people’s lives in the most unordinary and surprising ways.

On stories.twitter.com, Twitter lets people tell their personal anecdotes that range from inspiring to heartfelt to laugh-out-loud funny.

For instance, Chris Strouth told the story of how Twitter helped him secure a new kidney. He suffered from kidney disease for three years before tweeting, “Sh*t, I need a kidney.” In just a few days, he said 19 people replied and offered to investigate whether or not they were a match. One person was an acquaintance named Scott Pakudaitis, who turned out to be a match, and donated his kidney to Strouth. (Take a minute to think about how social collaboration and crowd-sourcing could assist public health systems, at least in parts.)

The idea is quite similar to Facebook Stories and to some extent Google Search Stories. According to Twitter, the idea is to remind “us of the humanity behind Tweets that make the world smaller.” Twitter is inviting people to share their stories by mentioning @twitterstories or using the hashtag #twitterstories and including a link or photo that explains their story. Each month the Stories page will refresh with new ones.

So, with the launch of a site completely dedicated to human interest stories that revolve around the real-world impact that a single tweet can have, it reminds us that technology is best served when it connects us to each other. This is why technology exists. When the product engineer or designer asks the question of, “How will this technology make peoples’ lives better?” –  we all win in the long-run.

Most of us have heard about the typical Facebook brand page blunders and the Twitter PR nightmares that some companies experience. Twitter Stories is a refreshing archive of the more uplifting and positive stories in social networking.

For brands, the ones at the forefront of the social movement will find new ways to leverage the success stories that their products and services have on customer outcomes. They’re creating ways to build their own brand stories around the positive sentiment that can be measured and tracked across the social web. If those human-enablement conversations are out there, any brand would be foolish not to tap into them and create an inspiring context for conversation.

As a new GSD&M employee, the best piece of advice I’ve received at the agency has been to, “Have fun and treat each other well.”  This is what Twitter Stories is about. Having fun, playing nice and finding out how we can help each other out.

Have you ever used social media to do something unexpected? Have you sent a simple tweet that made a big impact? Share your surprising social story in the comments below.

Had this post been published a few weeks later, you would be forgiven for thinking that the title alludes to the ancient ritual of dinner-table poultry preparation that is so central to the Thanksgiving holidays. And had it been published a few weeks later still, the implication would be that you should prepare to learn how to cut the most elegant of swathes across the perfect ski mountain of your choosing. But because I’m writing this on All Hallows’ Eve, there can only be one type of carving on our minds, and that is the annual, nationwide amateur design contest that is the Great American Pumpkin Carve.

Being relatively new to this game and hailing from a place where the enthusiasm for Halloween hovers only slightly above the nation’s appetite for commemorating a revolutionary war that went the wrong way, I’ve taken to the pumpkin carving ritual with no small amount of enthusiasm. From the first truck-bed full of uprooted gourds that are unceremoniously dropped off at the local grocery store, to the act of picking out a suitable vegetable from the roadside stands that entrepreneurially spring up in the last week of October, the questions of shape, color, design and illumination-strategy inevitably weigh heavy on the mind.

For me, the design is the most important part, followed very closely by the level of perfection that can be achieved within the parameters of said design. Should the pumpkin be traditionally disfigured to create a fearsome, snarling warden of your property lines? Perhaps your design should choose to provide solace from the ghouls, zombies and bloodbaths that adorn the rest of the neighborhood with a cute, possibly animalistic take on the art- a cat perhaps? Or maybe you favor a more knowing, ironic take on the tradition. For you, a toothsome face and searing gaze are all just too passé; an internet meme, well-kerned piece of type or post-modern take on meta-pumpkin-carving is more in order.

Ultimately, no one can say which of these approaches most embodies the spirit of the occasion, but your design will undoubtedly give away a certain something about the inner workings of your mind.

After settling on your chosen pattern, performing innumerable Google Image Searches for inspiration and laying out a finely tiled pattern of newspaper on your living room floor, the Sharpie-sketching begins and ends, the knives come out and suddenly you’ve lost hours of your life, huddled cross-legged on the floor realizing your artistic vision in all its seedy, goopy glory. At this point, you have a workable, convincing jack-o-lantern, but here is where more telling personality traits are revealed. Some of you choose to break out the tea-lights, light a match and call it a day and while there’s nothing wrong with that, if you happen to cohabit with someone of the obsessive, detail-focused persuasion (let’s say a designer, for instance), you would be foolish to think that your night would end there…

The “feature complete” lantern is merely a starting point in an overall project of vege-art perfection. Facial features need to be proposed, evaluated and possibly, finally implemented, followed by the minute adjustments and the whittling of sharpened edges. All the while, the eagle eye of the carver looking for minute internal improvements and slight reductions in tolerances with the zeal of the finest of industrial designers. By this hour, you will probably be able to tell if you’re in the middle of a fun, family exercise or the unlucky participant in a prolonged session of prototyping and design exploration. In the event of the latter, my advice would be to retire, alone, to bed.

At our house, last year’s addition to our small, two-person household (dubbed Howard) was well received by a generally Halloween-apathetic audience in his native Germany. This year, with a relocation to the States and the addition of an overweight black cat to our expanding family, we welcome in tribute an as-yet untitled “scary cat” to our neighborhood. The fate of our creation, hewn from the unique combination of soil, man and knife-blade rests on the doorstep, ready to be judged by the harshest (or probably more realistically, the most ambivalent) of audiences: exhausted parents and hyperactive candy-obsessed 10-year-olds.

Happy Halloween!

There are a lot of social media infographics out there.  Here’s one that seems to pop up in just about every presentation and webinar on the planet.

While I love the way this infographic looks, here’s the underlying problem with it.  It’s brand-centric.  Not only is the brand at the center, but it suggests that the brand needs to find a way to be in all of the social media channels that are out there.

It’s enough to give a client heart palpitations.

The real question is: “What does the world look like if we put the consumer at the center of the social media universe?”  To get to that answer, let’s take a quick trip down memory lane.

In the traditional era, you had word of mouth and you had traditional media outlets.  Word of mouth was powerful, but with enough media weight, those traditional channels could wield a lot of influence.  You might ask your neighbor what kind of peanut butter she bought, but chances are you saw a dozen ads that told you, “Choosy moms choose JIF.”

Fast forward to the 1990s.  With just about everyone getting their own personal computer, digital media enters the scene.  Just as filing cabinets and manila folders transformed into digital folders in Windows 95 , so print ads evolved to become digital banners on magazine websites.  The direct mail envelopes stuffing people’s mailboxes became e-mail blasts cluttering their inboxes.  It’s a natural progression, but at the end of the day it’s a lot of analog concepts with nothing more than digital icons.

At the turn of the century, magic happens.  All the content on all those websites becomes searchable.  Consumers go from being passive to active, surfing the web (how did such a confusing, mixed metaphor come into existence?) and searching for answers.  Sure, people still ask each other questions, but more often than not they Ask Jeeves or go to Ask.com or pay a visit to AltaVista, until eventually Google becomes a verb.  For a few years, people are in awe of the answers provided by sophisticated algorithms.

Then along comes Napster.  Followed by Friendster.  Followed by MySpace.  Followed by Facebook.   And so many others.  Peer- to-peer networks that put consumers back at the center of the conversation.  With so many opinions and reviews and ideas created by and shared between people – who has time anymore to listen to another hum drum ad trying to sell you something?  Why trust an algorithm when you can trust your friends?

This is what the social media revolution looks like from the consumers’ perspective.  It’s a white picket fence made up of conversations and word of mouth, with a sign that says, “Friends only.  Brands stay away. (Unless of course you have something that can make me look cooler or smarter in front of my friends.)”

So if you want to be a brand that’s successful in social media, start with these infographics, with consumers at the center of the universe.

Sketching things out sometimes is the clearest way to think. Here are some visuals about life, liberty and the pursuit of advertising.

You know what tastes good? Donuts. You know what tastes better? Donuts served out of a truck. And I’m pretty sure this theory applies to most other foods as well.

Well, at least that’s how I feel after this past weekend’s Gypsy Picnic. Over 30 local food trucks gathered on Auditorium Shores to sling food out of air stream trailers to the people of Austin — everything from pork belly tacos to cake balls to craft beer.

This year, they spread things out over a much larger area which created less waiting in lines and more stuffing your face. There was also live music from bands like The Alabama Shakes and Delta Spirit. With all of the food trucks gathered in one place, foodies were able to sample some of the many great food trucks of the city.

The highlight for me would have to be Gourdough’s Son of a Peach Donut: A perfectly baked donut covered in peach glaze, cream cheese frosting, cinnamon, sugar and topped with sprinkles of cake mix. I had tried Gourdough’s before, but a donut like this is worthy of a festival unto itself.

I also got to check out Banarchy, which was a big moment for the Arrested Development fan in me. This is like a 90210 fan getting to see The Peach Pit in person.

There’s always money in the banana stand…and food trucks for that matter. I’m just thankful we have at least one day a year to celebrate them.

A guest post by Colin Gray.

It started, as many good things do, with a complaint. Why does a full service creative shop not have one single Nintendo Wii?

To put it another way, when you go to the zoo, you want to see animals. GSD&M at times felt less like a zoo and more like an office.

We did get a Wii. It languished sad and lonely in a drawer in a meeting room where it could never be used.

So I started chatting with Rob McDonald and making a plan to secure a proper rec room where people could relax, goof around, and recharge their batteries without worrying about someone coming in to make a conference call.

The IT department was gracious enough to relocate equipment, freeing up a brilliant little space nestled between a copy room and a kitchen.

Under the auspices of Victor Camozzi and Brian Edwards, a crack team of designers including Morgan Delk, Stephen Rockwood, Maria D’Amato, and Joel Parr gathered to transform a computer room into a rustic, relaxed Texas-style bar. Kind thanks as well to Sean Hayden, Jennifer Smith and Alex Roka for their help.

And the Lost Pecan Lounge was born.

If you know me at all, this title is jarring and hypocritical of what I’ve spent the last few years preaching to the agency and our clients. “It’s not enough to have a site that works on your PC. It’s not even enough to have a site that is built in HTML that will render decently on your mobile device. You have to build a mobile specific site to create a good user experience…” If I died yesterday, you could have put that on my grave. A live declaration, via QR code.

But today, I’m singing a different tune. Responsive web design, baby. Designing for flexibility, in other words. Building something that will render perfectly regardless of size and space or device. Is it possible? Definitely. Are people doing it? Yes. In fact, our most recent site work, featuring the 40 best things we’ve ever done as an agency was designed and built responsively. Check it out. Here. On your desktop, on your phone, on your tablet. It will look great, regardless!

And here is a great article by Ethan Marcotte, from May 2010 (GASP!) that talks about how and why we need to press on and embrace the transience of the web. To start you with a quote…

“The control which designers know in the print medium, and often desire in the web medium, is simply a function of the limitation of the printed page. We should embrace the fact that the web doesn’t have the same constraints, and design for this flexibility. But first, we must “accept the ebb and flow of things.” John Allsopp, “A Dao of Web Design”