Last night, the founders of GSD&M were honored at the 21st Annual Harvey Penick Award Dinner. Caritas of Austin presents the award each year for “excellence in the game of life.” Past recipients of the award include Bob Bullock, Edith and Darrell Royal, Susan and Michael Dell, Sally and Mack Brown and Lady Bird Johnson.

Steve Gurasich, Roy Spence, Judy Trabulsi and Tim McClure started our agency 41 years ago with the intent of staying together, staying in Austin and making a difference. And what a difference 41 years make. Since their early days, the founders have spent countless hours working on behalf of great causes: People’s Community Clinic, HAAM, Meals on Wheels, Komen Race for the Cure, Texas Mamma Jamma, St. Jude’s Children Hospital and many, many more.

As many people made mention of, community is so important to our agency, it is literally etched in stone on the floor. It’s a part of the foundation of the agency. Last night we heard from Evan Smith, Liz Stewart, Neil Spelce, along with a video featuring Mack Brown, Colleen Barrett and our legendary third employee ever Bonnie Hunter.

Mack Brown said the following about the work the agency has done, “Austin is better because of what you did for this city.”

Neil Spelce talked about what it meant to start a nationally recognized agency in the humble city of Austin. As a fairly new resident here, it’s hard to imagine this place not as the start-up laden, creative class, live music, covered in BBQ culture that it is today. But as Neal discussed, the founders took a huge risk choosing Austin as their headquarters and as a result, ended up making a name for Austin in the national advertising scene.

And so it became their collective goal to spend their lives giving back to the city that shaped them. There’s no telling what our city would be like had they decided to go elsewhere. I’m glad we don’t have to wonder.

Here’s to our community and 41 years of GSD&M.

Tim, Steve, Roy & Judy, October 23, 2012.

The latest in our agency segment – “Getting to Know Ya.” Go poolside to meet our CEO Duff Stewart.

Credits:
David Hughes – Interviewer
Colin Gray – Writer
Landon Peterson – Editor

On Monday we told you where to park, what to drink/eat and how to survive, but now there are more pro tips from our resident music buffs on who to see.

We’ve got Bill Bayne (Creative Director and member of The Cold Irons), Reagan Ward (Copywriter), Elizabeth Thompson (UX Strategy Director) and myself to give you some insight.

(Photo courtesy of Dave Rockwood)

BAYNE:

Before you ask me who you should see at ACL 2012, I thought I’d ask you some questions first:

Do you like Telecasters? Kenny Vaughn Trio

Do you like banjos? The Avett Brothers

Do you like sad tales of old Alabam’? Patterson Hood

Do you like drums? The Roots

Do you like ukeleles? LP

Do you like hackey sacks? Umphrey’s Mcgee

Do you like mandolins? Punch Brothers

Do you like power trios? The Whigs

Do you like songs? Steve Earle

WARD:

Two Door Cinema Club is fronted by an adorable ginge, so if you need more convincing than that, I don’t even know what to tell you. They’re also a super fun show with lots of energy. Childish Gambino hustles and if you ever want to see a mid-twenties white girl rap an entire song, I can do that to you to “Freaks and Geeks.” If you want to catch someone who is about to EXPLODE, Gary Clark Jr. has been around the Austin scene for a long time, but has been recently noticed by ?uestlove, so it won’t be long before he’s all over the place. Also, if we’re throwing back to my SXSW blog post, Father John Misty is returning. I’d watch him play any time.

THOMPSON:

Ben Howard was a SXSW darling and I can’t wait to see him again-he’s an amazing lyricist and has a soulful voice that’s being compared to Damien Rice and David Grey. I think he’s better than both, which is high praise coming from me.

The Eastern Sea is an ambitious choice as the early slot on Sunday but every time they come across the ACL 2012 Spotify lists, I stop to see who it is and note that I have to see them.

Florence has had my number for a long time and I’ve never seen her so she’s pretty high on my list.

HAZAN:

Don’t miss all of these guys, along with my newest interest – Alt-J. They are so good even Mumford & Sons covers them. Check ‘em out here:

Who’d we forget? Comment below and have fun at the festival.

October in Austin doesn’t mean fall like the other cities. Sure school is back in session, football season is under way, but the rest of the city remains in summer mode. The weather forecast is 80 and sunny this week and we’re all gearing up for a music festival. Festivals like Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Coachella, Made in America and more took over cities and we patiently waited for our turn in Austin.

And it’s finally here! Back in May, I told you my favorite non-headliner bands I’m looking forward to seeing, but now I got more GSD&Mers to weigh in. And it’s not just music they’re talking about – they are sharing advice about how to prepare yourself for Austin City Limits Music Festival on October 12-14.

Instagrams courtesy of @gsdmaustin and @aclfestival

Part I’s resident Pro’s are Melanie Mahaffey (Director of Communications), David Rockwood (VP, Community), Michael Griffith (Art Director), Reagan Ward (Copywriter), Elizabeth Thompson (UX Strategy Director) and myself.

Park

Griff: Park downtown and walk. There is also a bus line and taxis, although I wouldn’t suggest it. Did you ever see Office Space?

David: Ride a bike or carpool with friends.

Reagan: Don’t.

Melanie: Hire a pedicab or car service to drop you off on Barton Springs. And on the way, pop by the Jarritos Flavor Festival to grab a much-needed Paloma cocktail.

Adele: Shop around downtown at the ACL Festival Satellite Shop at the On-airstreaming studios on Guadalupe and then hop on a shuttle bus at Republic Square.

Nourish

David: Fill up on Chili parmesan chips from Tim Love’s Love Shack, a chicken cone (add avocado) from Mighty Cone and finish off with a fresh squeezed strawberry lemonade from Best Lemonade.

Elizabeth: Go with things that will absorb the beer. Stubb’s chopped barbecue and P.Terry’s Veggie or real burger are my go-to’s.

Melanie: Tacos, vegan tamales, truffle pomme frites – the festival has it all. Start from the far left and make your way right to experience as much local food as possible. And it will help with the booze consumption as well.

Griff: You don’t want to be that person that has to get pulled from the crowd, have your half-conscious body dragged to the medical center, while people stare and possibly post your photo on their Facebook page, only to re-surface a couple year later, do you? Plain and simple, drink water.

Find your friends

Adele: As is the case with any festival, cell phone service is a problem (even with your iPhone 5). Go to your setttings > messages > and turn off iMessage to conserve battery life and allow your message to be delivered on iPhones. And when in doubt, meet at the ART sign.

Elizabeth: Many festival-goers carry flags to help stand out in the crowd. The easiest way to carry a flag and make an impact is to put it on a collapsible fishing pole. Couldn’t be easier for front-and-center and on-the-move festival types.

Reagan: Whatever flag you choose to make, be sure it’s an inside joke so you spend your entire festival explaining it to everyone. (I don’t make flags).

Aftershows

Griff: They’re around. Keep your ear to the blogs and ask other concert goers. Personally I’m pretty faded by the time the concert ends. So my after party is with a pillow.

Adele: If you’re really not ready to go home, there’s a Silent Disco on the east side which is pretty fun and of course, a full array of C3 shows around town: http://www.c3concerts.com/latenight/. Father John Misty and Dry the River at The Parish would be my top choice.

What else do you want to know? We’ll be sharing more Pro Tips leading up to Friday’s big day.

If you know a professional musician in Austin, Texas you know someone who has been affected by HAAM. The Health Alliance for Austin Musicians is a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide access to affordable health care for uninsured working musicians. HAAM is also one of GSD&M’s favorite pro-bono clients. Each year for HAAM benefit day we design posters, logos and banners. This year, we were asked to help HAAM improve their website.

The new HAAM website had to be appealing to the musicians who were seeking assistance, as well as potential donors. It need to be cool, but also simple to navigate. It would house tons of information on the organization, upcoming events, volunteer opportunities, and the HAAM blog. At the same time it had to be a repository of medical practitioners who worked with HAAM musicians, and those musicians needed an easy to navigate interface to find care. In addition to all of that we had to keep in mind that donations run the program and ensure that the donate section of the website was always prominent.

Collaboration was key for this project. The creative team consisted of Eduard Matamoros, Justin Miller, Ben Hodgin, Dylan Reese, Jefferson Burruss, our developer Rob Pennington, and myself. Because we worked as a team, there was a sense of community ownership of the project which allowed us to be more nibble and adjust any element that needed to be adjusted. This collaboration and attention to detail was evident when we presented to our fabulous client Carolyn, and we sold through our work with minimal feedback. The site went live last week, and in the same spirit of collaboration that was present for the rest of the project we are still working with Rob to improve the live experience.

If you didn’t catch any of the tons of shows yesterday or have a chance to donate to this great cause, be sure to check out the site to learn more: www.myhaam.org.

(image via NYT/Blog)

Remember MapQuest? Remember how useless it was? How it was decidedly user unfriendly? Remember how it was the butt of map jokes, if there were map jokes? Well this is MapQuest’s lucky day because they are no longer the suckiest map maker out there. It’s now Apple.

A few months ago when Apple announced they’d be ditching Google Maps for their own homegrown service I remember reading a Google response that went something like, “Good luck with that.” See, Google had been making its map application for years before it showed up on phones so by the time it landed in our hands many of the kinks had been worked out. Plus, it grew up in a time where the competition was MapQuest so expectations were pretty low. Poor Apple had a pretty impossible task ahead of it to start with but damn, this thing they’ve foisted on their consumers is pathetic.

So what has Google done? They’ve moved on. Maps are so 2010. Life is now about location, location, location. Google has released Field Trip, a new app (Android only for now and something tells me Apple will find a way to keep it that way) that lets you know when you’re near something interesting. Say you’re walking down W 72nd St. in Manhattan. Field Trip, like a modern day Clippy, jumps up and says, “Hey, you’re standing right where John Lennon got shot!” Neat. Soon it will also say, “And by the way, Zabar’s is around the corner having a sale on knishes.”

Field Trip is a map with a brain and fun one at that. More on Field Trip here.

@dwlz: A man using Apple Maps walks into a bar…or maybe a hotel. Or possibly a church.

There’s this thing called FOMO.

Fear of missing out.

Then there’s this thing called JOMO.

Joy of missing out.

If you use the interwebs at all, chances are you suffer (or will soon suffer) from FOMO. It’s a common diagnosis these days. And, here’s the scientific proof:

A tweet, email, message –> sense of acknowledgment  -> body releases dopamine –> happy feelings

With the constant barrage of digital chatter, we have been conditioned to crave constant distractions, as it releases a constant stream of happy (dopamine).

In a sense, we’ve become addicts, with digital chatter as our drug of choice. And, we fall into a state of sheer terror and fear when that drug is taken away…leaving us to navigate and cope with the world, all alone.

We’ve developed an extreme level FOMO.

But, for all you FOMOs (I keep wanting to say MOFO) out there, I bring you good news. I have discovered the antidote to FOMO: and that is, JOMO.

This past month, I have been forced to wean myself off of digital chatter. I’ve been cut off from Internet, cell phone coverage, and TV at home (and a few days even gas and electricity).

The result.

With no stream of digital chatter – the Facebook likes, the retweets, the incoming emails, I re-discovered the following:

The beauty that Austin is. Because I had so much more time on my hands, I could slow down and enjoy my surroundings. I walked to the grocery store instead of driving. I went on long runs on the trail instead of cramming in an hour of kickboxing at the gym. And, in that, I discovered a hidden garden, beautiful new architecture, and naturally, random Austin weirdness.

Work-Life balance. With no Internet at home and horrible cell phone reception, I was unable to check my work emails in the evenings. I quickly learned that I was spending an additional 3 hours per day outside of work, working. With three extra hours a day for myself, I had time to go shopping, do work around the house, think of new DIY projects…every single day.

Motivators for Efficiency. When I absolutely needed to get work done, I would go to a nearby coffee shop to use their WiFi. And, in a sense, I gamed myself. Because I was there “to get work done,” and because it impeded on my work-life balance, it motivated me to be in intense concentration mode, working at max efficiency, to get out of there ASAP. Rewards: good coffee, live music, and a solid view.

Yes, I missed out on immediate viewing of my friend’s trip to Turkey, and yes, I found out a bit later about a wedding engagement. But, in the midst of missing out (which, is really only knowledge delayed), I was able to find joy and calm and beauty – and save my friends a slew of Facebook Like notifications.

So, in the words of our VP / Director of Human Resources, “let’s all make sure we put some JOMO into our MOJO.”

In honor of our newest client Barbasol, we hosted a competition between the men of the agency. The man who could throw a 10.2 pound frozen ham the farthest would win a close shave in our brand new barber chair.

Check out the animated gifs below compliments of Alexis Wilson.

Matteo the Mustache Kuhles:

Ben “Headbandz” Thoma:

David “This Ham Is Nothing Compared to My Two Brand New Babies” Hughes:

Todd “Oh My God How Tall is That Guy” Nolley:

Spencer “Grilled Cheese” Gilliam:

See all the meat-put photos here: http://gsdm.biz/OAiK6x

Truly amazing. Once again, science is the coolest thing around. The article at TPM says the folks at Argonne Lab are able to “cancel the effect of gravity.” So now we know how the aliens are able to hover their spaceships over cornfields. Next stop, the far side of the galaxy.

By Travis Scoggins

Quite a lot to take in from yesterday’s Apple presentation. On one end of the spectrum lies the stayed, tried and true iPod Classic which remained in the lineup. On the other end was the iPod Nano, a product that has shape shifted five times. Enough to be considered for enrollment in Professor Xavier’s school for mutants.

I have to admit I was a bit baffled when I saw its most recent form today. Nano’s should by definition get smaller…yet this version was bigger. Apple showed us a history of their Nano designs during the presentation and it made me realize there has to be an internal struggle to define the role this device plays in the current lineup.

Before iPhones and iPads, the Nano was a sleeker version of their star product. But it seems now that greater feature sets are necessary, they are struggling with the right design to fit the existing technology. I thought the previous generation’s design was a step in the right direction, leading to a future of more wearable devices that in their own right had less function but reported into a greater platform (iPhones, iPads or even Macs).

The size, the clip, the right types of apps of the last version were all appealing to the athlete. People (not me personally) wear them as watches. I don’t know why I need photos and videos on my nano when I’ve got them on my other iOS devices that have retina displays and I don’t have to plug in to sync that content.

Bluetooth was the right addition to create wireless connectivity for the first time in this device, but the decisions to go bigger and include this other content seem to violate Apple’s rules of smaller, and more focused products. That more than anything has me in the unusual position of questioning Apple’s logic and commitment to their standards.