We moved up a few hundred spots, landing at #3145 for 2011. There are more than 27 million businesses registered in the U.S. so the ranking puts the agency in some lofty company.

The Inc. 5000 are catalysts for job creation and growth. In fact, the 5000 created 370,592 jobs in the last three years.

Launch Principals Michael Boone, Diane Seimetz and Dave Wilgus would like to thank Jane Berentson, Editor, Inc. magazine and her staff for the list and recognition. And, of course, credit goes to our client partners, and our creative, talented staff.

SIGGRAPH 2011: Make It Home

The overall focus centered around the idea of community within the animation/effects/interactive industry.  This was a chance to acknowledge the key companies and individuals that have steadily helped push and grow the computer graphics industry and specifically the SIGGRAPH family.

Of course great work, ideas and inspirations were all around. While last year saw a heavy industry push towards “stereoscopic 3D,” that emphasis seemed to have faded.  Interactivity, through gaming and online productions, still held high interest. And some of the best, budding ideas were found in the student/research expo, “The Studio.” One incredible prototyped development actually measured an individual’s heart rate and vitals simply through web cam use and its recordings. Virtual reality and immersive interactive environments were prominent again; 3D printers were also on display and demoing capabilities.

The lectures at SIGGRAPH balanced technology with the human element and thoughts on the industry. The keynote speaker was Cory Doctorow, an industry blogger and Wired contributor.  He spoke specifically on the effect patent laws are having on the individual and creativity. Production teams/directors from some of the latest features, Rango, Thor, Pixar’s La Luna and Cars 2, and Smurfs, shared personal and technical insights as well.

Finally, the SIGGRAPH animation showcase gave attendees a chance to view some of the strongest visualizations and productions from the past year. Enjoy just a few unique styles and amazing ideas from around the world — some beautiful, some dark, some funny, but all very well-crafted:

La Luna (the latest Pixar short – trailer, and another beautiful piece on its way)

Paths of Hate (Jury Award – trailer)

Hezarfen (student piece)

Coke “Siege” (commercial spot, Wieden + Kennedy, Nexus/Fx, Mat)

Amnesty International “Death to the Death Penalty” (commercial spot, Pleix)

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (Best in Show – trailer and iPad app)

Meet Buck (student piece)

Paul and his brother started New Toy a couple years ago after building their design and development experience at big firms like Microsoft-owned Ensemble Studios where they worked on the $50 million launch of Halo Wars. Their “aha” moment came after watching a young girl play Nintendogs on a Nintendo DS. There was huge potential to tap this market of non-traditional players with casual games that didn’t require monster budgets or long development cycles. Games that relied on social aspects to hook players and get them evangelizing to friends and family. The iPhone provided a killer platform to make it happen.

By following this “blue ocean strategy” of game niches that aren’t crowded with competitors, New Toy has made a name for itself. Words With Friends has a user retention rate twenty times that of the App Store average. Player engagement is thirty times longer. Their free, ad-supported version of the game pulls in one billion ad impressions per month. As Bettner emphasized, consolidation in the mobile advertising market (such as Google AdMob and Apple iAds) is leading to higher quality, more engaging ads that bring better results. Moving forward, New Toy is looking for innovative ways to integrate advertising into games, such as partnering with Skittles to turn all the game’s tiles into colored candies for a month.

According to Bettner, we can look forward to a new Farmville-like game from New Toy later this  year, and another “____ with Friends” game he wouldn’t reveal, but it will no doubt be on everyone’s mind before too long. We at Launch can’t wait.

1. Focus on one message with one call-to-action
Keep the message simple and be clear about what the reader’s next step should be. In general, the click-through button should be large enough to see from a few feet back.

2.  Remove alternate paths that would distract from the call-to-action
Don’t feel the need to duplicate the website’s navigation. Direct traffic to your end goal.

3. Keep it easy on the eyes
Large blocks of copy are difficult to read onscreen. Make use of bullets. Remember that people tend to read in an F-shape (left to right, up to down).

4. Keep the most important information at the top
Many email users view their emails in a preview pane, so keep the most important  information at the top of the email. That may be all some people see.

5. Remember your medium
When designing, remember that there are only a handful of web-safe fonts. If you stray from this list, your copy will need to be saved as a graphic. But use too many graphics, and your email could be flagged as spam.

6. Craft your subject lines carefully
If a subject line doesn’t pique their interest, they may delete the email without opening. To improve your open rate, keep your subject lines as relevant as possible and avoid common spam keywords like “Free.” Shorter subject lines test better than long ones.

7. Timing is everything
Deploy emails at various times to see what works best for your database. Generally speaking, mid-morning and mid-afternoon are preferred. Emails sent mid-week (Tuesday-Thursday) tend to perform better than those sent on Monday or Friday.

8. Clean your database
Any email effort is only as good as its list. Keeping your database clean will help you deliver the right message to the right people.

9. Know the CAN-SPAM regulations
Make sure you’re familiar with CAN-SPAM before you start emailing your database. A tarnished email reputation can be difficult to combat. Click here for a CAN-SPAM compliance guide to learn more.

10. Test and optimize
Last but certainly not least, be sure to test your email before you deploy. Yahoo and Hotmail recently made subtle changes to their back-end email coding. The revisions were not announced because they were so minor – unless you’re an email marketer. The only way to be certain your email will appear correctly is to test before deploying. Open a few free accounts and take a moment to review them all. It could save you from embarrassment later.

Once that email has finally deployed, track your results. Over time, you’ll spot performance trends in day, time, subject line, offer, etc. and be able to optimize for greater success.

In the words of Jane Berentson, Editor, Inc. magazine, “More than ever, this year’s list is a testament to the creativity, resilience and tenacity of America’s top entrepreneurs.”

For Launch, on behalf of my partners Diane Seimetz and David Wilgus, I’d like to thank our creative, dedicated staff for all their great work and recognize our special roster of clients and the mutually successful relationships we have with those talented professionals.

Thank you also to Jane and Inc. It’s an honor just to be nominated. But it’s even better to actually make “the list.”

Diane presented some of the award-winning pro bono work Launch has done for very special clients such as The Voice Foundation, Children’s Advocacy Center of Collin County, The Rise School and Susan G. Komen for the Cure. She also spoke about Launch’s involvement in the American Heart Association’s Dallas Heart Walk, which had special meaning to her and the whole Launch family.

A highlight of the luncheon was the inspirational stories that were shared by the panelists. After each member on the panel spoke about their agency’s own pro bono work and philosophy, they answered questions on the pros and cons of these assignments.

The panel stressed the importance of keeping the same agency processes with pro bono clients as done with paying clients. Making sure the charity’s mission aligns with your agency’s mission and values is also important before establishing a relationship. Agency bandwidth and resources are also huge factors. Using the agency’s clout and resources can be key in getting work produced for very little to no cost.

It was agreed that in every case, pro bono work should be your agency’s best work; something to be proud of that truly helps the cause!

http://www.poppyfilm.com/index.html (Jury Award)

http://polynoid.org/polynoid_loom.html (Best in Show Award)

http://motionographer.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/hinted_vw_fishdog_med.mov

http://www.thebeatlesrockband.com/videos/cinematic

http://www.thelostthing.com/

http://motionographer.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/rinsch_audi_DD.mov

I’ve always found illustrators to be kind of an elusive bunch — a rather solitary and nocturnal species, since they’re all freelancers. I’ve done some illustration myself, along with graphic design, so I jumped at the chance to see and interact with these unique people.

It was a large and interesting group, and the conference program was great. So, without further ado, here is a run-down of some of the stand out speakers and topics.

The opening Keynote address was entitled “The Future of Publishing” and was presented by a panel of speakers including Scott Dadich, Creative Director, Wired, and Kelly Doe, Art Director, The New York Times, among others. They addressed an elephant in the room: whether electronic media, such as the iPad and Kindle, will sweep away the last few areas of print publishing that haven’t been completely transformed by the Internet. The consensus: yes, although it might take as long as 10 years.

There were many speakers at the conference from the publishing and film industries who discussed their careers and companies. Highlights from a few:

Wayne White: His greatest claim to fame is as the set designer of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. But he has had a fascinating and varied career as painter, art director, set designer and installation artist. Just listening to his body of work made me tired.

Thomas Blackshear: He talked about the process of being a “traditional” illustrator in the style of N. C. Wyeth and branching out to non-traditional venues to sell his illustrations.

David Saylor: An art director at Scholastic Books, David spoke of his career in the publishing industry and talked of one of the few times that illustrations created for a series of books made it into the movie titles and posters: the Harry Potter series.

Scott Dadich: This creative director for Wired Magazine discussed a fascinating article done for the iPad version of Wired that used an animated interactive illustration.

Kathy Altieri: As the production manager for the 2010 release “How to Train Your Dragon,” Kathy talked about the incredible amount of work that goes into a feature-length animated movie, how long it takes, how many hundreds of animators are involved and how much concept and preproduction illustration work is done. Mind-boggling.

Saiman Chow and Jesus De Francisco: This pair, illustrator and Creative Director at Motion Theory, respectively, spoke about the field of motion graphics and what it holds for the future of illustration. There was a continuing Q&A between the audience and speakers about whether illustrators need the ability to animate their images for the coming electronic media, through software like Flash or HTML5. Some illustrators voiced that they didn’t want to become “programmers” in addition to being artists, but the panelists pointed out that nearly everyone in the crowd had learned to use Illustrator and Photoshop, and learning other software wasn’t any different. In other words, adapt or die.

There were many other presenters, speaking on subjects as diverse as copyright law, computer animation, children’s books, graphic novels, self-promotion, social media, inspiration, art history and technique, the gallery world, electronic publishing, contracts and negotiation. The most inspirational part of the conference, however, was listening to the individual illustrators discuss their life and work.

The Rental Advertising Excellence (RAE) Awards, the rent-to-own industry’s longest held advertising competition honors the best radio, television, print and Internet advertising campaigns created over the past year. The awards show and annual conference was held July 19-22.

Launch won a Gold and a Bronze in the :30 Radio category and a Silver for :30 TV.

Congratulations also go to partner agency Razor for their awards won in support of Rent-A-Center.

An interesting session, “Building a Business: If I Knew Then What I Know Now,” featured Brian Dougherty and Marcia Hoeck. Dougherty is a founding partner of Celery Design Collaborative, which has studios in both California and Paris. Marcia Hoeck is president of Hoeck Associates, Inc. and acts as a business coach. Her mantra is, “Create a business that will run without you.” These two entrepreneurs described their tried-and-true methods for starting a successful business and growing it — specifically, how to keep from getting sidetracked so you can focus on why you started the business in the first place.

Next they explained Dougherty’s “design backwards” approach. By starting from a design project’s ultimate destination and working backwards, designers are able to make more informed choices, allowing them to creatively avoid many roadblocks that might prevent solutions. The best way to begin brainstorming is to imagine the “best possible destiny for a design. Next, imagine the user’s experience with the design and envision scenarios that would make the experience particularly memorable or valuable.”

Reuben said the last session he attended featured “the most inspirational speaker [he'd] ever seen.” The session, “Rediscovering Play: Bringing Fun and Passion to Your Work. . .and Life,” was given by Kevin Carroll.

Carroll’s childhood was less than idyllic; his parents struggled with substance abuse problems, so he moved in with his his grandparents. One day, he found a red rubber ball on the playground, and from that point on, focused his life on the pursuit of fun and the “red rubber ball mentality.” Now he collects different and interesting balls from all around the world as a source of inspiration. After 10 years in the air force, Carroll spent time with the Philadelphia 76ers and Nike before starting his own business, Kevin Carroll Katalyst/LLC. We don’t do Carroll’s story justice, so check it out after finishing our post.

One of Reuben’s takeaways from HOW was that, “It’s an incredible asset to be a great presenter; it can be the tipping point between whether an idea sells or not.”

Find more information on 2010 Conference sessions visit the HOW website.