The trash talk started at 8:30 that morning, but the competition kicked off at noon with five competing salsas, three quesos, four guacamoles and two desserts. Congrats to all our winners:

Best Original Salsa: Michael Boone, reigning champion of Taste-Off 2010
Best “Fun” Salsa: Joanna Rodriguez with her Fiesta Salsa
Best Queso: Jason Giles and Richard Wezensky, whose secret ingredients were cilantro and soy sausage bits
Best Guacamole: Alexandra Watson, whose guac packed some heat
Best Dessert:  Megan Kelly with her killer Sopapilla Cheesecake.

All these competing dishes – combined with fajitas supplied by Launch Principals Michael Boone, Diane Seimetz and David Wilgus – made for an incredibly stuffed and happy Launch staff. Photos follow.

To celebrate Turkey Day, each member of the Launch team shared their favorite holiday food at our annual “Launchgiving” feast. Bellies and hearts were both full, as we also collected cans of food for those less fortunate.

For Christmas, the Launch partners – Michael Boone, Diane Seimetz and Dave Wilgus – supplied a delicious catered meal, tested our wit in a rousing game of Launch trivia and surprised us with Apple iPads. Again we counted our blessings and shared with those less fortunate by contributing to a toy drive benefiting our client the Children’s Advocacy Center of Collin County.

From the Launch family to yours, we wish you a Happy Holiday season and a healthy, prosperous 2011! Click here to view our holiday card. Season’s Greetings!

As thanks, the Troop sent Wilgus a Merit badge in Space Exploration. The rocket-themed patch matches the Launch decor and will be a great addition to our prized collection of memorabilia. The boys received more than Wilgus wisdom; each walked away with a brand new Launch ball cap.

Merit badge for Space Exploration

Boy Scout Troop 835 visits Launch

The first session attended was “Inspiration: You Are What You Keep” by Gail Anderson—creative director of design at SpotCo. Her main message was that when we’re young, we gravitate toward certain things, and as we get older, we begin to identify what those things are and use them for inspiration. Those different sources of inspiration make individual designers unique.

Next up, “Print to Web Breakthrough,” was delivered by Mark O’Brien, president of Newfangled Web Developers. Reuben learned a few tricks to make websites more crawlable. For starters, keeping a 300 to 500 word digital newsletter that gets updated once a month is a good way to keep Google bots interested in your site. This will keep your domain high on the Google search list. O’Brien also told attendees of a new web service that allows designers to use non-website-compatible fonts. This service serves up fonts every time a page loads, so that designers can choose any font when creating a website. This allows people to take their favorite fonts online and differentiate their site from others’.

In “Good vs. Great Design”, speaker Cameron Moll, co-author of CSS Mastery and author of Mobile Web Design, pointed out that most people use the word “inspiration” incorrectly. What they really mean is “influence.” An influence is something that affects your ideas, whereas inspiration is the product of your creative thinking and work. Inspiration is something that is earned, while influences can be found anywhere. In the end, the best designs come from turning the things we love, our influences, into something that others can find value in. Moll stated that most of us are starters – we have tons of great ideas, but that’s where they end. Those ideas never reach fruition because most people aren’t finishers. An inhibitor to becoming a finisher is stress, but there is also good stress, which Moll termed “eustress.” Eustress comes from activities that push us in an enjoyable way, such as working out. Last, but not least, Moll touched on the “blur test” in relation to digital hierarchy. As taught in design school, when you look at a design and blur your eyes, you’ll be able to see what jumps out the most. With print, and especially digital, creating a hierarchy is the art of managing, not eliminating elements.

Reuben’s last seminar, “Creating Five-Alarm Concepts,” earned his coveted “bad ass” designation. Speaker Von Glitschka has all of his slides and notes available for download, so instead of a short Reuben recap, feel free to download it all for yourself.

We’ll get back to you soon with more wisdom from the speakers, but until then, please tell us your favorite takeaways from this year’s How Conference.

Employees didn’t drop a dime, but we did have to “sing for our supper.” That is, each person had to create an award and give it to a co-worker. Some awards were serious, some sentimental and some crazy funny. Some even came with trophies, visual aids and a poem. Not a bad deal for a gourmet meal.

Here are just a couple of the awards:

Reuben was given a golden Mexican bean, hand carved from a single block of wood. It honors his bean-styling skills displayed at a recent photo shoot. Very touching, indeed…

Ashley received a can of spinach for having the “best laugh that sounds a little like Popeye.” She was also given a miniature punching bag featuring the faces of two of her favorite co-workers (Jason and Richard).

Principal and Account Director Michael Boone summed it up best, “This is such a fast-paced business; everyone at Launch works very hard and stays constantly busy. It’s a lot of fun to take a night to celebrate our successes and spend time with one another as friends – not simply as friendly coworkers on tight deadlines.”

Launch’s b-day is March 1st (don’t forget to drop us a card or email next year).

View all the fun on Flickr.

From all of us at Launch, here’s to a happy, healthy, prosperous 2010.

Everyone brought their favorite recipes and family specialties to share. There were plenty of appetizers, three different potato dishes, classic green bean casserole and stuffing, and the main entrees – a delicious Turkey and spiral-sliced ham – purchased from Sam’s Club. And what would the Launchgiving feast be without Creative Director Dave Wilgus’ famous “Lime Dream Salad” (it’s a dessert, it’s a fruit serving, it’s a salad!)? Some of the more popular dishes included KC DeFranco’s homemade sausage and fennel stuffing, Lee Jones’s sweet potato casserole (compliments of Pioneer Woman) and Megan Kelly’s cheesy potato casserole.

Everyone saved room for dessert including two pies, also from Sam’s Club. But the dessert winner was Aspen Taylor’s Pumpkin Gooey Buttercakes. See all the photos from the Launch Thanksgiving Feast  in the slideshow below.

Armed with umbrellas and ponchos, 18 determined Launchers splashed their way through the 5K, in remembrance of Pat Seimetz, husband of Launch partner Diane Seimetz. Pat passed away from a heart attack this past May.  The Launch team sported “Rock the Walk for Pat” t-shirts designed by art director Stephanie Fisher.

Some of my favorite memories of the summer were going to photo shoots, sitting in on a radio production, brainstorming concepts for new campaigns, and laughing at photoshopped internal emails I received.

However, the thing I loved most was coming in knowing that each day I’d learn something new, something I never would experience in a classroom. The most important discovery I made was how to harmonize creativity with practicality (and strategy). This is, perhaps, an “graduate level” challenge unlike any while working on my portfolio in college.

Special thanks to David Wilgus for inviting me in to look at my portfolio and taking a chance with a novice, and Diane Seimetz and Michael Boone for being exemplary bosses and setting the bar high for future employers. Also, a big thanks to Kevin Byrd and Alex Slotkin for being copywriter mentors to me. As for everyone else, you all made my time at Launch special.

Thank you for the opportunity to work with such a fun, successful company!