Launch Agency receives Eagle Award from Children’s Advocacy Center of Collin County
By: Rebecca | Published: 03/27/12

Each year, the CACCC honors the person or organization who’s had an extraordinary impact on the abused children of Collin County. This year, the Eagle Award was presented to Launch Agency for calling attention to the good work of the Center, an organization that operated under the radar for approximately 20 years.

Agency principal Diane Seimetz on the Eagle Award, “While we don’t donate our time and talents for recognition, it’s a great feeling to know you are making a difference when you do.”

Mike Newman of the Plano Profile on the CACCC: “Their mission is a simple, to-the-point one: ‘to provide safety, healing and justice to children victimized by abuse or neglect.’ The job of accomplishing it is anything but simple.”

Launch principals Seimetz, Michael Boone and David Wilgus are grateful for the honor. And express thanks to the talented team that worked so hard on behalf of the CACCC, including Alexandra Watson, Jon Fullrich, Laura Carroll, Ryan Ingram, Reuben Miller and Alison Hamilton.

To learn more about the CACCC, visit www.cacplano.org.

Launch Agency Snags Inside Job on Dallas ADDYs And Asks: “Why Suffer in Vain?”
By: Alex | Published: 12/17/10
Advertising creatives know all too well how it feels to suffer for their art: to fall prey to slashed budgets, to have their sanity stretched to the breaking point by tight deadlines, and their award-winning ideas pierced by the slings and arrows of outrageous client demands.
For the Dallas Ad League‘s 2011 ADDYs show, Launch has developed a campaign that captures these unfortunate truths of ad agency life with a series of tongue-in-cheek posters, interactive executions and collateral pieces, all centered around the headline: “If you’re going to suffer for your art, make it count.” Each execution depicts an artistically rendered scene from the distant past in which a modern-day agency personality is beset upon by cleverly labeled devices of torment. This all leads to an iconic depiction of the victim’s ultimate goal: an ADDY trophy.
Launch copywriter Alex Slotkin and art director Reuben Miller worked with agency principals/creative directors Diane Seimetz and David Wilgus to create three different call-for-entries posters. These were illustrated by Melanie Stimmell, Tom Hough and Reuben Miller, printed with the help of Steward Printing and Clampitt Paper, and distributed to agencies across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
In addition, Launch interactive team Kevin Byrd, Jon Fullrich and Brent Richison worked with interactive partners Kaleidoscope and OffLead to create and deploy the Suffer for Your Art website, including a memorable movie trailer-style video. There, visitors can add their stories of suffering to a growing list of user-generated tales, and become eligible to win a special “Advertising Martyr of the Year” award at the ADDY event on February 17.
Launch principal/account director Michael Boone, project manager Megan Kelly and print producer Laura Carroll were also instrumental in bringing the new ADDY project to life.
As the date of the event draws closer, Launch continues to build on the campaign with dedicated Facebook and Twitter pages, email blasts and an extended video featuring first-hand accounts of how some of Dallas’s most notable advertising personalities have suffered for their art.
View the three call for entries posters here:

SIGGRAPH 2010: The People Behind the Pixels
By: Jon | Published: 08/17/10

I recently attended SIGGRAPHSiggraph Conference (or Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques), a premier international computer graphics, video, animation and new technologies conference.

This year’s conference focused on the stories, people and elements underlying computer graphics and interactive techniques (the people behind the pixels). As a result, I got good insight from all levels of creative and production.

The big technology push this year was “stereoscopic 3D.” TV, movies, media, gaming applications—all are starting to employ stereoscopic technology. There was also discussion of how real-time 3D design in software packages like Maya could be handled with a pair of the stereoscopic glasses. Based on several of the talks, it sounds like the actual production techniques are costly and still being worked out, but the idea is well in place.

Studios are pushing for 3D everywhere as these movies can draw higher ticket prices and profits. However, many are leaning on the cheaper solution of rotoscoping flat video, rather than shooting in true 3D. Hopefully, the success of “truly shot” 3D movies (Avatar, Tron: Legacy) and computer animations (Pixar, Dreamworks, etc.) will continue to succeed and help push the limits of 3D with the use of layered shots, linked cameras and alpha channels.

The importance of 3D was also on display during the first day’s young creative showcase. There were a number of virtual reality booths that immersed attendees in real-time stereoscopic environments, complete with touch and smell.

Meanwhile, the lectures at SIGGRAPH balanced all this technology with the human element and thoughts on the industry. Don Marinelli (Executive Producer at Carnegie Mellon) described the importance of emphasizing storytelling, experience, and arts of all kinds in education. Jim Morris (Executive VP of Production at Pixar) gave a historical look at how Pixar and other studios came to be. And director Joe Kosinski, Digital Domain artists and Disney honchos previewed the upcoming movie Tron: Legacy.

Finally, the SIGGRAPH animation showcase gave attendees a chance to view some of the strongest visualizations and productions from the past year. I really enjoyed seeing all the unique styles and amazing ideas from around the world—some beautiful, some dark, some funny, but all very well-crafted. It was a fitting end to a conference brimming with creativity and technology.

Here are links to some of the more impressive efforts on display:

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

Launch Adds Digital Muse
By: Alison | Published: 06/04/10

Launch Agency welcomes a new digital specialist to the team. He answers to Jon, not Muse.

With the addition of Jon Fullrich, Launch is expanding its digital creative capabilities. David Wilgus, Launch Principal, Creative Director raves, “Jon is incredibly talented. He enhances our current offerings to our clients and can provide new innovations, which will allow us to lead our clients in the digital content arena.” Jon has a Masters Degree in Visualization Sciences from Texas A&M University, where he “learned everything I could about animation, video, and motionography.”

After a stint at interactive shop imc2, Jon freelanced for several top digital agencies, including Tribal DDB, and Click Here. In addition, he was part of some award-winning project work for Launch, which is how this beautiful relationship began.

We dove deeper and asked Jon some more revealing questions:

Q: Favorite sport?
A: Basketball and football . . . and some baseball. I played basketball in high school.

Q: Favorite spare time activity?
A: Watching sports and playing poker. I just played in my first real tournament and placed 106 out of 600.
(Not a bad debut.)

Q: Favorite animal?
A: I always liked penguins.

Q: Bow tie or Ascot?
A: I don’t know what an ascot is, so bow tie.

Q: Any pets?
A: A chihuahua named Bobinot and a black cat named Pepper.

Q: Most played song on iTunes?
A: “Home” by Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros.

Q: What’s one of your favorite artists?
A: M.C. Escher. His art is a blend of engineering, architecture, and optical illusion.

We’re happy to have Jon on the team.

DSCN149801

Jon and his wife Leigh at a U2 concert


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