Developed for Texas Legend Foods, the Native Texan brand has something for everybody. It has included (at one time or another) as many as 15 salsas, 5 varieties of queso, 6 BBQ sauces, 3 different beans dips, and a handful of other specialty and seasonal products. Each label features carefully crafted romance copy in a plain-spoken and uniquely Texan voice, developed exclusively for this brand. Each description's type is meticulously set to reinforce the copy's cadence and character. A 'poster' style transforms text passages beyond the predictable paragraph and makes the layout itself the visual heart and soul. If you're not hungry yet, you should probably adjust your screen.

Photos by Adam Voorhes.

Marketing a marketing agency is just plain fun. The idea is simple: creating mixtapes is a deeply personal way to send messages—and generally demonstrates a rich understanding of the recipients. That’s exactly the kind of thoughtfully-tailored connection mixtape marketing aims to establish with every client and each of their unique audiences. Whatever you do, don't capitalize their name. They just like it better that way.

The Norwegian Pearl is home to the world’s first bowling alley at sea. When the NCL executives decided to announce this feat of marine sporting innovation in a promotional video, they came to GSD&M for help with a team shirt. They loved it so much that they decided to put an embroidery machine onboard, too. These days, passengers can get their own “Freestyle Rollers” uniform on the Pearl.

I began working at Sweet Leaf Tea by building a collapsible trade show booth as an intern in college. The company consisted of less than a dozen employees—and yes, we drank as much tea as we wanted for free. After finishing school and learning a whole lot from my time at GSD&M, I returned to Sweet Leaf and eventually became their Senior Art Director. I was fortunate to have an amazingly talented and enthusiastic team. Together, we helped build this memorable brand into a household name and saw the company’s internal ranks grow to around 100.

The package evolved quite a bit during my tenure at Sweet Leaf Tea. The label underwent several generations of updates. We created new custom bottles with the help of Vitro Glass and Amcor Plastics. We launched aluminum can offerings (printing on aluminum is about 1,000 times more interesting and challenging than I had ever imagined). We did it all while preserving our founder’s original, authentic vision and maintaining a consistently approachable brand.

Silicon Labs approached mixtape marketing for help with a comprehensive campaign to launch a series of new maker-friendly IoT sensor devices and get them into the hands of industry leaders. Influencers were sent a pinewood derby car kit complete with the Thunderboard sensor chip, instructions for cloud-enabled data tracking (custom smartphone app), decal sheets, and a challenge to trick out their cars and race them at an event dubbed “Days of Thunderboard” in downtown Austin. Additionally, a custom microsite still tracks and publishes sensor readings in real time from around the world.

This project sparked a long-term collaborative relationship with Silicon Labs.

The Granddaddy's Sweet Southern Heat label was made to honor the recipe's Tennessee roots, but designed to thrive in the Texas market—a place where people take their sauces pretty seriously. We wanted to feature the client’s real-life grandfather, but what this label needed was a well-defined mascot. With only a faded family photo to work from, a little bit of stylization helped make this beloved farmer into the hardened Indiana Jones of hot sauces.

It’s always nice when a client wants to go the extra mile with something as often-overlooked as a business card. There's a really nice discovery factor when you get to handle these in-the-round. You can see Granddaddy's silhouette change from front to back, and I was thrilled when the founders agreed to the title "Grandson." The result is an extra ‘leave behind’ that makes an impression almost as powerful as the sauce.

Product photography by Adam Voorhes.

Standing out in a crowd can be challenging, especially when the whole crowd is trying to stand out. The world of CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) is fraught with obstacles that can trip up even the most motivated entrepreneurs with the very best products. Planning ahead for opportunities and pitfalls in this minefield requires a very special set of skills and experiences.

Often, CPG clients are forced to update or completely rebrand in order to stay relevant in the retail space. Included among the images below are several “before & after” examples.

Ray Benson’s BBQ, Iron Works BBQ, Pride of Texas BBQ, and William’s Farm Peach Salsa labels created in collaboration with Wes Wooddell.

The Austin Grand Prix is a website dedicated to connecting Austinites with the sport of Formula 1, and international F1 enthusiasts with the city of Austin.

Legion Firearms was dedicated to producing better, more accurate weapon systems in order to make military and law enforcement personnel safer and more effective in the field. This entailed eliminating snag hazards, re-engineering grip surfaces, improving ergonomics, and developing lighter, more versatile parts. Digital simulation, clay modeling, CNC wood milling, 3D polymer printing, and muti-axis lathes were utilized for various stages of prototyping and production.

Concurrently, the Legion Firearms identity was developed to communicate its advanced approach to a market of discerning professionals. Brand assets included a custom font, a paper system printed with a custom metallic gunmetal grey ink, a proprietary hex-based camouflage, trade show display, and support collateral for print and web.

When founder Anna Clair Eddington came to mixtape marketing with her product, originally called “Basic B Chai,” we were blown away by the product and the person. There’s not a thing we could have done to make a better product, but we were able to help her with a brand that better fit her her personality — including a name that retail buyers could get behind.

Photography by Shelby Tsika Marquardt.

Every spring, Austin is home an amazing city-wide music festival. Coincidentally, mixtape marketing hosts an annual music showcase known as Make Fuzzy Tracks at about the same time. To be clear, they’re completely unrelated. After ten years, it’s officially Austin’s greatest unoffical party.

This love letter from ad agency GSD&M to Austin's historical Paramount Theater was my first professionally published ad. With only 3 days notice before the anniversary program would go to press, the logistics of producing this in time were astounding. We came up with a wish list of several Austin celebrities for the shoot, and we were thrilled when Leslie Cochran, self-proclaimed Queen of Sixth Street, came through. It's worth noting that Leslie brought his own flapper wardrobe—including the tiara. This is probably my favorite true story of my life so far. The details are highly classified. You'll have to buy me lots of drinks to hear the whole thing.

This was a collaboration with Todd Van Horne.

My experience as a photographer is mostly limited to those times when a friend who owns a decent camera says, “Here, hold this.” (Thanks, Matt Rainwaters.) Although I don’t have any ambitions of becoming a professional shutterbug, I am proud to have captured a few gems.

The No. 21 Air Force car debuted in the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, driven by Jon Wood.

You’re probably thinking, “fighter jets and a race car… it doesn’t get much cooler than that.” That’s what I thought, too. Like any red-blooded American, I played with Matchbox Cars when I was a kid. So when I found out that the NASCAR wrap I worked on was being made into a die-cast collectible, I was considerably more excited than I was about working on a real race car.