This is the West Sixth Street home of the big ad agency GSD&M. They call their home office "idea city." Indeed, marketing is one clever idea after another connected by lots of mundane details. FFP ran a tiny agency before he retired. So he had to have all the ideas and deal with all the details. He is famous among our friends for always checking things over and over. Comes from the ad business. GSD&M has seen it's fortunes soar and also go a bit the other way and I think they sold to an international conglomerate at some point. But they did build a cool building in what is now a vibrant part of the extended downtown Austin. We see one of the initials (Roy Spence) in the paper now and then. We bumped into the 'M' (Tim McClure) the other day. But I don't remember where. I think FFP went to college with them. I like the rubric 'idea city.' Once there was a billboard outside of Austin (unrelated to GSD&M I think) that said 'Austin, Texas...City of Ideas.' Well, I wish it were true. And it does seem to be our biggest natural resource, the thing that's allowed companies like Whole Foods and Dell and National Instruments to take root. I hope we are still fertile ground for imagination but I'm not so sure.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Idea City
This is the West Sixth Street home of the big ad agency GSD&M. They call their home office "idea city." Indeed, marketing is one clever idea after another connected by lots of mundane details. FFP ran a tiny agency before he retired. So he had to have all the ideas and deal with all the details. He is famous among our friends for always checking things over and over. Comes from the ad business. GSD&M has seen it's fortunes soar and also go a bit the other way and I think they sold to an international conglomerate at some point. But they did build a cool building in what is now a vibrant part of the extended downtown Austin. We see one of the initials (Roy Spence) in the paper now and then. We bumped into the 'M' (Tim McClure) the other day. But I don't remember where. I think FFP went to college with them. I like the rubric 'idea city.' Once there was a billboard outside of Austin (unrelated to GSD&M I think) that said 'Austin, Texas...City of Ideas.' Well, I wish it were true. And it does seem to be our biggest natural resource, the thing that's allowed companies like Whole Foods and Dell and National Instruments to take root. I hope we are still fertile ground for imagination but I'm not so sure.
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Very interesting, Linda - thank you. Although I've passed the Idea City building many times since 1999 it didn't occur to me to think about the meaning of the initials - my chlorophyll-based mind was more concerned with the progress of the amazing palm trees...
ReplyDeleteBest of luck in 2008,
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Tomorrow I was planning to post a picture...of the palm trees there! So tune in then.
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