Author Archives for Ed Garner

VP of Custom Development

May 4, 2012

Friday Spotlight > 2012 Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards

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Enspire’s Houndstooth media arm provides design and high end media production for Enspire Learning products and custom services.  HT also explores creative projects outside the learning space in Austin and beyond. All this creativity finds its way back into Enspire work… a virtuous cycle.

Every year, writer/director Richard Linklater‘s Austin Film Society honors outstanding Texans who’ve made a significant contribution to film and entertainment, and non-Texans who have advanced the Texas entertainment industry.

Houndstooth developed the motion graphics package for the 2012 Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards banquet,  held at Austin City Limit’s new home – The Moody Theater – in the W Hotel in downtown Austin.   Houndstooth also designed and executed custom lighting for the  event, painting the outside of the W with a kaleidoscope of color.  View HT’s Ziris loop and other videos here, and pictures from the banquet on Flickr.

Catch KLRU‘s rebroadcast of the show on May 14th at 10:00 PM CST!

 


April 27, 2012

Friday Spotlight > HT lights Linklater film premiere

Enspire’s media arm, Houndstooth, designed and executed the lighting for the Austin Film Society premiere of Richard Linklater’s new film Bernie. The premiere took place at the Violet Crown Cinema, with director Richard Linklater, star Matthew McConaughey, and co-writer and Texas Monthly Executive Editor Skip Hollandsworth in attendance. Hollandsworth’s 1998  article “Midnight in the Garden of East Texas” recounts the strange tale of beloved Carthage, TX resident Bernhardt “Bernie” Tiede, his close friendship with the town’s most cantankerous widow, and her subsequent disappearance. The film also stars Jack Black and Shirley MacClaine.


December 16, 2011

Friday Spotlight > Coats for Kids

Austin’s Coats for Kids effort is the second largest effort of its kind in the country. This was the 25th year for the drive, an annual community project that this year put 30,000 coats in the hands of eligible kids.  Enspire donated laptop computers for use at donation centers and Enspire VP of Business Development (below left) ran the distribution site at Del Valle Elementary School.


December 9, 2011

Friday Spotlight > Holidays at 1708

December is our busiest time of year, but decorations are popping up all over the building, and Houndstooth designers are hard at work on the Enspire/HT 2011 holiday card. This year’s card will use stop motion, traditional, and computer animation to “bring two competitive penguin neighbors to life,” says HT’s David Crumley. “We like to use the card as a place to push boundaries and have fun. We do that in our day to day work obviously,  but the card is like our end of year reward where the sky’s the limit.”

Here are some views of work on the card, and our offices. May all your holidays be bright, too.


October 28, 2011

Friday Spotlight > We’re Ten and One

Enspire Learning celebrated its 10th birthday this week! At the same time Houndstooth marked a first very successful year as our media and experience design arm. Houndstooth deployed its media, lighting, sound, and set designers to transform our building and parking lot at 1708 Guadalupe in Austin with HD projectors, music, murals, interactive Kinect display, and laser and hand cut paper artwork. Food, drink, and a couple of hundred guests kept the party – officially a 7PM to 10PM affair – running well into the wee hours. Photos courtesy of Mark Heaps of Duarte Design.


October 21, 2011

Friday Spotlight > Mötley Crüe

Enspire custom learning work, to say nothing of products like Executive Challenge, might seem worlds removed from a concert experience. But this summer, our media arm Houndstooth partnered with Daddy Van Productions to produce large scale video and motion graphics for the 2011 Mötley Crüe Tour. The HT team first shot video in several locations. The footage was then mixed in post-production with 2d and 3d motion graphics to create background images for the band.

Enspire and Houndstooth pursue different types of work – rigorous learning experiences, versus entertainment focused ones.  We do share a common goal, however:  to engage participants in our experiences  with expert design (be that instructional, visual, auditory, or experiential) and meticulous production. Enspire writers and instructional designers contribute to Houndstooth projects, while HT team members design and execute media for all Enspire products and custom solutions.  All of our work happens at 1708 Guadalupe St, in Austin, Texas, usually between the hours of 8AM and 3AM.