Brand symbolism | The Cairn
Thinking metaphorically, there are plenty of symbolic allegories between the notion of brand building, design strategies, messaging and storytelling. You—brand designer, brand thinker, theorist, strategist—when you think of brand, the notion of a constructed and...
Get your hands off that! Don’t touch!
How many times—thinking about it personally—have you been told that? Don’t touch! Hey, don’t even think about touching that! Hand’s off—not for you! Please, just look—no touching! Mostly, these days, I don’t ask, don’t look around for approvals, I just touch— unless...
Brand Feel | Emotionalism in Branded Sensations
Feeling in the realm of design thinking, sensation and brand. I took some old Italian handmade paper, folded it, tore it with a bone folder, punched a hole in the head of the strip, and strung red binding thread into the opening and hung it in the trees, amidst the...
Diving deep | Brand Soul: Journey, Inspiration and Spirituality
The Strategy and Design of Mystically-Inspired Brands In our history, we’ve had a string of opportunities to collaborate with brand partners who are different in their visioning of their enterprises— rather than focusing, for typical partners, on the notion of “how...
The Light Inside the Brand
The Person, the expression of Presence and the Brand Every time that you’re working on an enterprise, the proposition of brand, it’s always about people; it’s the people that built it, those that work in and around it, and finally, the community that is in thrall to...
Crickets, why cry? we all go that way.
A contemplation on gratefulness Notes on the death of my father, George W. Girvin, 7.05.2024 "Why do you have skulls around you, everywhere?, I mean, you’re always wearing skull scarves, rings, all that." Someone asked me this question. I have a long history with...
Embracing change | Brand Strategies for Innovation
The Quest for the New, in Remembering the Past Contemplations on brand innovation and evolution patterning I bought a new car in Portland, Oregon, and I recalled my days working down here. Time goes by. And back then, I was working with Lloyd Reynolds—and later, a...
Rare Brand Magic—Uncovering Unknown Enterprise Storytelling
Brands That Live in the Shadow, But Are Full of Light Do you have a brand relationship that is, to your thinking, your personal secret— something special, marvelous, your happily loved and savored place? Is there ever a brand that lives on the quiet side, unknown,...
GIRVIN [and Tim Girvin’s] Legacy of Calligraphy
The Dance of the pen—the drafted thought—and the illustration of language It’s an intriguing observation—the idea of the rhythm of speech—people talking, listening to words and expressions of thinking—the journey of minds, and the trails of their contemplations: the...
The Peaceful Brand Warrior | 360º Strategic Intentionality
There’s a word that GIRVIN uses as a way to define the thoughtful design of brands in the context of a 360º sentience—experientiality. It’s a spherical watchfulness—in one classical reference, keep your “head on a swivel, watch your six” way of approaching a place,...