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 that presence, that presentation—and, that person, those people. In a manner, working on a brand is, in many ways, working with Light—since people are shiny objects, and they’re the makers of the brand, that entity for people, made by people—
it’s a captivating storytelling, a narrative.
It’s like: “I made this brand—it was my dream, then a formalized idea and it became something larger; my people helped me build it, and it’s my dream to keep this process moving forward, growing and evolving—coming from the warmth of the light of encouragement, to the passion of a winning proposition of this luminous ideal. And, as everyone knows, brand, the most ancient word—the 5000 year old seed sound, comes from fire—which speaks more to the allegory of light. And, in that incidence, fire makes light.
In the journey of brandwork, the real craft is working inside a brand, their teams, and the quest for the light that lives in the realm of dreams, inspirations, inventions and the maker-character of creativity. I call that luminous quest, our BrandQuesting®, as well, as a search for treasure— those glimmering and glistening points of compassed reference, the surveilled pin-pricks of a brand mapping, that define a unique territory, a hidden story, a concealed or forgotten opportunity for positioning.
As the contrarian among us, the skeptic, one might say—“bah, that’s nothing but a mechanism of enterprise—it’s working, or it’s not working, to make money.”
That’s a flat analogy, like saying “cars run on tires.” Sure they do, but there is a lot more complexity to how they perform for you. Brands run on human power, so they’re shinier and more luminous. Still, some enterprises forget about the spiritual drive of their invention and they become more, like the skeptic notes, mechanized. And in this, they risk commodity.
Diving into the soul of enterprise, I’m looking for treasure.
Brand treasure hunting. Treasure finding.
Looking for components that might’ve been buried, that need finding, and uncovering to bring their light to the surface again.
I’ve met other treasure hunters, even 7 year old ones.
And, at a remote monastery, in the Himalaya, this person is called Tertön.
Tibetan: གཏེར་སྟོན or “treasure finder,”
Finding treasure.
It’s something that is difficult to cull in a workshop,
unless it’s operating from a foundation of an exceptionally researched and audited investigation of an enterprise. To be a treasure-finder, dig in advance and scout the territory. As a miner, spelunker, excavator or archaeologist, you’ve got to know your territory.
But the real treasure of a brand are the shimmering people that work the magic of a brand—each story a telling that comes from them, their participation, involvement and enthrallment, in and around an enterprise.
You’ve probably met a shimmering person.
Light came from them,
a kind of clear shining,
a gleam in the eye,
a light-filled smile and
enthusiastically captivating sensing of light, energy —
and in
what etymologists might offer:
enthusiastic, from the Greek, entheos–an indwelling of divinity.
A spiritual person can build a spiritually deep brand. They are full of spirit and passion.
Light, a magical influence, a presence could be aligned to people’s experience of the divine—an extraordinary view, a vista of inestimable beauty is that kind of experience.
Amazing, something unseen, or rarely so—a scene seen of
mysterium tremendum et fascinans—a shocking, if not electrifying, moment.
People can be like that—enthralled, fascinated, compelled, committed—building something marvelous.
And people build dreams, and brands —
enterprises that make things.
What is a shining brand?
What examples come to mind?
In asking others,
two references come
to a common answer.
People invariably offer:
Disney
and
Apple.
Interestingly, Apple played on its notation of “magic” in its propositions for iPad—a magical device. That’s been explained in the premise that the magic isn’t in the hardware, but how humans use it.
And the interplay of all these examinations come back to
the bridge between the notion of humanity and feelingness and the motion to build something grander than the one alone, but rather the leadership circles and teams, communities and rippling potentials that reach out, and out. And out.
When I think of shimmering, I combine the layering of experiential levels—and weave them together. So in that, Disney’s efforts in holistic design might align storytelling, emotionality, memory and mind. So it shimmers.
I recall when I was working with Steve Jobs and
my early runs to Apple,
I felt that shimmering.
Shine.
More.
Often.
And I worked in both places —
Disney and Apple —
so those touch points of sensual connectivity,
the adhesion of sensation,
they ripple
and echo.
I think about a park.
A big park.
And a place that might be inside that place—that reaches out to that deeper place, brands built by people to find the shimmering, indeed the shining of inspiration—and weaving the human inside the layering of that experience.
And isn’t that spiritual?
It’s deeper, it draws the participant into a transformative moment, the momentum of the miraculous is
oftentimes a matter of perception.
What you see? What you know? What you sense?
What you’re looking for?
And that might be it.
In the watchfulness for the shimmering,
the pursuit of shining,
it is like that:
you have to look.
Tim | GIRVIN OSEAN STUDIOS
––––
We’re walking the path of crowdweaving innovation >
ideation, charrettes + brand events
The GIRVIN BrandQuest®
