ALL THAT WANDER
SHALL BE FOUND
The Quest for Metaphor,
Personal Symbolism and the Iconography of Journey
IN THE WORK ON BRAND,
the questing strategist invariably finds that —
besides the fundamentals of commerce —
there are deeper values to the work:
there is a journey to the
finding
and
founding of
a measure of commerce —
a worldview lit by passionate fire.
Brand founders and magicians love what they do.
They must.
But that journey is rarely a straight line.
Likely, it is a wandering.
Which, like the wind —
from which the word wanderer comes from —
is a journey of meander, exploration, failure of finding and rightful discovery.
Wandering is work —
wandering is winding.
Meander isn’t ease.
The way of the wander is like the maze,
disorienting and confusing,
but could also be marvelous,
and spectacle; it could be wonderment;
and so too:
loss, failure,
stumbling
and end.
And:
the next beginning.
We all know
the story of Brand and Fire.
So I won’t recount it.
But consider
if only
for a moment
that the etymology of brand
lies in ancient sounds and roots —
perhaps some 5,000 years back,
brand is the voicing of fire.
In our work,
we look into the psychic space of brand —
the deeper sphere of emotionality,
inspiration, the cavernous place of
meaning, memory and mindfulness.
Brands, leadership and their stories
that could lend to
metaphor, poetry,
magic and transformational archetypes —
but who wouldn’t, too, study the allegories of being?
That is the being-ness of humanity:
what we do as people,
that might represent sequences of symbols and ideals that aren’t merely the commentary of decades, but thousands of years.
The Light. The Dark.
The Mother. Father.
The Hero. The Trickster.
The Healer.
There are some that ply this strategic trade on
the tactical nomenclature of
looking at archetypes in brand.
We’ve been there — we consider it in
the context of brand and placemaking.
There are patterns,
they align and shimmer with
the potentials of mindful connectivity,
memory the re-collection of place.
Sure — such a patterning might be
the deep allegory of the pathway,
the entry sequence, the doorway, the portal,
the transom, the lintel, the pillar —
the floor, the ceiling.
The Hallway — the channel between places.
And to each of us — as people, and in our work on, and around brands — there are patternings that relate to
the heart of being and
the soul of the work.
What would that be for you?
There is a symbol,
and it would be, for you —
what?
A hearth, a horse,
the raven, the cat,
the doorway, the candle,
the sailor, the sail —
or the star that guides you?
What would it be?
I think about a story for myself — another time.
I look down an alley, there is steam billowing in the light — and there are markings on the wall — I think it’s a shadow, but it’s a figure. It then emerges — and what I see then is…
me;
while I stand there, looking forward, I realize that this image, this visage, is myself — the quester,
the journeyer.
That is the persona of a walker — a person, a journeyer who is perpetually looking out, searching for more — a learner, a listener, a staff, a hat from the sun.
In my own
being out there,
there is always that
person
who is further out there.
They might be on the farther range,
the distant pathway, the remote crag, the misted jungle way.
I keep an eye on the Wanderer — who is the one
that’s not here, but there.
Far out there.
In the tradition of exploring personal iconography — as you might do in your study of personal archetypes and symbolisms — draw them up and keep them round.
I draw them on wood, stone, glass and ice, air and water —
and I keep them around as a statement.
Be out.
Be watchful.
Pay attention.
Be on the road,
the path keeps you.
Go farther.
And I believe, that each of us is our own Wanderer — we travel our paths and seem to be lost in our way, but we’re only on a path that, for now, we might not know.
Every path is a question, every way is an answer. It all comes to your attention on the way found. For to each,
we
make
our
way.
A journey into
W a n d e r e r s.
White Quartz
Clay scribed and Madrona
Marine Clay
Ply-driftwood
Brick
Cedar
Cedar Shake split
Split Madrona
Ghost Clay
Clay Stave
PlyDriftwood
EndGrain Pine
Found Timber
Black Rock
Sawn Cedarwood
Reminders:
I think of reminders as just that: re Minders.
They bring you back to paying attention.
And in these, that’s the point —
in the journey of wandering, that’s the core apex of action:
pay
attention.
If you’re out there, how are you leaning in to listen?
What do you see?
Watching — what can you learn?
Direction?
Pattern?
Way-finding.
As well we all know —
not all that wander are lost.
They could be just that — finding.
TIM | Decatur Studios
….
HOLISTIC WELLNESS & PLACE
THE STRATEGY OF CREATING
HEALTHY PLACES OF BEING
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DESIGNING ENVIRONMENTS FOR HEALING + HEALTH:
PLACES | RETAIL | RESTAURANTS | SPAS | WELL CENTERS
wellness experience design,
storytelling + brand =
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