by Tim Girvin | BRAND MYSTICISM, Brands, Concepts, Human brands | Jun 16, 2022
Brand naming As many know, there is a profession of nomenclature strategy—people who “name” things. It’s an intriguing meditation, given ancient character of the concept of the name, which as the tradition of antiquity proffers, speaks literally to the true nature of...
by Tim Girvin | BRAND MYSTICISM, Brands, Storytelling | May 26, 2022
WORKSHOPPING LOVE AND PASSION I was talking to a colleague about “love,” the notion of letter-writing and love-worthy thoughts expressed in a hand-notated missive, one human to another. To that, we were talking about stamps—particularly this love stamp I’d designed...
by Tim Girvin | BRAND MYSTICISM, Concepts, Storytelling | Mar 30, 2022
DESIGN STRATEGIES, DEEP BRANDING, METAPHORICAL NARRATIVES Of course, we have a different way of thinking about the alphabet—as designers, as brand fire starters, letter crafters and identity theorists. If you’re thinking about a letter—what’s your favorite? Me? X. As...
by Tim Girvin | BRAND MYSTICISM, Brands, Cool People, Interior Design, Scent | Mar 10, 2022
Designing for perfume—the detailing of scent-related *experientiality: D I P T Y P Q U E. When I see things, invariably I smell them. When I touch things, I hear them. It’s a trait of curiosity—it’s one thing to see things, it’s another to touch them, still another to...
by Tim Girvin | BRAND MYSTICISM, Concepts | Feb 24, 2022
THE SIGILLIC SOLUTION In the journey of brand design and identity, there is the high road, the first summit, the easier vista—the outreach of an accessible view and foundational story: “it’s beautiful, so this must be a beautiful brand.” And then there are the deeper...
by Tim Girvin | BRAND MYSTICISM, Brands, Concepts, Cool People, Designers, Interior Design, Luxury, Places, Retail | Feb 7, 2022
HERITAGE BRAND DESIGN AND SYSTEMIC PATTERNING More than four and a half decades ago, 1976, I pitched the idea of integrative branding to the Creative Director at Nordstrom, Dan Holland, and I presented again—this same thematic strategy, later to Claudia Milne, then...
by GirvinIT | BRAND MYSTICISM, Brands, Concepts, Storytelling | Jan 19, 2022
In our experience, brands are—and should be—on a perpetual move, never quiet, always exploring, evolving, tuning and turning to new relationships and communities. And most brands do—with forward thinking leadership, they’re thinking—“we’re missing something here, we...
by Tim Girvin | BRAND MYSTICISM, Brands, Cool People, Human brands, Trends | Dec 13, 2021
BRANDS LED BY WOMEN The power of the feminine principal When I was in college, I studied the archetype of the Great Mother who—and which— might be defined as less of an archetype in the common parlance of today’s voice, and more of a deep, collective unconscious...
by Tim Girvin | BRAND MYSTICISM, Concepts, Places, Retail, Storytelling | Dec 1, 2021
IN THE JOURNEY OF BRAND DESIGN, IT ALWAYS COMES DOWN TO MEANING, MEMORY AND SENSATION. We’ve been working around the brand frontline for 4.5 decades. There are a string of alignments that emanate from that succession that are the core questions that always come to...
by Tim Girvin | BRAND MYSTICISM, Brands, Concepts | Nov 19, 2021
Every day, as much as I can, I like to get out there. It’s a mix between terror and joy, fear and exhilaration, exultation and trepidation. Don’t you just love that moment when the fearsome rears up at you and then, rising up on the crest of that momentous inquietude,...
