by Tim Girvin | Brands, Concepts, Marketing 2.0 | May 18, 2022
IS EVERYTHING SLOWER NOW? In the purported aftermath of the Covidularity—[right, invented,] it’s been a persistent experience for me for things to be slowing down. Items of the trade that we’re in, strategy, design and production—paper, for example—hard to find, some...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Storytelling | May 11, 2022
As designers, we’re looking for memorable impact—design solutions that are memorable, laden with ineluctable magic, surprise, wondrous artfulness, amazing and happiness-creating, or—more particularly, treatments that invoke the sense of wow! Wow is unforgettable. Tim...
by Tim Girvin | Artists, Concepts, Cool People, Designers, Storytelling | Apr 27, 2022
Obviously, the question of beauty doesn’t propound solely a complicated design— instead, it could be profoundly simple—so delicately balanced and restrained that it catalyzes disciplined elegance. But when one calculates the etymology—in reverse—of beautiful graphics,...
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 | Concepts | Mar 18, 2022
BACK IN SPOKANE, I FOUND THIS PANEL THAT I DREW FOR MY PARENTS; STILL THERE, NEXT TO THE PIANO. THE MEDITATION ON THE ANSWER OF UPLIFT—YES! I went to Spokane to see my family—my Mother and Father, for a check in—both in their 90s, there has been a health-related...
by Tim Girvin | Artists, Brands, Concepts, Marketing 2.0, Trends | Mar 4, 2022
MEDITATIONS ON THE SHAPE OF CONTENT In the moment of inspiration, everyone “thinks” something and converts this to some framing of expression. Could be handwritten, a journal entry, a sketched missive, drawn on an iPad or typed out. It’s the shaping of content that...
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 | Concepts, Storytelling | Feb 18, 2022
IN EVERY ENCOUNTER THERE IS THE LOOK—THE APPEARANCE— OF WHAT’S ON THE SURFACE. AND THEN THERE’S: WHAT’S UNDERNEATH, THE BEHIND, THE SHADOW—THE DEEPER GLANCE. S O M E T H I N G M O R E Even in the digital space, there’s a story above, there’s a story below, there is a...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Places, Trends | Feb 10, 2022
MEDITATIONS ON REMOTE WORK. THE SEARCH FOR MEANINGFUL BEAUTY, THE QUEST FOR ACTIVE FOCUS IN ATTENTION AND THE CONTEMPLATIVE STRATEGY OF WORKING IN REMOTE LOCATIONS—SO-CALLED: WORKING SOMEPLACE YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE. An old scrap of handmade paper, hanging in a...
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...
