by Tim Girvin | Artists, Places, Scent | Jan 24, 2013
When you see something, does a scent come to mind? Sensing synaesthesia — the sensation of perfumed visualization. For a long time, we’ve been fascinated by the idea of hearing color, tasting sound, touching scent — the notion, rather the condition,...
by Tim Girvin | Brands, Interior Design, Places, Retail | Jan 18, 2013
Designing the Brand: Yogurt Culture Company, Exploring the Process of Restaurant Brand Ideation Girvin has a deep history in the restaurant trade, particularly in building new brands. The legacy of 30 plus years has led to insights working both sides of the counter,...
by Tim Girvin | Cool People, Interior Design, Places | Jan 9, 2013
The Restaurant for Guillermo Del Toro The Vibe of Gitane, San Francisco Spending time studying the production design sketches of writer, visual stylist and cinematic director Guillermo Del Toro suggests a certain “spanish” visualization that moves from the...
by Tim Girvin | Brands, Cool People, Places, Retail | Jan 7, 2013
Building a brand around legacy and re-integrating authenticity in brand storytelling. I first met Jeff Chandler, speaking in a string of workshops for “young presidents [YPO] and executives on the notion of the “humanity” of brands, building brands...
by Tim Girvin | Interior Design, Places | Jan 4, 2013
Retail Brand Language: The Layering of Patterning. The design language of brand patterning. Brand patterning, psychic patterning — the hidden and the obvious messaging of place-making and experience, designed. I was watching some people in a place, and watching...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Marketing 2.0, Places | Dec 21, 2012
How to plan and design a menu? Key is close collaboration — and knowing the diner, the experience strategy, the character of illumination, stylistic consciousness, and the budgeting of items in relation to the financial strategy of the brand. A menu, like the...
by Tim Girvin | Artists, Concepts, Cool People, Interior Design, Places | Nov 28, 2012
The sense of place, design, imagination and spectacle. The seeing eye, touching place, designed inspiration of Robert Irwin Earlier in my life, I was on the COCA team that ideated bringing James Turrell to Seattle — decades before, “seeing the light...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Places | Nov 26, 2012
Signing [and storytelling] buildings = building brand, branding buildings: Designing customized retellings of the principle of buildings, their architecture and way finding. And selling them. Earlier, in our legacy, opening forays into signing systems, we worked with...
by Tim Girvin | Brands, Interior Design, Places, Retail | Nov 21, 2012
Quickshift: the value of fast change Speed of change counts, there is surprise value in accelerated shifting from one modeling to another. Working with the teams at Starbucks, learning from their move to the next, the new — the effort was rarely casual; usually...
by Tim Girvin | Cool People, Designers, Places, Trends | Nov 19, 2012
Doing good, as a contributor to community, in design — could be “helping me, helping you.” How would you improve life in NYC? How can you help? Anywhere? As a pro bono designer? There’s nothing [as it seems to me, these days] as challenging as...
