by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Interior Design, Places | Dec 23, 2014
HOW ATTENTIVE ARE YOU? As you think about design, and the creation of designed experiences, the point might go two ways: how attentive are you? and how attentively will your experiences be received? People come into a place in the construct of impressionistic...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Places, Storytelling | Dec 9, 2014
The Use of Writing as a Talismanic Device in Architecture When GIRVIN had an office in NYC, off 26th and Broadway, I used to walk around, looking in on shops and restaurants. I found a little curiosity shop, a dealer in ancient antiquities and I spied some familiar...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Cool People, Designers, Interior Design, Places, Storytelling | Oct 2, 2014
The Journey of Design, Place-making and Creative Environments: Archetypal Signage As any designer knows, to brand and experience design, there is a link between storytelling and sequence. A story has an ingress — a start, a mid-point, a moment of spectacle, of...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Places, Storytelling | Sep 25, 2014
There is the sign, which is a way — a tool to explain process and direction, to instruct, to mark, to place: made. The Ace Hotel, Expressed Metal Plate But to the notion of place-making, how that sign is made, gesture or stone, or cut metal, wood can tell a layering...
by Tim Girvin | Brands, Interior Design, Places, Retail | Sep 22, 2014
Exploring Retail Architecture, Metaphor and Magic. I had a chance to observe the strategic evolutions of Nordstrom’s brand presence in my friendship with Dawn A. Clark, AIA LeedAP — lead architectural strategist and team leader in the newly evolving architectural and...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Places, Scent | Sep 16, 2014
What About the Smell of the Moon? A friend, high perfumer Christi Meshell, pointed out a note on the Fragrance of the Moon. That aligns with an earlier conversation we had about the smell of guns, firepower and gun powder. It’s like the smell of any explosive, the...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Places | Aug 14, 2014
Exploring Design | Culture | Place: Iceland and a Graphical History In the journey of anyplace, anywhere, there is a re-counting, as you walk back in time, you count your moments and you gather up your steps, in recounting. And sometimes that striding will take you...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Cool People, Places, Storytelling | Aug 12, 2014
THE VOLCANIC IMPETUS. ONCE IN MY LIFE, I’D TRIED TO BUILD A PLAN TO RUN [HIKE AND SUMMIT] THE VOLCANIC CIRCUIT ON JAVA, THE GREAT ISLAND OF INDONESIA — TO HIKE THE SPINE OF ONE OF THE GREATEST VOLCANIC ARRAYS IN THE WORLD, THE SO-CALLED “RING OF FIRE.” I hiked a...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Cool People, Places, Storytelling | Aug 7, 2014
And In Your Search, What Have You Seen? I was thinking about people that I’ve talked to — to learn more about their history. Not what they’re doing, what their job is, but rather — where have they been, and what have they seen? Scene, seen? [Image above: T R A I L E R...
by Tim Girvin | Cool People, Designers, Places, Storytelling | Jul 15, 2014
The Journey of Storytelling in the Context of Space, Made Narrative Place. In the past, we’ve written about the idea of cinematic production design — and individual designers and directors — their interplay, and how interpretations of context are made. Interestingly,...