DEEP BRAND SPACE | SYMBOLICAL BRAND PLACE-MAKING
THE ORDER OF PATHWAYS AND THE TOUCH OF THE MEMORABLE M A K E A M A Z E M E N T. As brand designers—as with any part of human creativity, “a making” or the construction of a visible object, the made art or the scribed breath of a poem—the point would be to answer this...
Branding Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer Films
The Strike of the Twin Lightning Bolts
By This You Are Named
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...
ON MAKING
M A K E Y O U R W A Y S BRAND SPACE—THE STRATEGY OF MAKING—STORYTELLING, PLACE-MAKING, THE PERSONAL JOURNEY OF THE WORK—WHAT YOU MAKE AND THE WAY YOU MAKE IT. Isn’t it so that our journey—as creatives, designers, wordsmiths, strategists—is a stride towards finding?...
WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE? | BRANDS AND BELIEF
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...
MEDITATIONS ON SPEED: FAST BRANDS, SLOW BRANDS— WHAT’S BEST?
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...
THE SEARCH FOR BEAUTY AND THE SHOCK OF WOW
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...
THE STRATEGY OF ZEN, MARKINGS AND MEANING
SIMPLIFYING THE CONCATENATION OF BEING. Sometimes, simply being is—just by itself, complicated; it’s trying to be good to oneself, respectful of others, following a plan and a pathway, and doing good. Sometimes, it feels like it’s all a little bit much—then again, in...
THE QUEST FOR GRAPHICAL BEAUTY
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,...
THE X FILES: ALPHABETICAL SYMBOLISM AND THE CROSSROADS OF CONTENT
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...