BRAND COMPONENTRY | LINKING BRAND DESIGN VOCABULARIES, PATTERNING[S], PREMISES AND PRINCIPLES
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...
BESPOKE BRAND VISUALIZATIONS | THE TYPOLOGIES OF THE LETTERFORM
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...
MYSTICAL MONOGRAMS | ALPHABETICAL MAGIC
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...
SEEING DEEP | THE QUEST FOR INSIGHTS
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...
You’re not here, where are you?
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...
THE QUEST FOR MEMORABLE IDENTITY | LEGACY BRAND DEVELOPMENT
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...
DESIGNING DISNEYLAND | BRAND PLACEMAKING AND INNOVATION
WORKING IMAGINATION | THE IMAGINEERS AT DISNEYLAND In my history as a design leader, we worked around various propositions of entertainment at Disney—not only working on films, but Disneyland itself, in a string of calls from the Imagineering teams at Disney,...
BRAND PATHWAYS | EVERYPLACE YOU GO, YOU’RE GOING SOMEWHERE
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...
THE LEGACY OF THE TOMB RAIDER | ILLICIT ANTIQUITIES, ADVENTURE, AND BRAND STORYTELLING
We worked on both Angelina Jolie properties, under Simon West’s direction…
IDEATION AND NOMENCLATURE | WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT’S YOUR NAME?
GIRVIN IDEATOR® NEW BRAND DEVELOPMENT, INNOVATION AND NAMING. There are two sides to the issue of a name—one is “hey you, what’s your name?” Or, “my name is…” The other is, “I call your name…And I know your truth, you are mine.” One might say that the ancient strategy...