![blog-header](https://www.girvin.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/blog-header.webp)
Nobody’s Fool | Designing for Paul Newman
Finding the truth in life, in motion pictures, in storytelling and the character of Paul Newman. What a loss. What a legacy. What a man. While my connection with Paul Newman was mostly about being a designer, for several of his films, I never had the chance to connect...
Pattern language, brand pattern, patterned brand
Patterning in pattern: the woven, the thread, the cairn, the stone, the array: The psychic language of design, pattern, place and presence. A friend of mine, Susi Johnston, from Bali, introduced me to this group. Doon Susi -- she's a gallery owner there, and she's...
Ralph Lauren | Brand storytelling: transporting American visioning in hybrid media
Exploring the story, the man, the brand, Ralph Lauren I've met Ralph Lauren, but hardly to any degree that he'd recall. But I did have a connection with him, decades ago. Brief. And unforgettable, for me. Likely completely unknown to him. Why? I'd pitched his group on...
BMW & Oracle | Design+Vision+Grace+Action
The BMW | Oracle Trimaran for the America's Cup I've been a fan of BMW design for a long time. But I had a recent encounter that was breathtaking. I'll get to that. The car of my beginnings was a 1972 2002. And what I savored about that car was working on it. I've...
Cheerwine: Brand legacy and storytelling
Tom Barbitta is a friend of mine. A friend, as a client -- a friend as an fellow explorer of story. A brand explorer. He believes in the power of story as a link to building relationships with people. Brand, in story, is solely about that -- linking people to products...
Art as Brand: Jeff Koons at the Palace of Versailles
Exploring art in place: context, construct, concept -- the brand marketing of Jeff Koons at Versailles. There's been a far amount of energy being wrapped around the concept of Jeff Koon's installation at Versailles. Of course, the idea is that the installation might...
Ghosts, Ghost Town and Ricky Gervais | Paramount Studios + DreamWorks Pictures
Exploring the illusory: branding ghosts and the veil of what is beyond... I'd been fascinated by the concept of the ghost – and the ghostly – for decades, since I was a kid. The magical, the mystical, the mysterious. Actually, my first big book purchase, happened at...
Being Good: Commune, Community, Communications | Brand Messaging & Story: Starbucks’ Good(ness)
What good is my community -- and what communion is there, for me? I was thinking about the idea of goodness -- and the notion of human brand -- what are we doing that's good for people? And in doing our work as strategists, designers, marketers and brand virologists,...
The Personal Journal: An Exploratory of Storytelling & Creative Development
Exploring the journal as journey -- and finding the truth in your self. Where are you going, anyway? What do you have to say for your self? Where have you been? What do you care about? And finally, given all that, what does it mean -- to you, to others, to the...
Brandstory | International Retail Design Conference Keynote Address | Seattle, WA 09.2008
True Stories: a quest for narrative in the psyche of hybrid experience. During the 90s, I came to a string of crises in my life - while I was at the epitome of success, the biggest design firm for more than a decade, lots of money, big projects, I was profoundly...