THE OPENING OF THE NYC NORDSTROM FLAGSHIP STORE
EVERY JOURNEY HAS A BEGINNING—ITS END IS MERELY ANOTHER BEGINNING. In my history with Dawn Clark, my best friend, design partner, consulting collaborator, surfing mate, it’s been a long evolution of watching her ideations of the Nordstrom store-wide redesign, from her...
SIGNS THAT YOU SEE: CLARIFYING VISIONING, WAYFINDING, THE PUZZLE OF LOSTNESS
Notes on signing, wayfinding, alphabets and recognition. When you are lost, where do you go, what do you do? Some would say, “I’d look at my phone.” Or "I’d look at the Sun. Where is it, anyway?" You can, metaphorically, look for a sign—some augury that portends the...
IF YOU’RE LOST, COULD YOU FIND YOURSELF? WAYFINDING DESIGN AS A METAPHORICAL EXPLORATION.
THERE IS A PLACE: YOU’RE IN THE PLACE. HOW DO YOU DESIGN A PATHWAY FOR FINDING? What is the way, found? We were thinking about this. In the context of the work that you do. And what we do. We’ve wondered about that, the character of being lost, being found. Finding...
Monthly Desktop Background: Getting Distorted
This month’s design comes from assistant designer Jude Dacula. Known for his insane ability to juggle multiple projects and somehow meet every deadline, Jude is a master when it comes to user experience, motion design, creating websites and digital assets. Although he...
WHAT WAS, IS: THE FUTURISM OF ANCIENT DESIGN THINKING AND SYMBOLOGY
WHY WOULD YOU LOOK BACK, TO GO FORWARD? THE PATTERNING OF THE LONG TIME: WHAT IT MEANS FOR DESIGN, BRAND AND ENTERPRISE. As designers, our entire history is just that: going back, to go forward—in GIRVIN's study of design, as a legacy, goes back 5000 years. As a point...
BRAND STRATEGY AND TIERED ENGAGEMENT
YOU UNDERSTAND. YOU KNOW. YOU BELIEVE. We all know that our work, brandspace, will be about the tiering of messages and visuals that enchant the participant. The signature of design is the sewing of that suture—side to side, layered, lit and shadowed storytelling:...
THE RIP CURL OF BRAND STORYTELLING
WHEN YOU’RE FAR OUT AT SEA, SEE THE WAVES, SENSE THE RIP, IT’S TIME TO RIDE THE FAR HORIZON OF THE RIPPLING SWELL. Image above: Dawn A. Clark When you’re out there, far out there, watching the impending swell, there’s the rising curl of fear, awe and wonder,...
Monthly Desktop Background: Making Waves
This month’s design comes from our newest senior designer Corey Campbell. Not only does he have an awesome alliterative name, he has joined the GIRVIN team seamlessly, bringing with him his sense of humor and dedication to perfection. As a northwest native, Corey has...
WANDER. WONDER. WISDOM.
THE ART OF GETTING LOST. BRAND STRATEGY, GETTING LOST AND THE JOURNEY TO BEING FOUND. ALL THAT WANDER SHALL BE FOUND The Quest for Metaphor, Personal Symbolism and the Iconography of Journey IN THE WORK ON BRAND, THERE’S AN EMERGENCE: ENTERPRISES THAT LOSE THEIR WAY....
EXPERIENTIALITY | DESIGN IN THE CONTEXT OF SENSUALITY
Experientiality. A quick scan of the dictionary shows nothing, just words that are “around” this spelling—experience and experientially. I thought when I first used it that I’d made it up. But there is more to it—from two sides: one]—from the Latin, experiri—which is...