RUIN PORN — What Did You Do Now?
The Beauty of Ruination — the Quest for Damage The fascination with ruins. The beauty of that which was. When one hears that phrase, “brand new” it usually implies that which is bright and shiny — freshly made, just out of the mould. I tend not to have much interest...
TEXTUALITY: THE WEAVING OF THE ALPHABET
Designing Alphabets, Messaging and Meaning. The alphabetic coding of “The Matrix.” The metaphors of threading content, digital rain, flow and the loom of meaning in context I was talking to a team of students from my college days, reteaching, again some of the...
The Truth of Luxury
THE LUXURY OF AUTHENTIC BRANDS Love counts in the practice of making true. The heart of the genuine: exploring the concepts of authenticity, history, brands and the place of luxury. I’d open with the meaning — and the combinational character of the idea of truth and...
THE FORBIDDEN
The Quest for the Hidden, the Secret and the Occult In the journey — for each of us — we might find a certain fascination with that which isn’t allowed, that which is hidden, forbidden, the dark. Fascination speaks, in its history, to fire and spellbinding,...
The Mother
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY Celebrating the Mysteries of The Mother In my journey thus far, I’ve studied the hand-making of things, the creative molding process as a person driven and bidden by the magic spell of making. But that making is a deeper realm, held in the archetype...
You Could Get to Yes
A Meditation on An Answer I was listening to a toddler, who happens to be my year-old grandson Ellis, and he was saying “No.” Meanwhile, my other, first-received 4-year-old grandson Isaiah has a special way of saying “Yes.” It’s a precise diction he offers. He says it...
The Heart in the Hand
The hand with heart holds more I was wandering, looking down old alleys, plazas and ancient streets. And I spied an old friend. The Hamsa. خمسة | חַמְסָה The Five. I used to wear one of these in college, during another phase of talismanic connection. I lost it...
The Layering of Brand Experience
The Walking Senseway to Spectacle and Sensation I was walking the road. And thought of the sound on my feet, scrabbling the gravel, sliding on some hot asphalt, smoother wet concrete, some metals, the swish of grass — then hard wood — the flooring — and another part...
Stories That Feel
BrandStories That Feel Brandstories in the Construct of Emotionality Earlier in our career, I was asked — in the 90s, to present what we thought was the newest context of brand strategy at Building One, downtown Cincinnati, Procter&Gamble. What we thought then was...
Soul Place
The Quest for Soulful Places As a designer, I find that the work on converting spaces to more meaningful places, which more often than not has to do with the very journey of what soul is supposed to be. Soul is a ancient seed sound — a voicing — for sea, and the point...