DESIGNING NOMENCLATURE
The Naming of Things THE MYSTICAL ROOTS OF THE DESIGNING AND VOICING OF NAMES. When you think about it, telling someone your name is either comfortable or proves an uneasiness. And sometimes, you might ask for the name of a person, and there is a pregnant moment of...
The Shining | Moments of Inspiration, Epiphany and Spectacle
SHELF EPIPHANY, RETAIL DESIGN, BRAND STORYTELLING AND SHINING SURPRISES ––––––––––––– I was talking to a client about the concept of the shine. When a product, the shelf on which it resides, the store in which it lives — shines — what is that like, that light? Walking...
Force Fullness
THE SENSE OF PUSH. AND PULL. AND PLAY. Sometimes, in the strength of the passionate moment, the voice of the impassioned telling — accentuating the potent momentum — there’s a need for force. FORCE ACTIVATES. And force can captivate. Enchantment: As the energy passes...
ZenMind
BRAND KICKSTART: ZEN MIND, BEGINNER’S MIND GIRVIN office lobby working session | Seattle THE IMPETUS OF SPIRITUAL BRANDING — EXPLORING THE CONCEPT OF ZEN IN THE CONSTRUCT OF BRANDING In working with teams, on the implications of their brand, the process is inevitably...
The Icon of You
Personal Brands, Totems and Emblems Why does Tim Girvin love crows and ravens? It was just posted, again — a group of images on crows and ravens tagged “for Tim Girvin.” While that was happening, that posting, I was looking at an entity that was clearly looking at me...
The Aesthetics of Aging
The Beauty of Rust Antiquity, Utility, Wabi Sabi and Beauty In one person’s eyes, as an object gets older, it cracks, it discolors — and it might rust. Okay, one approach — toss it out. Get rid of it. And contrary to that — another more classical line of thinking:...
The Design of Shadows
DESIGNING THE SHADOW WORLD What Have You Seen of the Shadow World? In any journey, the question is never just what is on the surface, but what lies behind and beneath. It’s never about what you see in clarity alone, but what lies behind the Light. And what the Light...
All that Wander
ALL THAT WANDER SHALL BE FOUND The Quest for Metaphor, Personal Symbolism and the Iconography of Journey IN THE WORK ON BRAND, the questing strategist invariably finds that — besides the fundamentals of commerce — there are deeper values to the work: there is a...
Movie Titling / Hand Craft
Working from Scratch: Customized Type Face Design, Font Development and Motion Picture Design The presumption is — design by hand and the work is better. Is that right? In the study of aligning idea to shining, brand to epiphany, inspiration to magic — there is the...
WE MADE IT HERE
Care, Craft and Centrality in the Value of Place in Authentic Making Earlier, working in, and writing about, luxury, I’d talked about truth — the deadly virus of pompous positioning of luxury goods. “Yes, fancy surely, but we actually had it made in China on the...