Going Deeper
Spelunking Brands There is a patterning that one can see in caves, the geolocational strata, stones, layers, sediments, ice, water, rivers and concretions — as an explorer of caves, it’s kind of like mountaineering inside mountains — interior alpinism, as in the...
FOCUS | CLARITY | PERCEPTION
WATCHING, LISTENING, ATTUNEMENT In the intertwining of life, work and brand, there are keys to actualization and mobilization. In my experience, the notion of attention and focus are at the heart of how people either reach-out, or reach-in — it’s how the exchange...
Wander and Wonder
Finding A Way Out, That Could Be a Way In This, above, is a sign from my office; it’s from the London Underground. And below, another example. What I liked about it — the image at the head of this missive, and put a photo in my journal, is the inverted rendering of...
The Symbolism of The Chain
The Nature of Interlinking, Knotmaking, Braiding and the Entwinement of Storytelling. As a journeyer in brand, and the fire making of its fluency in community, I find myself in the study of the under-layments of how it works. As noted long back, it’s a storytelling...
Signs and Meaning
The Context of Message, Framing of Context and Visualization I look for signs that aren’t signs — in a conventional sense — they tell another deeper story, but sigils that signal a message that stand for the nature of a place. Cairns, ovoo, iwakura no mononoke,...
The beauty, the letterform, the commitment: Memories of Hermann Zapf
Alphabet Odyssey | 1976 Earlier in my life, late 1970s, I’d reached to Hermann Zapf about a possible visit, with him and his wife, Gudrun Zapf von Hesse, in Darmstadt, Germany. I’d made the connection through the leadership of the Klingspor Museum, in Offenbach am...
YOU ARE WHERE YOU ARE
Contentment, placemaking and presence. Sometimes I study the context of people in their place. What is it for them? How are they doing? What are they being? That examination works in the context of brands, enterprise and leadership. What is the culture of a place, and...
THE HIGH AND LONG WAVE | BRAND SURFING
THE ALLEGORY OF THE WAVE WATCH, THE BOARD, THE TREND AND THE CURL. My first exposure to waves was when I was about 4 years old — my father was a Captain of Surgery, stationed at Fort Monmouth. We used to go to the Jersey shore — and Dad would run me down to the beach...
The History of the Hammer
The Tool, the Allegory, the Legend I’ve been using hammers. And collecting old hammers. Have you tried working with multiple hammers, their wood and metal shafts, their weighted mallet heads, explored how they work? The weight, the heft, the swing, the balance, the...
Who Do You Love?
Love Brands: Relationships, Commitments and Storytelling. I did this installation, out on a cliff, away from everything, looking out — the deep blue sea. And the sun. And I was “looking through L O V E,” thinking about that ancient question: "who do you love?" "And...