Brand and Mind
3M: Memory, Mental and Meaning. Sometimes we push a proposition in our work on brandspace that fails to take into consideration the bridging to a human scenario of mindfulness, meaning and the context of memory. All are — as would be obvious — aligned. But the notion...
Written Talismans and Architecture
The Use of Writing as a Talismanic Device in Architecture When GIRVIN had an office in NYC, off 26th and Broadway, I used to walk around, looking in on shops and restaurants. I found a little curiosity shop, a dealer in ancient antiquities and I spied some familiar...
The Mystery of Design
Design Mysticism When you go deep. As a designer, you might meditate on your work, what you’re doing. And your being in that doing. There might be a brand strategy, and the unfolding character of tactics and deployment. But making marks is a legacy that is thousands...
What could you give?
Brands that give, brands that don’t. I was studying this wall-bound piece of type, and contemplated the unassuming air of its drawing — nothing too formal — outlined then in-filled in a casual, if not happily energetic manner. In the emotionality of typography, the...
The Symbolism of the Hash Tag
The Hatching Stroke and the Ubiquity of Archetypal Design Thinking # I was walking the beach near my studios and found the above mark, cross-hacked into a log, the proverbial “pound” or number sign. And I wondered about it. “When this type of mark is made, what...
Surprise!
Brands that come from nowhere that surprise, alarm, and boom on the scene as spectacle. Or breeze in, quiet as the fog, a shadow of revelation. What have you seen that came on you as a surprise — out-of-the-blue, amazing, extraordinary, marvel-making and wonderment?...
Can I Come In?
Is Your Brand Truly Open? I went into a shop that I was interested in, excited about — selling mostly Asian antiquities and art. The response was about as welcoming as a bucket full of ice water. I was looking at a site, and I tried to place some things in a “cart,”...
Hand Drawn Brush Signage
The Script of The Multi-Stroke Brush Lettering Old-style Grocery Signage Script When I began my career [1975,] I was a lettering artist, a sign-writer. I wasn’t a designer, I was more to a kind of tradesman. I had no idea about what design was, per se — I knew about...
Brand Fight Club
Can you fight? Perhaps you’ve had some exposure to boxing? You know what comes of it. The movement is a dance — it’s a whirling and spinning spar — a jumping and explosive hip hop to reach out in a ring, ‘round you. All of the training is about speed and stamina —...
The Hand Speaks
The Grace of Handwriting: Soul Drawings It is the physiological nature of our being that what the hand offers reaches back to the psychical current of the mind. In the journey of drawing, learning the way of The Seeing Hand, I was studying the treasury of master...