![blog-header](https://www.girvin.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/blog-header.webp)
Wowness
The Quest for Amazement I'm a Scot; and "wow" is a Scottish word from the 1500s. I find another reference of equal interest, the Southern New England Algonquian [Narragansett] framing, the "powwow." powwaw "shaman, medicine man, Indian priest," from a verb meaning "to...
Soul
SOUL, STORY, BRAND In the history of the work of strategy and design, when it comes down to it, what have you done? Is it about the roaring financial success you have achieved? Or is it about the learnings, the journey, the sorting of experiences? For my practice it...
Zen and Branding
The Contemplative Walk My earlier studies of Thich Nhat Hanh revolved around the walking meditation -- grounding into the earth, walking, breathing, contemplating the open stride; that mindful, mindless walk, open-to-the-moment ambulatory meditation. Being in, deep....
The WATCHER
What Are You Looking At? In the journey of examination, the notion of self study is part of that voyage. But who's with you, who's helping; who's reMinding you? I think that each of us has an ancient soul, something that goes back and back, far into the mists of time,...
JOURNEY, THE STRIDE OF BRAND
WHAT IF YOU'RE THE BRAND? We've written a lot about the brand of you. The truth of the brand will lie in the journey; in exploring any brand, our path is journey -- what route has it been, what telling to the past, the present, the future? That goes for you too. Where...
Where are you going, where have you been?
The journey out, and the journey back; looking forward to where you've been. I was rowing, and as I pull ahead, off the beach and into the choppy slipstream of the salted sea channel, out to the open oceans, I saw that I was rowing away from where I had been, and that...
The Shadow World
Go You To The Shadow World? It's never about what you see in clarity alone, but what lies behind the Light. Certainty is never assured in anything. As a designer, when I'm working on a project, or a photo shoot, a story, a piece of writing, I watch for the Light, yet...
The ring
The metaphor of the Rod, the Ring, the Line, the Circle. I think symbolically: when I try to find the answer to a problem, I draw it out. And for me, it's that: "drawing it out." Like a string, a line, a movement. A dance. The idea of a stroke having a lively presence...
The Tarot of Your Journey
Designing Divination -- the Craft of your Path Built by Hand and Shown in the Throw The pick of the draw -- and the drawing out, the woven journey, the thread of path, and the cartography of the psyche. What you see is what you get; what you get is what you see....