The Mapping of Memory—Minds, Meaning, The Cartography of Brand patterning
As brand strategists and designers of brands, we think about memory as a key reference to relationships in community—it’s a simple questioning: what’s memorable? For a customer, GIRVIN’s Brand R’s: which asks: what are the key points of relevance—what’s immediately...
(W)health | Branding Women’s Health | at Shelf and Placemaking
Yesterday, NYC, I had a meeting with a friend, client and global consultant to shopping and retail design trends. She and I worked together on her brand, client relationships, and have spoken together in panels for various summits around the US as well as France....
GIRVIN | Designing The Brand: The Legend of Zelda
The game goes on. Forever. Obviously, as the design agency of record for Nintendo, in the legacy of our history of brand design in the 80s-90s, we walked the storytelling from design thinking, gamer trials and testing, briefs from Japan’s designers and the...
The Way Forward, the Wisdom of Brand Wandering: Farther, Further, and Future.
Mýrdalshreppur, Iceland As a global wanderer—and a wonderer, in that wandering—I’m always thinking about that notion of the deeper side of the stride. And I ask: "what, to walking, what to the steps forward, what is the sense of the way ahead?” And when I think about...
Theatrical Branding and Type Design | Logo Workshops in LA
For motion picture studio teams, agencies and theatrical producers, I’ve been giving these workshop presentations as a proposition to linking marketing strategy, brand storytelling and narrative illustration. In a manner, thinking of movie logos, the identity offers a...
The dreamer is the whole dream, the deep archetypes of John Wick
The mythological patterning of legend-building—cinematic narrative and ancient thematics—BabaYaga, the BogeyMan and the Hero of 1000 Faces. As any creative would tell you, story-working is a layering of patterns—there are the arcs of plots, the intertwinement of time,...
GIRVIN | Nintendo+Tetris
DESIGNING LOGOS AS A PUZZLE MASTERY SOLUTION Everything’s a puzzle, in a manner of speaking—each game is a labyrinthine array of choices, that play to decision-making that, in amazement, leads to the conclusion, a win or the continuation of another game. In the legacy...
Finding the Right Word, Corporate Signatures and Tag Lines
Positioning a brand with the just right phrasing. In studying the architecture of brands—first off, there’s a need to reach-in, right to the center of the proposition—soul placement. Where does the heart live? What’s the offer of the brand, what does the brand stand...
Uplift
We’re all looking for the right answer, and the better outlook after the challenging sequences of the last couple of years. We’re looking for yes. Anytime you have an answer, there was a question before. And any question is a quest— it's a journey, from one place of...
Workshopping the Wholly Creative Life: Kindling Fire, Journaling Meaning, Art in The Shaping of Content
You’re thinking about it: the meaning of the work, what is it you’re doing, what you’ve done, what you could be doing—and what you’re dreaming about: the future. In my history, I’ve taught all manner of workshops. When I was a student at New College, as well as The...