You’re so cool.
Design, brand foundations and Silicon Valley: opening the channels to brand origination. "I know that there's a story here, but how will people get it? What is the story, what's cool about it -- and why would anyone care?" I was thinking about the beginnings....
THE STRATEGY OF A STORY
THE STRATEGY OF A STORY, THAT'S AN OLD STORY, THAT'S A NEW STORY, RETOLD. Why do you carry a story, that is another story (even brand story) that becomes your story -- brought forward? What does the listener hold? If there's a scent - a perfume - could that story be...
My house, held. And the work in it.
Thinking about the iconography of place, what's made in it. What are the talismans of your place? A person stopped by my condominium, asking to borrow a can opener. Peering into my place, she said -- "are you moving?" As I looked back, there were piles of books,...
Focused attention. Seeing in-to things.
When you're looking at something, how closely are you tuned? I was watching people watch. This is a habit. That is, studying people as they "study" -- watching to see how people are paying attention. This couldn't be any more in-depth or capable interpretation of the...
Direct Engagement | The Reach from the one to the one
Brand genetics: starting with leadership, the lessons and coding of story and communications, rippling from the one -- to billions. Tim Westergren, the genetics of sound, legacy and the one to the one. Opening the box of Pandora, nearly ten years back, I'd had the...
Tumble
I was thinking about the right ideas, that come from the tumble of those that try, but fail. Those that stumble, and find. These that jumble and arrive at the new. There is tumble, stumble, jumble -- and topple. They're interrelated. Long back, working with a team of...
The Brand Journey of REI | the Puck Building, Soho, NYC
Explorations, Archaeology, Design Integrations Puck REI, main floor -- Image above, shot 12.3.2010 ––––––––– My family has history with the Recreational Equipment cooperative. Earlier in our explorations of the outdoors, we'd travel to REI for camping equipment in...
Daphne Guinness | Brand Dominatrix
Those that own the brands, own the story to hold the brand -- and in offering that, carry forward their own story. Setting style, imagination, art and the making of scene, scent sent. “She is one of the – if not the – most stylish women living.” Designer and film...
Brands and the Quest for Meaning
Will meaningful brands empower the strategy of business direction: 2012? In these days, exploring the soul of brand in the human enterprise, we find the quest for meaning to be a recurrent theme. We are compelled -- in the trade of Girvin -- to explore the hearts,...
Campaign Strategies | Building Brandstories at Christmas
Bergdorf Goodman designing the street -- where legendary windows own the sidewalks. I reached to former CEO, Dawn Mello -- the retail legend, a friend in NYC. And my other "Dawn" pal. Dawn is a rare breed -- a kind of perfected myth of retail experience -- many...