by Tim Girvin | BRAND MYSTICISM, Brands, Concepts, Trends | Jan 17, 2017
Design as a Transportive Tool ––––––– We’ve talked about sigils. Most of you might know about the sigil as a House Seal in the Game of Thrones. And I’ve written long about them — the sigil, the signal, the signature, the signing. The seal and the signet. I reach back...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Cool People, Marketing 2.0, Places, Retail, Trends | Sep 13, 2016
ARCHETYPAL SYMBOLOGY AND THE DESIGN OF PLACE Design thinking and the exploration of deep metaphors When I was working as a brand / design strategist on Procter & Gamble, on brand innovation, I’d partnered with a closely-aligned and roving colleague there, Iain...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Storytelling | Jun 2, 2016
ALL THAT WANDER SHALL BE FOUND The Quest for Metaphor, Personal Symbolism and the Iconography of Journey IN THE WORK ON BRAND, the questing strategist invariably finds that — besides the fundamentals of commerce — there are deeper values to the work: there is a...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Places | Apr 5, 2016
SYMBOLIC EMBLEMS FOR INTERIORS: DESIGNING TALISMANS FOR A PLACE The Journey of Design, Place-making and Creative Environments: Archetypal Signage and Magical Badges As any designer knows, to brand and experience design, there is a link between storytelling and...
by Tim Girvin | Artists, Concepts | Mar 15, 2016
Strategic Magic, Designed Mysticism, Metamagical Thematics. It’s been said that illustration, the real meaning of the word is a shining — to illustrate is “making bright.” But also — to purify. The image above, a sigil of the Heptameron Arbatel, Peter de Abano, 1575....
by Tim Girvin | BRAND MYSTICISM, Brands, Concepts, Storytelling | Aug 25, 2015
Design as a Transportive Tool ––––––– We’ve talked about sigils. Most of you might know about the sigil as a House Seal in the Game of Thrones. And I’ve written long about them — the sigil, the signal, the signature, the signing. I reach back to my childhood for the...
by Tim Girvin | Brands, Concepts, Storytelling, Trends | Nov 20, 2014
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...
by Tim Girvin | Brands, Concepts, Storytelling | Nov 6, 2014
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 —...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Cool People, Designers, Interior Design, Places, Storytelling | Oct 2, 2014
The Journey of Design, Place-making and Creative Environments: Archetypal Signage As any designer knows, to brand and experience design, there is a link between storytelling and sequence. A story has an ingress — a start, a mid-point, a moment of spectacle, of...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts | Aug 5, 2014
The Alphabet and Evocation; drawing the letter; voicing the calling. I got a note from some friends at the Oxford English Dictionary. It was about this word: “abracadabra” — and perhaps you’ve got the same one, since you might have friends there too. Earlier in my...