The quest for where you were, and where you are now—and, as we’ve asked, “what do you know?”
You might just never know.
I’m walking out there, walking around remote pathways wild rivers, swaying bridges, down in ancient buildings and pathways. And while I’m down there, out there, I realize, “wait, I’m lost, where am I down here?”
Here are some meditations on exploration. You can think about this in relationship to your life, your personal walkabouts, and you can consider it in relationship to an enterprise—and there’s some beauty in being lost—for a moment or two, figuratively— and being found again. The finding, could that be a series of steps, climbing a ladder, step by step—and then you’re up on top again. In brands, it might be the height that allows the stewards the enterprise to look out, to surveil the landscape, the surrounding community, other brands, their vistas.
In GIRVIN’s history—a half century of Creative Making, as a long-running enterprise—I think of the hundreds of brands—and people—organizations that are firmly ensconced, as well as those that we supported, collaborated with, and brought their brands to new premises, messaging and expressions at retail as well as to their communities world wide.
To those that might be “lost, “ and those that might be newly found, there is GIRVIN’s brand retooling design with Mary’s Gone Crackers; and GIRVIN’s brand design for Kettle; as well as GIRVIN’s legacy brandwork for Nordstrom.
Not everyone’s lost—but some might’ve strayed from their pathway, and to that navigation, there are stories, refreshed mapping and retargeted premises and propositions of valuation, to wit, GIRVIN’s rebooting of VF Corporation’s new corporate identity, a GIRVIN’s brand re-ignition of Royal Aloha’s Bad Ass Coffee, brand rebooting Grousemont Foundation, and kicking off a wellness brand start-up design, NaturoMedica—now 15 years old.
New brand cartography—way-finding Second Nature Brands.
There is a path, newly charted.
As much as you think, in plotting any new course—“it will go this way”—it might not. Lay out your map and mist sets in, darkness falls, and out there, light newly emerges.
And that way that it does go, it seems, just might be the way that it is meant to be.
We think metaphorically—life and brands, and their interplay—the work that we do on / with ourselves; and the work on the storytelling of brands and their enterprises.
The soul-finding, the quest for the light of new audiences, better, clearer narratives and content that relates—people get it, embrace it.
You.
There are paths, that we think we are on—and same for brands, but then again, we might be on another path altogether, that takes a while for us to see, in the midst—and the misted walkways—of our travels, where we are going.
Finding ourselves exploring at the edge of civilization, sometimes—and I mean that in a couple of ways—I find myself being “lost”. Sometimes, working, you might think that you are actually not “civilized,” a knowable strategic pathway, but we’re merely working hard at the edge of it.
These days, who can tell? Sure, civil—but really, is this civilization?
And there might be other times, that you are out there far enough, high enough, remote enough, that you realize, just for a moment, that you don’t recognize things—you are, in a moment, another world.
That could be:
A instant of unexpected silence.
A turn in the trail, that is unexpected or forgotten.
An instant, when the known suddenly has become: the unknown.
When the Raven calls, and you think he’s calling you.
It’s like: “I’m not sure where I am.”
And we believe, in a way, that those moments are really important—for each of us, in our own ways. We make our ways. And find them, ourselves. We mean, it’s important to be lost to the degree that you’re wondering: “where am I, anyway?” That question, of course, should be asked.
And then, explored.
We think it’s crucial for each of us to be lost for a minute, an hour, a day, or two, in our passages as human beings. And coming around the sun, one more time for each of you, it’s a good thing to consider: it’s okay to be lost. Because the only way you can be exploring anything is that if you are lost. If you’ve found it, then what are you doing?
Tonight, walking for what seemed a very long time, in the mist and the darkness, winter chill, all around—as I was looking in circumspect—I thought, “I’m not sure that I know where I am.” But I like it. So, being calm in being lost — being in that state of un-navigated exploration, it’s a good thing.
You—and your brand, your work—can be lost, because you always must be exploring. Even an experienced navigator is only guessing—estimating with some expert certainty—about where they are; it’s all based on what’s available to create that sense of placement. But, with a little mist, that selfsame expert might not have a clue.
I recall: you just never know.
Things come, things go. In every thing.
Balancing elements, stones, arrangements, brand details, you might think that you’ve created something that’s pretty balanced, but then again, it might fall over in the next ten minutes, or ten years later.
It is best to savor that moment of relished equality—and to know, well…that this is nice, but it just might be for a moment or two. Keep exploring, as someone notes.
Better to not worry about that. Just be in it.
Everything changes, so it’s better to be moving onwards, being out there—look, but don’t stare, and stride onwards. It’s good to ponder these things—(or, better said, this has been my line of meditation this morning.)
That is:
—now is the time of exploration—whether inside one’s self or walking the perimeter, it’s good to be out there, investigating*, looking for trails. For brands, that’s trends.
—To the now: out there could be a moment’s meditation, something that is just outside the familiar, within your self, or merely several feet away. Or, it could be 48 hours of travel away…as a brand worker, being in the brand, knowing the community is the critical point to speaking the language of your cultural reach.
—Now there are things to be discovered—in each of us, for each of us, in sharing with each other. And to brands, that’s anthropology.
— We’re on a track, we’re looking for something that we might’ve left behind; it’s recalling what might have been forgotten, something that is a thread, a vestige, in you. What about you is in the brand?
— Now, there are still places on the earth, that no matter how hard the modern world tries to come into them, there are wild spots underfoot, where the unfamiliar reign, and you can be easily lost. Find soul, DNA and deep genetic character—brand.
—And that now, it’s important to realize that life is all about that idea of trying to find that thread, that note, from which it (you) all began in your own heart. Every brand is made for a person, by a person—who is that person, what do they, do you, stand for?
—And finally now, when you are lost, all you have to do is find your self again. There’s a story, who’s telling it, what’s it sound and feel like? And who cares to listen?
What about that, that idea—anyway (literally, any way…wherever you might be going)?
What I’m contemplating, in this time of change for us all—in particular, coming round the bend, yet again, that it’s always good to think of your self as a perpetual explorer. And I believe, for each of us, that this presence is already well in play.
But being here, late at night, some glimmer before midnight—and thinking about what I might offer, that’s less than the usual GIRVIN mysticism—is the real of being here, and finding that beauty in just realizing, and being comfortable in, being lost — knowing that change and exploration are pretty much the way that they need to be, and that things will — in all likelihood — not necessarily come out precisely like you’d hoped, but they will come out.
And there you go.
*explore | c.1450 (implied in explorator), “to investigate, examine,” from L. explorare “investigate, search out,” said to be originally a hunters’ term meaning “set up a loud cry,” from ex– “out” + plorare “to cry.” But second element also explained as “to make to flow,” from pluere “to flow.” Meaning “to go to a country or place in quest of discoveries” is first attested c.1616.
discover | c.1300, from O.Fr. descovrir, from L.L. discooperire, from L. dis– “opposite of” + cooperire “to cover up.”
investigate | 1436, from L. investigationem (nom. investigatio) “a searching into,” from investigatus, pp. of investigare, from in– “in” + vestigare “to track, trace,” from vestigium “footprint, track”. Investigate is c.1510 back-formation.
vestige | 1602, from Fr. vestige “a mark, trace, sign,” from L. vestigium “footprint, trace,” of unknown origin.
Dedicated to the explorers, each in their own right.
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Tim
GIRVIN | Strategic Brands
Digital | Built environments by Osean | Theatrical Branding
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