by Tim Girvin | Concepts | May 5, 2016
A Meditation on An Answer I was listening to a toddler, who happens to be my year-old grandson Ellis, and he was saying “No.” Meanwhile, my other, first-received 4-year-old grandson Isaiah has a special way of saying “Yes.” It’s a precise diction he offers. He says it...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Storytelling | May 3, 2016
The hand with heart holds more I was wandering, looking down old alleys, plazas and ancient streets. And I spied an old friend. The Hamsa. خمسة | חַמְסָה The Five. I used to wear one of these in college, during another phase of talismanic connection. I lost it...
by Tim Girvin | Brands, Concepts, Interior Design, Places, Storytelling | Apr 28, 2016
The Walking Senseway to Spectacle and Sensation I was walking the road. And thought of the sound on my feet, scrabbling the gravel, sliding on some hot asphalt, smoother wet concrete, some metals, the swish of grass — then hard wood — the flooring — and another part...
by Tim Girvin | Brands, Concepts, Storytelling | Apr 26, 2016
BrandStories That Feel Brandstories in the Construct of Emotionality Earlier in our career, I was asked — in the 90s, to present what we thought was the newest context of brand strategy at Building One, downtown Cincinnati, Procter&Gamble. What we thought then was...
by Tim Girvin | Brands, Concepts, Places | Apr 21, 2016
The Quest for Soulful Places As a designer, I find that the work on converting spaces to more meaningful places, which more often than not has to do with the very journey of what soul is supposed to be. Soul is a ancient seed sound — a voicing — for sea, and the point...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Cool People, Designers | Apr 19, 2016
Branding Buildings | Building Brands — Aligning Typefaces With Architecture In my earlier years I lived in a neighborhood laden with architects — like when I was 12 years old, in Spokane, Washington. I lived in a MidCenturyModern house [the one at 42nd & Perry]...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Marketing 2.0, Trends | Apr 14, 2016
LOOK BACK TO FIND MORE As a designer, many of us watch the trends of design, over time — we look back 10 years, 20 years — 30, 50 years. We think about the cool airspun design of the 50s. Or we jump back to the 20s and 30s, we study post martial, WWII...
by Tim Girvin | Brands, Concepts | Apr 12, 2016
THE STROKES, THE GRID AND THE CURVES OF MAGIC Mark off the grid of proportion, reach for meaning, touch the reed, learn the language, lean in and listen to the ancient tales. That is where the alphabet comes from: the mists of time and mythic meaning, the archetypes...
by Tim Girvin | Brands, Concepts, Storytelling | Apr 7, 2016
Creating organically realized places with conceptually founded pattern language I was walking a forest, looking at its pattern language — the light, the array of the trees, the patterning of Light on the forest floor, the tread of footprints in the shadowed light of...
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...
