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Seeing deep | close and near—brand farsight - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
Deep perceptions, brand metaphors and the avian sentience. For most of my life, I’ve been a student of the birds. I admire them from the perspective of their calligraphic flight, fluttering and drifting, flourishing in elegant strokes in the air. I’ve cut them in steel, as above—a celebration of their call. And I’ve drawn them—for […]
Brand symbolism | The Cairn - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
Thinking metaphorically, there are plenty of symbolic allegories between the notion of brand building, design strategies, messaging and storytelling. You—brand designer, brand thinker, theorist, strategist—when you think of brand, the notion of a constructed and managed enterprise, integratively disposed—what comes to mind for symbolic alignments, brand + X? I think of cairns. In traveling the […]
Get your hands off that! Don't touch! - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
How many times—thinking about it personally—have you been told that? Don’t touch! Hey, don’t even think about touching that! Hand’s off—not for you! Please, just look—no touching! Mostly, these days, I don’t ask, don’t look around for approvals, I just touch— unless it’s a museum, gallery or antiquities shop. Or, perhaps, a place where I’m […]
Brand Feel | Emotionalism in Branded Sensations - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
Feeling in the realm of design thinking, sensation and brand. I took some old Italian handmade paper, folded it, tore it with a bone folder, punched a hole in the head of the strip, and strung red binding thread into the opening and hung it in the trees, amidst the rain, snow and storms—salt air, […]
Diving deep | Brand Soul: Journey, Inspiration and Spirituality - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
The Strategy and Design of Mystically-Inspired Brands In our history, we’ve had a string of opportunities to collaborate with brand partners who are different in their visioning of their enterprises— rather than focusing, for typical partners, on the notion of “how we’re going to make money,” but rather, how “our brand will be deeper, it […]
The Light Inside the Brand - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
The Person, the expression of Presence and the Brand Every time that you’re working on an enterprise, the proposition of brand, it’s always about people; it’s the people that built it, those that work in and around it, and finally, the community that is in thrall to that presence, that presentation—and, that person, those people. […]
Crickets, why cry? we all go that way. - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
A contemplation on gratefulness Notes on the death of my father, George W. Girvin, 7.05.2024 “Why do you have skulls around you, everywhere?, I mean, you’re always wearing skull scarves, rings, all that.” Someone asked me this question. I have a long history with skulls, skull art from México, Bali, Tibet, Bhutan, other countries—and, perhaps, […]
Embracing change | Brand Strategies for Innovation - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
The Quest for the New, in Remembering the Past Contemplations on brand innovation and evolution patterning I bought a new car in Portland, Oregon, and I recalled my days working down here. Time goes by. And back then, I was working with Lloyd Reynolds—and later, a swing by with David Kennedy, co-founder of Weiden+Kennedy, the […]
Rare Brand Magic—Uncovering Unknown Enterprise Storytelling - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
Brands That Live in the Shadow, But Are Full of Light Do you have a brand relationship that is, to your thinking, your personal secret— something special, marvelous, your happily loved and savored place? Is there ever a brand that lives on the quiet side, unknown, unseen by many but to a select few—and quested […]
GIRVIN [and Tim Girvin's] Legacy of Calligraphy - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
The Dance of the pen—the drafted thought—and the illustration of language It’s an intriguing observation—the idea of the rhythm of speech—people talking, listening to words and expressions of thinking—the journey of minds, and the trails of their contemplations: the voice of the mind, transcribed graphically. Still, the translation of this vocalization comes back to the […]
The Peaceful Brand Warrior | 360º Strategic Intentionality - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
There’s a word that GIRVIN uses as a way to define the thoughtful design of brands in the context of a 360º sentience—experientiality. It’s a spherical watchfulness—in one classical reference, keep your “head on a swivel, watch your six” way of approaching a place, and savoring that experience, wholly. It’s a way of being for […]
The Integrated Philosophy of Branded Placemaking | Steiner and Jannard - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
Conceptions of Brand-related built environments for storytelling in contextual community. First off, a reference to the Oakley Headquarters—an environment designed and dedicated to the spirit of innovation that drives the brand and the creation of their products; built tough. Entry | Oakley HQ | Located here A note on GIRVIN’s core philosophical principle—towards holistic impression […]
NGISED Backwards | The Proposition of Design Thinking - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
When we study “design thinking, it comes back to a sequence of thoughtful evaluations and engagement with analysis—but too, an exploration of the context of emotion—as tactics are framed to capture feelingness, which flow into the humanity of brand, untethered creativity and the processes of design management.” The image above, Shu Uemura at Japan Beauty […]
A Cascade of Mysterious Messaging | Finding a Meaning - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
A Meditation in Abandoned Signage There is a It is in the everyday—that you walk by—or on. There’s a message in that which is here. And that, left behind. The message could be: look here. No, up there. Or behind you. And while you look. Watch out, better still, be aware. Sit back, take a […]
Into the Rave[n] - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
The Quest for Creative Inspiration, Imagination and Personal Iconography I photographed this bird in the Himalaya— in Bhutan, a place of the Raven Gods. As some know, I have a long history with Ravens—the birds. This comes from earlier, childhood and mystical encounters with these birds; in fact, my fascination extends to the entire class […]
Bespoke Identity | Custom Fonts for Motion Picture Branding - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
In my history, I’ve often thought, looking at, literally, any logo—“that could be better.” Or, “why such an off-the-shelf solution—there’s nothing distinct, ownable or registrable with this asset?” Of course, all of us, as brand strategists, designers and logo aficionados think, “I could do that better…” But the key question is, “just how would you […]
Branding the Poetic Instinct | Dancing with the Dead, the transformation of Bill Porter and Red Pine - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
The presumptive nature of design is that it’s magical. We’ve commented on this proposition extensively. Design as interpretation Design: it is a transformative tool that translates content from one tier of comprehension to something new—a altered plane of understanding, that is a transmogrification—and it could be a complete transition from one layer of perception, wholly […]
Fútbol | Linguistic Virology, Brands and Community - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
Exploring the word, the history, the meaning of infectious content. Over the last couple of days, I’ve spent a lot of time talking about soccer—both in outreaches to the soccer-playing community, team owners, well-making soccer-related foundations in support of children, friends and family—and, of course, looking at a lot of videos. And live games, as […]
Culturally Specific Branding | Beauty Brand Design for Asia - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
Designing brands for consumer profiles in only one geography. Most brand shops have experience in developing brands that are global in nature, they start in one area—likely the geographic origination of the brand creation, then they expand to other regions in the world. We’ve been there, particularly to Camay—which started as a localized assignment in […]
The Path and The Wind, The Serpent and The Stone - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
The Brand, the Allegory, the Symbolism and the Story Our history is our story, it’s the nature of our wandering in the winding course of our lives, our explorations and poetic discoveries. The question might come to the nature of the wander—and what is that, just a rambling foray in whatever way the wind carries […]
Crowd Control | Brand Workshopping and the Deep Metaphors of Brands - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
You can always think poetically—“there’s a poem somewhere in this work.” There’s an allegory inside this brand—it’s the tiny enterprise, climbing the massive mountain towards a new vista—a new view to the world, and the community of their offering. There’s no easy path, it’s always up, there is risk of falling—failure to summit the crag—but, […]
Listening to the hand - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
Seeing stories in Brands, Design and Gesture. As a leader of workshops, and team-related branding sessions, I tend to watch my teams very carefully. My last blog spoke to listening, and appreciative observation— how to study the evidences of emotion in the gestures of experiencers’ body language— how awake are your participants—and what’s happening with […]
Listening - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
Paying attention, appreciative perception and the emotionality of listening Isn’t it interesting, the way people lean-in? Leaning-in, they’re paying closer attention— why is that, is it a hearing expression? “I lean-in so I can hear better?” In running brand summits, business strategy forums and soul-searching quests for enterprises around the world, I often stand for the […]
Brand design and feelingness - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
Emotional strategies in sensate brand integration Brands ask, “touch me more often, be my friend, speak to me, stay in touch.” Talking to an executive brand team, I reach-out in a simple question—“what’s the point here—what’s this workshop really about?” And the answer from them, brand leadership, comes around to our side, which speaks to: […]
The Theory of Love, Brand Strokes, Fire and the Filament of Being - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
A Wanderer’s Journey, Sensing the Heart, in Memory—From Afar In a bitterly cold subway channel, during a time when the ice was hanging stalactitic from the ceiling girders of the NYC Metro—and wind whipped so cold up the railed canyons of the running lines that eyes teared in the sheer intensity of the frost—and there, […]
In the realm of the senses, brand space and holistic thinking - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
I gave a talk at Procter & Gamble’s hall at Building One, downtown Cincinnati. This talk was about spherical thinking, brands and storytelling, a way of looking at the narrative of brands as narrative concatenations—knots and threads of woven tellings, that interplays the emotional lives and psychic spaces of those that built the brand, their […]
Fire-Breathing Brand and Placemaking Development by GIRVIN - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
Hello, Year Of The Dragon Dragon, Ubud, Bali There are symbols that repeat themselves, the cycle in, return, vanish and reappear in other places—and symbolic language, as in the earlier blogs on brand archetypes. Isn’t it so that there are devices, objects, that repetitively reveal themselves— during the course of your journey, your work? These […]
GIRVIN's Legendary Branding | The Hero Brand Archetype - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
When I was young, my Mother belonged to a Jungian Study Group—she, and a group of colleagues, friends and professionals would meet to explore Jung’s theories. What I took from this—in my pre-teen years–was that there was something interesting there, if they were talking about this person, Dr. Carl G. Jung. I looked at Mom’s […]
Hello 2024 - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
Brand Magic, the Succession of Time, and the Portals of Perception The very nature of brands is entirely wrapped around people—“who built the brand, and for whom did they build it?” Otherwise, to GIRVIN’s parlance:“what’s the story, who’s telling it, who’s listening, what’s it look like, feel like and —most critically, who cares?” And, if […]
Brand Weaving - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
The Interplay of Ideas, Visuals, Tiering and the lnterlacement of Branded Conceptions You might know, when you contemplate the sensation of brand experience, it’s not one element alone that is memorable, it lies in the layering of tiered, experiential moments that, in the journey momentum and the staging of the brand storytelling, lays out greater […]
The Art of the Nomen | Brand Strategy, Naming and Innovation - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
Your name is your apex point of recognition—it’s the first thing that your audience sees and hears—it’s the hello: “my name is, here’s what I do. And here’s what I can do for you.” We know naming. GIRVIN has a quarter century of active naming experience, with a time-tested methodology, collaborative approach and team-built solution […]
Listening With The Eyes | Seeing With The Ears, The Art of Curiosity - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
Exploring Observations: Curiosity in Conversations. Asking Questions in the Quest for Creative Answers. I, like my brothers, Mom and Dad, like to ask questions of people—to learn more about who they are. Talking to an elder shopkeeper, learning from her as to where she’s been—her story. A wood seller, and what’s he’s doing, has done—what’s […]
Partnering with John Jay, Bloomingdale's, Retail Design Programs, and Campaign Thematics - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
The Art of the Shopping Bag It was a reminder from friend Steve Heller, the Design Editor in Chief at Print Magazine, that recalled the legacy of former Bloomingdale’s Chief Creative Officer, John Jay— in the following notation from the Magazine: “Jay’s bags also lacked the store name or logo. Unlike the recognizable consistency of […]
Illustrative Brand Transitioning: The Walking Dead | Years in Evolutionary Design Strategy - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
Some observations on the strategy of illustrative brand identity transitioning. I know this is a reach for many of you—as a watcher of the series— but it’s the season, so a reference: happy halloween. Perhaps also likely, you wouldn’t be caught “dead” watching any part of this type of storytelling. I study it more in […]
Scare Tactics | Designing Fright Brands for Clive Barker, John Carpenter, Tim Burton, Wes Craven and Tony Scott - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
How to build brand storytelling for terrifying design narratives Clive Barker It was roughly 40 years ago that I read Clive Barker’s “Books of Blood,” which struck me as a remarkably distinctive turn on the horrifying—as expertly fear-inducing storytelling. Stephen King, apparently, thought the same: “I’ve seen the new face of horror and it is […]
The Pace Of Things | Speed Down, Slow Up. The Road And The Drive - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
Highway 109 In the pace of the work that we’re all engaged in—for my readership, brand marketing space—I offer a meditation on the concepts of speed and pace—in the relationship with projects, and anyone, anywhere, anyplace. A question—observing conversations, “do you find yourself hurrying past the conversation that you’re having?” Like, “let’s get this done!” […]
World Premiere - Dancing with the Dead - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
WORLD PREMIERE DANCING WITH THE DEAD FRIDAY OCTOBER 27, 7 P.M. Dancing with the Dead – Red Pine and the Art of Translation will premiere at the Rose Theatre in Port Townsend. Less than 100 tickets will be available and we expect it will sell out quickly. Be online at the appointed time above for best opportunity. The premiere will […]
Quick Service Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii offers blueprint for building sales, loyalty through merchandise - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
From Nation’s Restaurant News, learn more from CEO Scott Snyder, Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii that your business should sell its brand merchandise—boosting sales. We’ve always believed—design a great logo, add to the bottom line: product sales. Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii offers blueprint for building sales
Bespoke Identity & Hand-Crafted Brands | A Legacy of GIRVIN's Wine Work - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
GIRVIN’s 50 years old—speaking of finely-aged, so we have history, and it runs back to wines that we’ve produced ourselves, gifted wines and wine brands we’ve built for enterprises in the US, Asia and Canada. Wines are, as everyone knows, particularly challenging marketing encapsulations—they have a small real estate in their labeling characteristics—they’re represented in […]
From The Grounds Up | GIRVIN's Coffee Brands | Caffeinated Brand Storytelling - Girvin | Strategic Branding & Design
With our coming into 50 years of continuous involvement in brand strategy and integrated design— and as coffee connoisseurs—we’ve savored this brewed beverage all over the world, from Seattle to NYC—Maui too, LA to Vancouver, Java and Bali. We’ve studied coffee culture in Asia–Seoul, Bangkok, Beijing, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Singapore, Ulaan Baatar, and Tokyo. And […]