3000 years ago, the notion of finding the heart of a word was to seek the real thing. Then, it was believed that the spirit of the thing resided in the word. By calling the name of the entity, one would imbue, or bring forth, that phrasing with the immanent power of the spirit of the entity named. That could be risk laden. Because in that time, there was a visioning that the name was the thing. It’s about prayer. It’s about invocation — the evocation. The conception of prayer, the curse, the blessing — and invocation (the voicing or calling in) To that end, therefore, the notion of the word, eytmon, the inner meaning had immense power.
January 31, 2008
Etymology and brand: seeking the meaning within
January 30, 2008
BrandQuest® — new brand strategy and story: the metaphor and the vision from the roof
In a way, this story is about shifting brand visioning. And it’s early enough, for this story, this client — that I can’t really reference the brand name.
January 28, 2008
What’s Your Story?
I’d met Trish May, the foundress of Athena, several years ago — perhaps closer to a half decade now, considering our history in partnering on her business launch. She was a Microsoft executive with some serious international business strategy and marketing exposure in her history. Frankly, I’m not sure how she found me, or what the line of connection was. But we met, connected, worked together. And I’m grateful for that. But the collaboration was to our exploration of the development of a new line of waters that, funded and fired by Trish’s striking intelligence and leadership acumen, would be an archetype to women’s causes in fighting cancer, seeking recovery and achieving, in the foundational signature of Athena’s positioning — victory. It’s all Trish, really. In a way, and in the way of many of our relationships in helping our clients define and articulate themselves in the markets that they chose to explore and enter, our work is really about listening. And it’s about the story — as I’ve extensively “told”, over time, on this blog. Brandstory = humanstory. So whether it’s the team development of Trish’s strategic positioning and visualizations of her product, Athena Water, or even more reflectively, more powerfully, the spirit of her community that emerges, evolves, grows, heals, it’s a layering of connective experiences that weave the fabric of humanity — it is about the human brand. And, as I’ve explored, the brand is always about the human, the person — the spirit of the founding vision, or soul of the leadership — and in this case, to Trish’s personal experiences, her explorations, the spiritual dimensions of her gifts — it’s all about her, it’s all about her gifting vision — the call of victory, the Athena charge, in giving back to that very reflective gesture. The story is the person, it’s about the truth and the finding of the authentic telling — it’s Trish, and it’s the community of those who have been exposed — personally, the seeker of recovery and renewed health, and the family and friends that surround them, encircling in the ring of the story of Athena. Love: that is.
January 25, 2008
Human Brand Design: Ethos > Fashion | Valentino and the End of a Career
To the nature of the human brand — the story that lies in the character of the person and how that genetic quality extends outwardly — there is, perhaps, no better place in the designer’s world, than the realm of designed power and human connectivity, in fashion.
Nomenclature | Acceleration and Incubation
I’m always looking back. But never staring. All ways looking. In all ways — exploring. Looking deeper.
January 24, 2008
Designing in an authentic world
There is a mythic dimension in the character of storytelling; it’s an ancient tradition — it reaches to deep archetypes and cyclical patterns that show themselves repeating ways in which messages can be understood and shared — and how they can be embraced. But it’s inherently human, to recount and create links from one telling to a personal connection. It’s a way of establishing resonance in narrative construct.
January 20, 2008
The long tail, the tailor and conceptions of retail design
I’ve been working on this cover design for Wired. And it will be the kind of cover design that, in some manner of streetside merchandising, will literally leap to the street. Bold. Simple.
January 19, 2008
Gucci: The Movie; Yves Saint Laurent: The Collection
Given some intriguing alignments, it’s time to consider film in the context of luxury storytelling. And there are two present time movements that speak to this abrupt emergence.
January 17, 2008
Pursuing Truth | Presentation for the Luxury Marketing Council
I spoke to the Luxury Marketing Council about the concept of truth — authenticity — in the context of branding. It was more than that. It was also about the nature of the story, as part of the character of brand expression. It’s never just the story — alone. It’s just that the story can be a emotionally connecting entity in bridging the link between a business entity and the community which it hopes to serve. Stories are simply that. They connect strings of consciousness between what is known, shared and finally — held.
January 16, 2008
Luxury, Value & Money: The Emerging Challenges in the State of Luxury Products
What is holding? What is held? What is memory? What is valued?
I gave a talk this past week to the Luxury Marketing Council in NYC, and this overview, in recollection, was about truth. Actually, it was about the weaving of truth in product portrayal. And it reaches deeper to the concept of the lineage of the authentic in the context of presentation of product, in the actual making, the heritage of the manufacture and the implications that there’s something meaning full, something worth paying the extra for, that luxury implies.
