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There is the sign,
which is a way
a tool to explain process and direction,
to instruct,
to mark,
to place:
made.

The Ace Hotel, Expressed Metal Plate
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But to the notion of place-making, how that sign is made, gesture or stone, or cut metal, wood can tell a layering of story — hand, digital, projected — holistically, a sign can be more — every detail, an attribute of telling. Hand, digital, scribed, painted, cut, applied, nailed on, illuminated or bolted?

What we look for is the link to material, message, context and placement to align story and experience to tiering and understanding.

Country roadside signage,
tagged paper application:
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The sign is just that.
A sign.
A sign might be a word,
or a mark, or an object,
but it inherently is
a storytelling of place, made.

Eastern european,
sculptural message:
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I look for signs.
Literally — a momentary rendering of
a sign to a place
[of mind, of geolocation, of an idea.]

A sign:
A salt blessing | Osaka Saké Brewery
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Or a mark, a symbol,
a touch, a sigil,
a form of statement.

Entry signage, Reykjavik, Iceland
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Signs are everywhere
if you know where to look.

As students of the sign, it’s not just about way finding, directional signing or restaurant and retail shopfronts, but signs, symbols that have a telling to make that aren’t, alone, merely letters on a placard.

And what we look for:
• meaning
• materiality
• placement
• context
• unforgettability

A GALLERY OF SIGNING
SYMBOLOGY
FROM ONE YEAR
OF STUDY:

GIRVIN HELVET-ICON:
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A Pin Sign at
Biscuit Bitch
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The Alchemical Signing,
Printed on Handmade Paper
and Hung, University District, Seattle:
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Retail Signing,
Whole Foods:
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Street Signage, Bend, OR:
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Totaro Retail Icon:
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Applied
Street Signage, NY:
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Wall Signing,
Corrected, Seattle:
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Decal Messaging,
Swing Door, Honolulu, HI:
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GIRVIN Wanderer Driftwood Placard,
Delaminating plywood,
San Juan County, WA:
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Glass signing, Seattle:
“The

Impressed and
Enamel Infilled Nordstrom Signage, Seattle:
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A Sign,
silkscreened on Canvas:
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Pike Place Market
Signage, Seattle:
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A Message
From the Dark:
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University District Signage for
a Flower Shop, Seattle:
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Love Signage,
Queen Anne, Seattle:
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Hospitality
Signage, Los Angeles, CA:
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Exterior Signing
Placards, Los Angeles, CA:
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Street Signing, Madison Park, NYC:
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Building Raised
Aluminum Skin Signing, NYC:
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Observatory
Cut-metal Signage, LA:
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Cut Metal Can Signing, LA:
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Inlaid Terrazzo Floor Signing, LA:
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Viewer Placement Notation, Irvine, CA:
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Hotel Laminate Signing, Chicago:
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Street Signing, Chicago:
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Hand-painted Door Signage, Chicago:
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Raised Laminate Signage,
Appleton, Wisconsin:
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Book Promotional Signage, Brooklyn, NY:
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Incised and impressed lettering:
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Decal Lettering on
Brushed Stainless Steel:
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Incised Laminate, Seattle:
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Street Signing, Seattle:
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Placard Signing, Seattle:
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Facial Signing:
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Shirt Signing, Nairobi, Kenya:
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License Plate Sign, Washington:
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Glass Signing, Lima, Peru:
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Hanging Denim Signing, NYC:
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Nunnery Signing, Myanmar:
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Street signing, Rangoon, Myanmar:
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Mudra, Mandalay, Myanmar:
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Happiness Sign,
Inle, Myanmar:
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Stairway, A Sign Journey
Mount Popa, Myanmar:
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Monastery Signing,
Sittwe, Myanmar:
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Entry Signs, Myanmar:
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Bell Signage, Myanmar:
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313, My Boy Scout Troop,
My Studio Number:
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Sign, Ubud, Bali:
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Mudra, Sign Gesture, Indiana:
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Concrete Street Signing:
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Handlettered Signage:
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Children Making Signs,
Irrawaddy River, Myanmar:
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A laid sign, the Ace of Diamonds
Yogyakarta, Java:
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Funerary Stele, Myanmar:
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The Sign of
the Warp and the Weft:
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Bell Signing, Myanmar:
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Roadside Marker, Myanmar:
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Tanker Signing,
Seattle Waterfront:
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Country Sign
Directional, Skagit Delta:
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Lakeside Signing, Inle, Myanmar
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Mudra, a sign
Sittwe, Myanmar
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The Door in a Door,
Journey Sign:
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Palimpsest Signing, Rangoon:
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Monastery Sign:
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Posture Signing,
Wooden Placard:
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Tourist Sign, Seoul, Korea:
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Wall posting, Mandalay:
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The Sign of the Buddhas, Monastic Display:
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Digital Printed Placard, Interbay, Seattle:
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Skull Signing: Reykjavik, Iceland:
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Message Calligraphy,
Paper Signage,
Old Queen Anne Hill:
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The Sign of
the Box:
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Phoenician Door Signage:
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Streetside Signage, San Francisco:
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Pike Street Entry Signage, Seattle:
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The sign of the glove:
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Street signing, Vancouver, BC;
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The Sign of the Labyrinth:
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The circle, squared:
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Stencilled Street Signage, NYC:
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The Sign of the Hammer,
Burbank, CA.
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The Hanging Symbolism
of the Knot, as Sign, Paro, Bhutan:
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Happy Sign, Girvin, Seattle:
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Street signing, NYC:
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The sign of the enso,
GIRVIN | Seattle:
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Street Signage, NYC:
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Body signage, Bangkok, Thailand:
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The New, an improvised sign, NYC:
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A signing draft, iPad, NYC:
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A sign,
Virginia Mason, Seattle:
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Retail signing, NYC.
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Interbay, Signing, Seattle:
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Glass Signing, Alameda, CA:
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PopIn signing, Seattle:
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Signing, SantaFe, New Mexico:
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The Sign of the Gesture.
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Kanban, Tokyo
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Girvin Rare Book Library, Seattle:
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Post-it signage, Seattle:
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Lighthouse, SFo:
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Factory signing, Salem, OR:
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Street signing, SFo:
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Street signing, Seattle:
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Pike Place, Seattle:
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Girvin Signing, Seattle:
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Court Signage:
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When I think about signage, and
I contemplate the messaging that I recall as unforgettable,
it’s a word, it’s an idea, it’s a message to push you, the viewer, somewhere. Perhaps you’re lost
and trying to find a way,
then look for signs.

Signs, I’m looking for:
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More signing, Japan:
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Café Signing, Seattle:
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A Stone Sign:
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The sign to somewhere:
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Anaheim, Processional Signing:
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The Girvin Sign:
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A sign is never just letters on a building:
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Terrazzo messaging:
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The Blood Center, Seattle:
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Dallas, TX:
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A sign, Kaua’i, HI:
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Signing merchandising, Honolulu, HI:
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A signing installation:
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The sign of the future, Idaho:
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GIRVIN workshop signing:
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Ravencall,
TimesSquare, NYC:
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Talismanic signage,
Decatur Island:
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GIRVIN signage:
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For one year, I’m looking at signs,
I’m looking at signage — sure,
but I’m looking for messages, hints, symbols, notations, glimpses:
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A signmaker:
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A sign in a sign, Mead, WA:
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What sign, told?
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Make your own:
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Spirit sign:
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Ace:
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As a designer, and a designer of signs and way finding strategies, there is a presumption that the journeyer is lost in a manner, that pathway might be merely the meander to a way of being found.

And the finding, your self.
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Signage, the design of signage, signing experiences, will go back to
— what is the message?
— where are we going?
— what is our story?
— as we tell this story,
what could it feel like?

What would you want it to feel like?
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What I’m looking for, in the journey of design, is how that meaning can be more meaningful —
how we go deeper, to the pathway of making, creating, drawing —
and moving in-wards
for a spell:
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Discarded signing:
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When you look at signs, what do you see?
What do you see as signs,
and in looking at
the storytelling of signs,
what do they reveal?

A sign, a placard, a poster, a scratch, a symbol, a mark, a pointing arrow, a gust of wind, a swinging signboard…

For you, what is a sign?
On a building,
on the street,
over a door,
on a tree,
marked in sand,
painted on glass,
carved in stone?

What else could a sign be?

Tim | GIRVIN | San Francisco Studios

DESIGNING
HOLISTIC
WELLNESS & PLACE
THE STRATEGY OF CREATING
HEALTHY PLACES OF BEING

https://www.girvin.com/subsites/wellness
DESIGNING ENVIRONMENTS FOR HEALING + HEALTH:
PLACES | RETAIL | RESTAURANTS | SPAS | WELL CENTERS

wellness experience design, storytelling + brand = http://bit.ly/XIQ0vm