Brands, what do you know, now?
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...
If you’re not here, do you k[no]w where?
Of course, as a brand person, a place-maker—as you are—we’re thinking: “if you’re not here, and not over there, then where are you? Do you know where you are? Or are you nowhere?” I’ve been talking A LOT about placemaking—and planning spaces, making places—since I’m...
Brand Stumbling
It happens to the best of us—there’s a confident gait, the gallant stride, a bold sprint and then: there’s a stumble. It rumbles in the background—all the time—the risk of misstep. Personally, I contemplate my own faltering—and there have been many. Moves that I...
Brand Groves | Allegorical Brand Strategies and Symbolic Thinking
Anyone can think symbolically—and likely, we all do. You see something and think, "that reminds me of a…” Living in a creative space, the memory palace of explorations, memories and meaning—the imagination swerves to new pathways, neural leaps to stringing ideas...
Branding Crime Stoppers | Design Against Criminals
The world of brand extends to crime-fighting. In our history, we’ve consulted for various police agencies, patrol and security groups, building brands around protection of assets, people and their communities. It takes a particularly assertive sense of...
The View from Below And Perspectives of the Sky Rim
Dome Symbolism, kinæsthetic CX design strategies The View from Below and Perspectives of the Sky Rim I’ve been to three places where the architecture of the ground—the footprint of the structure—is remarkable, but the study of the built sky above it is far more...
The Leap of Imagination | Brands, Change, Fear and Risk
The leap of adventure in the movement of brands, spirit, soul and destinations— the risk to get out there, go further, get farther. In a recent set of GIRVIN brand soul summits, brandquest® workshops [how we work to get somewhere new as a team-based collaborative...
Keep Your Brand on a Swivel and Watch Your Six
The Nine Gates of Brand Intelligence In the long watch of the brand shepherd, steward and sentinel— it’s important to consider a 360º surveillance of territories. In a kind of mirrored language, it shall be called outlook and look out. If you visualize your brand as a...
Holistic Brand Design for Hospitality | A Guide to Placemaking
Spherical Design Holism for Hospitality | A Manual for Brand Placemaking Integration for Experiential Strategies and Tactics The Deployment of *Experientiality Earlier in my career, I worked on a string of projects for Disney, working with the Disney Imagineers and...
The Long Route | Getting Out There To The Brand New World
A stride at Bláskógabyggð, Suðurland, Iceland I was questioning a brand client—and we were talking about the notion of soul, the spirit of the brand a human enterprise—and the mirroring of a human maker, and what they make in the journey of a brand. Everyone knows, if...