Blogs By Tim Girvin
H E L L O,
Brand allegories | The Symbolism of the Knot
Certain symbols follow us through life, resurfacing at pivotal moments until we recognize them as guides. For brand strategist Tim Girvin, that recurring symbol is the knot—an ancient motif of inextricability, cycling, and containment found from Tibetan prayer flags to the Lindisfarne Gospels to the geometric mastery of Islamic art. Tracing the knot’s journey through Celtic tradition and the intricate patterning of Casablanca’s Grand Mosque, this piece explores what the eternal knot can teach brand designers about weaving meaning, memory, and connection into the customer experience.
The Symbolism of the Hash Tag
The Hatching Stroke and the Ubiquity of Archetypal Design Thinking # I was walking the beach near my studios and found the above timber mark, cross-hatched into a log, the proverbial “pound” or number sign. And I wondered about it. “When this type of mark is made,...
Coming to Las Vegas | A Talk on Motion Picture Branding
There’s a conversation that’s floating around—about the notion of handwork, handmade things; the other, start-up side of ai design. Everything’s digital, of course, in the final interpretation, and application. But to my thinking, "by hand, with mind and meditation,"...
Ghost Branding, Stealth and Whisper Messaging
Ghost Brands and the Principle of Palimpsest I was thinking about the notion of a “ghost business,” that—in imagery—could be seen as something hidden, transparent and diaphanous. Towards the conception of ghostly-related design, and, for example, my simple detailing...
The Patterning of Brand
Brand DNA | The Narrative of Design Patterning in Placemaking, Objects and Experientiality As designers, we stand up to build environments, messaging and visual expressions, to enable ideas, impressions, textual content and visualizations. And they are patterns—a...
The Brand Strategy of Terror | Global Design Systems for Security
Istanbul signage Following on an expanded range from my blog from last week, which you might’ve read—“A Life Of Crime”— and GIRVIN’s history designing logos and design systems for police agencies, entertainment and narratives on international crime-fighting. This...
The Life of Crime | Strategic Brand Design for Justice
The world of brand strategy, and design, extends to crime-fighting. GIRVIN’s bespoke brand design of Crime Stoppers. In our history, we’ve consulted for various police agencies, patrol and security groups, building brands around protection of assets, people and their...
Brand Connectivity and the Symbolism of Chainmail
Stories, myths, legends, tales—the link to humanity If there’s a story about a person, which might be a legacy, as in a family. It could be a product—a brand—and the perennial GIRVIN question would be: what’s the story, who’s telling it, who is this story for, what’s...
GIRVIN’s Psychedelic Branding
Tim Girvin’s Legacy in a Half Century in the Strategic Design of Hallucinogens When I was in my first college, studying Marine Biology and comparative Zoology, as well as Medieval art history and cultural studies; psychedelic drugs were commonplace—and, at this...
Visible Coding Of Brand Experience Strategy: Brandcoding
Creating environments with brand language and narrative patterning built into the experience design strategy. What if there was an intention to create a pattern language that could guide consumers, and renovate a retail environment? And, while you’re at it, simplify...