by Tim Girvin | Brand Mysticism, Brands, Concepts, Retail | Nov 16, 2022
YOU MAKE YOUR WAY—IT’S YOUR MAPPING, YOU MARK THE WAY FORWARDS— A PATHWAY THAT YOU TAKE, AND YOU ACTIVATE YOUR FIRST STRIDE FORWARD. To get somewhere, it’s up to you to take the first step. That, of course, speaks to your life— the journey you’re on, what you’re...
by Tim Girvin | Brand Mysticism, Brands | Sep 21, 2022
In the history of any branding work, it’s invariably about the person—the creator or creatrix, and the team that follows that visioning. Someone has to be out front—the fire starter, the leader who’s there with the dream. and that person should stay there. In how many...
by Tim Girvin | Brand Mysticism, Brands, Concepts | Sep 15, 2022
IN THE RING—THE STANCE, THE FOCUS, THE BALANCE AND THE SPEED. I tend to think about everything as a metaphorical expression—there’s a poem, everywhere; there’s a story behind everything; there is something which lies beneath—and it’s worth looking in, listening,...
by Tim Girvin | Brand Mysticism, Brands, Concepts, Storytelling | Aug 25, 2022
VISUALIZING INFORMATION AS A STORY In a recent grouping of discussions, with a late 19th century-influenced designer, innovator and color theorist, we talked strategy and the tiering of information—in her brand-building around the presumptions of color gravity: the...
by Tim Girvin | Brand Mysticism, Concepts, Storytelling | Aug 11, 2022
TIERING MESSAGING AND LAYERING OF INTENTION IN BRAND NARRATIVES AND STORYTELLING In my earlier work as a calligrapher and lettersmith, I explored—and still study in our work—the idea of layering messages. I see this as a kind of palimpsest—letters on one tier, a...
by Tim Girvin | Brand Mysticism, Brands, Places | Jul 13, 2022
THE ORDER OF PATHWAYS AND THE TOUCH OF THE MEMORABLE M A K E A M A Z E M E N T. As brand designers—as with any part of human creativity, “a making” or the construction of a visible object, the made art or the scribed breath of a poem—the point would be to answer this...
by Tim Girvin | Brand Mysticism, Brands, Concepts, Human brands | Jun 16, 2022
Brand naming As many know, there is a profession of nomenclature strategy—people who “name” things. It’s an intriguing meditation, given ancient character of the concept of the name, which as the tradition of antiquity proffers, speaks literally to the true nature of...
by Tim Girvin | Brand Mysticism, Brands, Storytelling | May 26, 2022
WORKSHOPPING LOVE AND PASSION I was talking to a colleague about “love,” the notion of letter-writing and love-worthy thoughts expressed in a hand-notated missive, one human to another. To that, we were talking about stamps—particularly this love stamp I’d designed...
by Tim Girvin | Brand Mysticism, Concepts, Storytelling | Mar 30, 2022
DESIGN STRATEGIES, DEEP BRANDING, METAPHORICAL NARRATIVES Of course, we have a different way of thinking about the alphabet—as designers, as brand fire starters, letter crafters and identity theorists. If you’re thinking about a letter—what’s your favorite? Me? X. As...
by Tim Girvin | Brand Mysticism, Brands, Cool People, Interior Design, Scent | Mar 10, 2022
Designing for perfume—the detailing of scent-related *experientiality: D I P T Y P Q U E. When I see things, invariably I smell them. When I touch things, I hear them. It’s a trait of curiosity—it’s one thing to see things, it’s another to touch them, still another to...
