by Tim Girvin | Brands, Cool People, Places, Retail | Jan 7, 2013
Building a brand around legacy and re-integrating authenticity in brand storytelling. I first met Jeff Chandler, speaking in a string of workshops for “young presidents [YPO] and executives on the notion of the “humanity” of brands, building brands...
by Tim Girvin | Cool People, Designers, Human brands | Dec 17, 2012
Richard Meier and Massimo Vignelli [above] video | Nowness When I was working in NYC, decades back, I’d linked to Richard Meier on the subject of typography and signing. The selected font of study, designed by another classical alphabet scholar and typographic...
by Tim Girvin | Artists, Concepts, Cool People, Interior Design, Places | Nov 28, 2012
The sense of place, design, imagination and spectacle. The seeing eye, touching place, designed inspiration of Robert Irwin Earlier in my life, I was on the COCA team that ideated bringing James Turrell to Seattle — decades before, “seeing the light...
by Tim Girvin | Cool People, Designers, Places, Trends | Nov 19, 2012
Doing good, as a contributor to community, in design — could be “helping me, helping you.” How would you improve life in NYC? How can you help? Anywhere? As a pro bono designer? There’s nothing [as it seems to me, these days] as challenging as...
by Tim Girvin | Brands, Concepts, Cool People, Designers, Motion Pictures | Nov 9, 2012
Theatrical design, costumery and captivation Who’s the man? There’s always been a supreme masculinity in the legacy of the mythic, Ian Fleming archetypal character and the theatrical playing power of James Bond – perhaps never better evidenced that...
by Tim Girvin | Cool People, Human brands | Nov 5, 2012
The design strategy of simplification A friend, Stuart Balcomb, a musician and composer in Venice, California, reminded me of something, to design — and Steve Jobs. I worked as a consultant to Apple, at the behest of Steve Jobs in the late 70s, early 80s. I met...
by Tim Girvin | Artists, Cool People | Oct 29, 2012
The rippling of Genius A friend writes from London — a visit to the Victoria & Albert show on the design ingenuity of Thomas Heatherwick. It’s not the first time that we’ve observed his shining light. Earlier, working in NYC, we’d noted his...
by Tim Girvin | Brands, Cool People, Human brands, Marketing 2.0, Retail, Storytelling | Oct 24, 2012
The Mulleavy spirit At Girvin, we’ve been following, writing about, the Mulleavy sisters for a couple of years. We’ve also studied, and written about Starbucks. Even Howard knows about our blogs. What is compelling about the sisters Mulleavy is the wild...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Cool People | Oct 17, 2012
The sensuality of the book I was working in a remote, private room, the so-called rare book library at Girvin | Seattle. It’s a small space, and in this book room, the volumes start at about a yard from the floor, then rise up to somewhere around 10 feet. People...
by Tim Girvin | Cool People, Human brands | Oct 6, 2012
Apple I was talking to a group of Japanese design students yesterday at the GIRVIN | Seattle offices, about the idea of the heart of design — and the signature, the personal signing, that any designer will bring to any challenge. The signature is all you. And...
