by Tim Girvin | Motion Pictures | Oct 31, 2025
What are you afraid of? When you walk into a dark room, you can’t see anything; and you’re wondering, “wait, is there someone in here?” Or, “am I going to stumble into something? Or…fall down, into something—like, a hole in the floor?” “Who’s in here?—I can hear you...
by Tim Girvin | Brands, Cool People, Human brands, Motion Pictures | Sep 8, 2025
Everyone has stories about logo projects. [For example, our Kettle story?] As every reader knows, the core strategy of brand development, as an outreach to humans, enterprise development and commerce, is that those people embrace the brand to create their own personal...
by Tim Girvin | Cool People, Motion Pictures | Mar 12, 2025
It’s been an intriguing pleasure working at the behest of theatrical “stars.” Surely, thinking about it—acting, or directing, is a complex expectation— the hours are demanding, the scale of the commitment is enormous, the creative expansiveness is deep. During...
by Tim Girvin | Brands, Motion Pictures, Storytelling | Mar 7, 2025
Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who’s the Fairest of Them All? Any study of this film’s current premise and promotion, the pitch and proposition— critical notes from the social community—might be up for a overload of remarkably acidic commentary. People, apparently, are...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Motion Pictures, Storytelling | Feb 20, 2025
The study of moves on the board. I was talking to a client about chess strategy, the moves, the personality of the players—the tactical delicacy of the moves. Are there archetypes in the game? Yes, player archetypes. First off, the legacy of the game is roughly 1400...
by Tim Girvin | Brands, Concepts, Motion Pictures, Storytelling | Nov 14, 2024
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...
by Tim Girvin | Cool People, Motion Pictures, Storytelling | May 6, 2024
In my history, I’ve often thought, looking at, literally, any logo—“that could be better.” Or, “why such an off-the-shelf solution—there’s nothing distinct, ownable or registrable with this asset?” Of course, all of us, as brand strategists, designers and logo...
by Tim Girvin | Brand Mysticism, Brands, Motion Pictures, Storytelling | Jan 24, 2024
Hello, Year Of The Dragon Dragon, Ubud, Bali There are symbols that repeat themselves, the cycle in, return, vanish and reappear in other places—and symbolic language, as in the earlier blogs on brand archetypes. Isn’t it so that there are devices, objects, that...
by Tim Girvin | Brands, Motion Pictures, Storytelling | Oct 31, 2023
Some observations on the strategy of illustrative brand identity transitioning. I know this is a reach for many of you—as a watcher of the series— but it’s the season, so a reference: happy halloween. Perhaps also likely, you wouldn’t be caught “dead” watching any...
by Tim Girvin | Cool People, Motion Pictures | Oct 26, 2023
How to build brand storytelling for terrifying design narratives Clive Barker It was roughly 40 years ago that I read Clive Barker’s “Books of Blood,” which struck me as a remarkably distinctive turn on the horrifying—as expertly fear-inducing storytelling. Stephen...
