by Tim Girvin | Motion Pictures | Sep 16, 2026
Design strategies, temporal tactics in typography and the palæographic narrative The calligraphy above is a rendering of ODYSSEUS [ΔΟ-ΥΣ-ΕΥ-Σ] I crafted in the ancient Greek boustrophedon style [as the ox plows] starting right to left, then left to right, the back...
by Tim Girvin | Brands, Motion Pictures, Places, Retail | Sep 10, 2026
[Image shot onsite at Disneyland | Tim Girvin] Working Imagination | The Imagineers at Disneyland In my history as a design leader, we worked around various propositions of entertainment at Disney—not only working on films, but Disneyland itself, in a string of calls...
by Tim Girvin | Artists, Designers, Motion Pictures | Aug 13, 2026
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...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Motion Pictures, Storytelling | Jul 9, 2026
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...
by Tim Girvin | Motion Pictures | Jun 4, 2026
How to illustrate a story with letterform design. My kickoff work on Francis Ford’s Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now,” began with a question: he said, [“can you send me some graffiti logos, I saw your work in U&lc.”] I had no idea what he was talking about,...
by Tim Girvin | Motion Pictures, Storytelling | May 20, 2026
The font work of the road, the remote walls, restroom stalls and using industrial brush tools. I was influenced by graffiti artists and hobo code markers. To know graffiti, practice the art. In the 70s, I started marking stalls in funky bathrooms in NYC, marking over...
by Tim Girvin | Motion Pictures, Storytelling | Apr 15, 2026
Integrative moves on the brand board of enterprise. The logo above, for the US / China Chess Summit, is a global tournament that GIRVIN created for a group of chess aficionados that see chess as a investment forum for growing acute thinking—the agency to strategic...
by Tim Girvin | Artists, Cool People, Motion Pictures, Storytelling | Apr 9, 2026
A walk-around hello, on the Lot, Summer, 2007 When I was working on the Paramount lot on Melrose—with the executive team in the theatrical advertising office—I frequently worked onsite in hand-drawing and tuning, improving logo art for various projects, including, for...
by Tim Girvin | Brands, Motion Pictures, Retail, Storytelling | Feb 18, 2026
Classical lettercraft meets a precision draft, engraved in steel. In the spring cleaning of our moves to GIRVIN’s 16th office location, in the West Queen Anne Elementary School, in Seattle I was sorting through a grouping of files—like a large grouping, dozens of...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Motion Pictures | Nov 21, 2025
What sways to blandishment? A lot of discussions around last week’s blog— and the notion of brand blandism, and some asked, “wait, so you’re saying that san serif is too bland, too plain, not… ‘exciting’ enough?” No, that’s not the point. As I’d mentioned before, in a...
