The Labyrinth of Being

Design explorations, teaching and creativity We know what we know by virtue of where we have been, and what we recall of that pathway. As designers and creatives, everything comes from journey. It’s where we’ve been and where we’re going. There are symbols that are...

Going Deeper

Spelunking Brands There is a patterning that one can see in caves, the geolocational strata, stones, layers, sediments, ice, water, rivers and concretions — as an explorer of caves, it’s kind of like mountaineering inside mountains — interior alpinism, as in the...

The Symbolism of The Chain

The Nature of Interlinking, Knotmaking, Braiding and the Entwinement of Storytelling. As a journeyer in brand, and the fire making of its fluency in community, I find myself in the study of the under-layments of how it works. As noted long back, it’s a storytelling...

Signs and Meaning

The Context of Message, Framing of Context and Visualization I look for signs that aren’t signs — in a conventional sense — they tell another deeper story, but sigils that signal a message that stand for the nature of a place. Cairns, ovoo, iwakura no mononoke,...

Who Do You Love?

Love Brands: Relationships, Commitments and Storytelling. I did this installation, out on a cliff, away from everything, looking out — the deep blue sea. And the sun. And I was “looking through L O V E,” thinking about that ancient question: “who do you...

The Aesthetics of Rust

Wabi Sabi and Beauty There is a perspective that things that have lived for a long time are worthy of respect and admiration. Old is more beautiful. You can’t fake old. Wabi Sabi. That Japanese principle of beauty in age comes to a reflection of two principles —...

I’m Lost

The Beauty of Being Lost and Finding Found The signs that point to nowhere. Earlier, I was in Paris — I was working in an area that I was relatively familiar with — off Musée du Louvre, not far from the Seine. I’d been there, staying there, working many times,...

THE ART OF THE ALPHABET

The twists and turns of meaning — drawn knowledge. In teaching workshops on the alphabet, and especially finding your own place in the quintessential expression of the YOU, in alphabetic form — the flow of your presence. What I believe is that each person has traits...

Looking for Magic

The quest for the magical — in craft, design, business strategies and brand. In a manner, the work that we all do is a quest — the pursuit of a question to be answered, the pathway to a question contained, opened and discovered. What we all do, and what we craft as...

Top [Secret] Design

Brands That Survive on Stealth, Secrecy and Intrigue I was sitting on a jet with a talkative neighbor, a US Marshal, who coincidentally spoke to me on the theories of the layering of police, detection and intelligence — I thought, “how intriguing.” And then wondered...