Tim Girvin’s writing on motion picture design,
originally curated by GIRVIN friend and motion picture composer,
Stuart Balcomb.

Beginning with “Apocalypse Now,” Tim Girvin has designed over 400 film titles.
We present to you his writings about the Process of Branding.

Blandism and the Detailing of Typographic Design Linguistics

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...

Brand Crafting Fear | Designing Frightful Logos for Films

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...

Designing for Clint Eastwood

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...

GIRVIN’s Snow White | A First Time Movie Poster for Disney

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...

Brand Design and the Game of Chess

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...

Branding Crime Stoppers | Design Against Criminals

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...

Bespoke Identity | Custom Fonts for Motion Picture Branding

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...

Fire-Breathing Brand and Placemaking Development by GIRVIN

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...

Designing for Tom Cruise

Creative input from motion picture leadership Out—looking in. In—looking out. Exploring questions, questing for answers. In the history of our efforts in motion picture design, advertising brand design packages for films, it’s not infrequent that there is a direct...

Theatrical Branding and Type Design | Logo Workshops in LA

For motion picture studio teams, agencies and theatrical producers, I’ve been giving these workshop presentations as a proposition to linking marketing strategy, brand storytelling and narrative illustration. In a manner, thinking of movie logos, the identity offers a...

The dreamer is the whole dream, the deep archetypes of John Wick

The mythological patterning of legend-building—cinematic narrative and ancient thematics—BabaYaga, the BogeyMan and the Hero of 1000 Faces. As any creative would tell you, story-working is a layering of patterns—there are the arcs of plots, the intertwinement of time,...

DESIGNING TERRIFYING ARCHITECTURE WITHIN MAGICAL CONSTRUCTS

MOTION PICTURE PRODUCTION DESIGN FOR THIR13EN GHOSTS. BRAND DESIGN AND PLACEMAKING. THE USE OF SIGILLIC GRAPHICS AS A PLACEMAKING DESIGN THEOREM. What about graphical contexts in making place[s]? I think about it as a pattern language, a place storytelling—especially...

DESIGNING THE DREADFUL

DESIGNING THE DREADFUL

According to a high school buddy, now a Emmy-winning screen writer, horror is the new “it.”

THE UNTOUCHABLE: MR. BOND

THE UNTOUCHABLE: MR. BOND

Contemplative of his passage, a robust 90 years, the Sean Connery Bond Legacy is a profound opening casting.

BRAND WONDERMENT | ARCANUM MAGICÆ

BRAND WONDERMENT | ARCANUM MAGICÆ

JJ Abrams shared a similar telling—going where you’re not supposed to—as a storyteller, film-maker and “holder of surprises.”

THE CRAFT OF BRAND IDENTITY

THE CRAFT OF BRAND IDENTITY

There is an intriguing challenge in the nature of illustrating the apex of an identity, that which might be called “the first read.”