Etymology and brand: seeking the meaning within
3000 years ago, the notion of finding the heart of a word was to seek the real thing. Then, it was believed that the spirit of the thing resided in the word. By calling the name of the entity, one would imbue, or bring forth, that phrasing with the immanent power of...
BrandQuest® — new brand strategy and story: the metaphor and the vision from the roof
In a way, this story is about shifting brand visioning. And it's early enough, for this story, this client -- that I can't really reference the brand name. But people ask, what is it like -- what do you do? What happens? Brand development and the questing methodology...
What’s Your Story?
I'd met Trish May, the foundress of Athena, several years ago -- perhaps closer to a half decade now, considering our history in partnering on her business launch. She was a Microsoft executive with some serious international business strategy and marketing exposure...
Human Brand Design: Ethos > Fashion | Valentino and the End of a Career
To the nature of the human brand -- the story that lies in the character of the person and how that genetic quality extends outwardly -- there is, perhaps, no better place in the designer's world, than the realm of designed power and human connectivity, in fashion....
Nomenclature | Acceleration and Incubation
I'm always looking back. But never staring. All ways looking. In all ways -- exploring. Looking deeper. And in way, that's something to the way the we work, we think. Look deep. Go further. Be in: their there. Where they are. What that means is doing brand work that...
Designing in an authentic world
There is a mythic dimension in the character of storytelling; it's an ancient tradition -- it reaches to deep archetypes and cyclical patterns that show themselves repeating ways in which messages can be understood and shared -- and how they can be embraced. But it's...
The long tail, the tailor and conceptions of retail design
I've been working on this cover design for Wired. And it will be the kind of cover design that, in some manner of streetside merchandising, will literally leap to the street. Bold. Simple. When I first got the call to do this, it was from a friend, Margaret Swart,...
Pursuing Truth | Presentation for the Luxury Marketing Council
I spoke to the Luxury Marketing Council about the concept of truth -- authenticity -- in the context of branding. It was more than that. It was also about the nature of the story, as part of the character of brand expression. It's never just the story -- alone. It's...
Luxury, Value & Money: The Emerging Challenges in the State of Luxury Products
What is holding? What is held? What is memory? What is valued? I gave a talk this past week to the Luxury Marketing Council in NYC, and this overview, in recollection, was about truth. Actually, it was about the weaving of truth in product portrayal. And it reaches...
The Human Brand
While it might seem profoundly obvious, the brand is inherently human -- it's about people, connecting to other people. People create brands -- the notion of a brand DNA is nothing but an explication of the concept of the precisely personal character of the human...