by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Designers, Scent | Mar 3, 2015
The Legacy of Fragrance Design and Perfume, Taste Innovation and Spice Strategy In a workshop in Oregon, we studied the layering of taste and scent in new product development innovation summits. What came clear in the study group was a kind of synaesthesia of...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts | May 1, 2014
THE FOLIAGE OF THE ALPHABET AS THE DEEPER HEART OF WISDOM Perhaps universal history is the history of the diverse intonations of a few metaphors. – Jorge Luis Borges, “Pascal’s Sphere,” 1951 I’ve drawn a word a day on leaves, thinking: each word, as a work...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Storytelling | Sep 24, 2013
Go You To The Shadow World? It’s never about what you see in clarity alone, but what lies behind the Light. Certainty is never assured in anything. As a designer, when I’m working on a project, or a photo shoot, a story, a piece of writing, I watch for the...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts | Sep 12, 2013
The Talismanic Alphabet, Mystical Calligraphy. It’s been said that the roots of the alphabet aren’t a scientific and archaeologically sequenced discovery, but rather a revelation, something from the magic of meaning, the scribing of the psychic...
by Tim Girvin | Brands, Concepts | Aug 15, 2013
Color, Brands, and the Layering of Experience, Memory and Recognizability Some say — “stop calling the FT pink!” According to the color standards at the Times, the real color is a “so-called” Salmon Pink. But being an inveterate traveler,...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Storytelling | Jul 11, 2013
Design thinking deep metaphors When I was working as a brand / design strategist at Procter & Gamble, on brand innovation, I’d partnered with a closely-aligned colleague there, Iain Douglas. We talked about, and worked on, the layering of ideas — of...
by Tim Girvin | Brands, Concepts | Jun 27, 2013
Writing out the Telling of Brand Character When you meet someone — impressions emerge, tellings happen, characterizations frame themselves. I’ve always believed in the idea of listening, and writing it out. When I ask a question I’m looking for an...
by Tim Girvin | Brands, Concepts, Storytelling | Jun 4, 2013
The Stroke of the Idea, in Sound, Found. When I was in Seoul, looking at, and working on Korean retail design, I stopped and watched a street calligrapher, who was writing phrases on newspaper. In the midst of the noise and flurry of the streetscape, I stood and...
by Tim Girvin | Brands, Storytelling | May 30, 2013
The Light of Brand, the Voice and the Tiering of Message Messaging and stair-stepping access in community Given the entirely human nature of brand, the enterprise of humanity, the idea of thinking about brand as a poetic expression, isn’t entirely without...
by Tim Girvin | Concepts, Storytelling | Mar 25, 2013
The Tiers of Brand Experience [Image above by Dawn A. Clark] In writing messages, related to brand and brand storytelling, like any legend-telling, the process of experience will be more than one strike and stroke on the tablet of messaging. It will be layers. There...
