Brand Feel | Emotionalism in Branded Sensations

Feelingness in the realm of design thinking,
sensation and brand.

Speaking of the sensate place of feelingness, making some-thing—as above—I took some old Italian handmade paper, folded-it, tore it with a bone folder, punched a hole in the head of the strip, and strung red binding thread into the opening and hung it in the trees, and there it flapped, amidst the rain, snow and storms—salt air, bleached paper that lashes out at the remote shore. And as I drew the letters, with a hand-ground pigment and old brush—I thought of the feeling, of writing: feeling.

Holding the brush, by the ferrule, it has a heft, a weight—
and this changes with the ink load in the brush.

And I contemplated the feel, in the moment.
The sound of the brush, the granular character of the ink,
brush on paper, the feel of the roughened, mould-made 50 year-old paper.

And I contrasted it with a review of the research that I was studying—here, in the midst of scientific tabulation, the downloading of massive arrays of data, the swirls of crowds, the whorls of trend
and the waves of movement, it might be said that ultimately it will come down to one thing:

How does it feel? And in that inquiry: is it beautiful?
Does it contribute something beautiful to the world?

That should be our work—making beauty.
Thence beautiful brands, beautiful enterprises, teams and deployments.

In my journeys around the planet, exploring and working—or both, as they often are, working onsite—
I find myself.

In making a way—as we all do—“we make our way,” it integrates all the studies of place, people, the orchestration of sensation and incipience of taste,
still, with this progression, I still go to the center-point of feeling. It’s the first reactive impulse of all the years of working—“hmm, that feels like…”

I could react to a place by
studying the calculated candle power,
the math of lumens in a lit space,
or measuring acoustics,
or touch the materiality of texture and
study the nature of epidermal reaction—
sense heat, scent fragrance,
examine taste,
or bask in the wholeness of sight—
gathering-in
the whirlpools of impression, measuring the character of messages and visuals.

All that could be done, should be reviewed—but in the end,
it will be:

How does it
feel?

In leading thoughtful teams,
my key offering is the sensate one.
I lead team workshops, we call them BrandQuests^®, SoulSummits,
that are all about being together, and feeling each other—watching live, talking eye to eye, marking and making notes,
sorting ideas, imagery, presenting ideas and inspirations—standing up, voicing direction—a team inside a team in front of a team.

What works, what doesn’t, why, what, where is the winning solution to make:
The nice design, the beautiful brand.
And how does it feel?
An excellent package, but..?
Exquisite interiors, but..?
Pretty logo—but..?

I like the feeling of that.

“Hmmm…I like how that feels” in the intertwining
of strategic foundations and tactical interplay—feeling is right in there.

And of course, what is the thinking journey of the story that unfolds?
Cool story, but who cares if there’s no feeling?
What have you grasped, gathered into memory, and what is held?

And what of your recollection, are you carried away?

My work will always start, and end, with feeling.
Since, in the reality of my legacy, that’s where it all started.

I like how that feels.

Feeling is:
a long-walked road, anyone’s work of decades of experience—
it is the striation, a street of time and moments in stride, and
the momentum it brings;
it offers the step forward in
the memory of holding something in your heart,
it stretches out, up the horizon-line of future visioning
the layering and interlacment of impressions
that do just that:
they make an im-pression.
They imprint.

And they, walking on,
become part of you.
As designers, brand shepherds, of digital, built
and papered expressions, feeling is the center of everything at the
crossroads of community and the touch-points of commerce.

Tim | working at OseanStudios
…..
Come. Co-create. Collaborate. Connect.
GIRVIN | Strategic Brands
GIRVIN Digital | Surfing | ART | Technology | Destination Brands | Placemaking
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And finally, in everything, the quest for beauty—
another calligraphic band, lying wet in the leaves—
the handmade paper. It was blown from a branch,
lost for months in the snow, salt air
and madrona leaves and bark.