When you look, you find. In working on a brand development project in eastern Washington, I was walking their vineyard to get, literally, the lay of the land. And, I’m looking for what lies beneath, what lies inside the brand story. And in any brand development, it’s wholly about the heart — the heart of the person, the leadership, the soul of the brand. Any brand is soul full — because it’s inherently human. Some business people forget that, it’s really about the human connection that means anything, that means everything.
I was working with the Reynvaan family on a project for their vineyards, and I’d been walking the ancient stone scattered grounds of their viticultural lands, with them. This land is powerful; this land is their land; this land is at the very heart of their work –the grape, distilled.?
This terroir is a matching geology to the rough scrabble of the classic vineyards of Spain and certain regions in France; these stone bound regions create a version of growth that is strengthened by the rocky character.
What’s this reference, then? It’s about walking and seeing, looking in, deeply, and — finding what’s there.
So the character of the land is about strengthening the vines, the roots beneath, to create something special. Very special.
And when I walk, I’m looking. And seeing into things, into ways — that bring me closer into the heart of things. Nothing more than trying to be attentive. Tuning in. And what I can offer is merely that — the pathway of traveling in, moving in, seeing in. It’s a practice, that seeing inside the moment. That’s concentration. And there’s nothing to presume that what I’m doing is anything more than trying. There’s no mastery. Just timing in, tuning in. Into time, into perspective, into seeing. What that, then? This group of stones symbolizes it all.
And what to this? Just look. In.
This stone is a kind of symbol, then — brand symbol. It is a portal, seeing through the stone to the future, its curves coming round, to form the one: the family, the land, the vineyard.
tsg | walla walla