I gave a talk at Procter & Gamble’s hall
at Building One, downtown Cincinnati.
This talk was about spherical thinking, brands and storytelling, a way of looking at the narrative of brands as narrative concatenations—knots and threads of woven tellings, that interplays the emotional lives and psychic spaces of those that built the brand, their dreams and the journeys to fulfillment; then, too, the characteristics of those that use the brand.
They’re using the brand, of course, because of three things, that we call the Brand R’s—this would be relevance, there is useful utility. There is resonance—the song of the brand is listened to as an attractive melody: the vibe is right—it feels good. And finally, as everyone knows—it’s about a relationship, one which, brand owners hope, would be one of commitment and a longer term engagement. Relationships, as the word intones, in its 2000-year-old etymological registry is relatus—which is to bring back, re-“back, again”+ latus “borne”
or “carried”, to carry, as in a story forwards.
YSL | brand reconstruction and workshopping Manhattan
Dawn Clark, Istanbul
Of course, all of these momentary tiers speaks to degrees of engagement in brand experience strategy: you are, once, on the street—and you see a shop, an entryway—there’s a story from the distance, approaching, there are more narratives that reveal themselves, the door grasped, a touch—and upon entering: light, color, scent, and sound.
Here’s a book that I made for a client that is an alchemical grimoire of brand tiering, drawn by hand. Want a copy, reach out.
This is a touching book. It’s thinking 360º, spherical brand strategy and sensorial holism.
This the journey of the sensate,
a newly sensed landscape how humans feel.
Any time you walk forwards, breathe a moment, journey is a storytelling of sensuality—how you sense and experience the grander sphere of your trans-sensational input.
You touch something—but when you touch it, what happens? Memories intermingle in the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and the balancing of the feelingness.
What you —the creative one that you are–recall in a journey would, of course, be founded on what you’ve seen, but there are other layers to recollection. And recollection is your gathering, it’s recalling what you collect, savoring the weaving of what you have been. To.
It is, truly, what you hold in your tapestry of memories.
Gather them up—your own ball of twine, to weave anew.
You are the lookout.
To your wander, the meander of exploration, how that is held—might be a journal, which is my
own practice of holding— which could be a book of touching—like this one—
which is to gather again the notations of a journey, you’ll recall the sights you beheld,
but too—tastes that were savored;
sounds that were heard,
touches in a place that culled
the heart and heat of a moment.
and instances of scent:
a forgotten hallway, or further out there—the outside:
a long fragrance waft of forest, sea, heated sand.
While in scent, you might be challenged to notate the structure of a scent experience and you ask: “what exactly was I smelling?”
Never mind—it’s that you smelled is important.
Earlier, I’d built a book of imagery and calligraphy exploring a collage book, a grimoire of sensation: one which I’d drawn out to the realm of the sensational—design storytelling, in brand.
This focused on the notations of the sensate as experienced by humans.
This contemplation examines the idea of the book as a sensational object, interpretation as dynamic flow,
dramatic uses of type and hand-lettered story,
in a booklet form that walks through imagery,
notations and touch points that
reached into the heart of sensing experience.
The seeing hand, tells a story of the intermixing of sensation, the synaesthetic ideal:
I see a scent;
I touch a color;
then I hear a taste.
What do we hear,
what do we scent,
what do we touch,
and what do we taste?
And how would we react to it?
Journal that telling?
Passion is commitment to journey, of joy and pain, serenity and the chaos of courage.
Tim Girvin | OseanStudios | Copalis Beach
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