There’s a word that GIRVIN uses as a way to define the thoughtful design of brands in the context of a 360º sentience—experientiality. It’s a spherical watchfulness—in one classical reference, keep your “head on a swivel, watch your six” way of approaching a place, and savoring that experience, wholly.
It’s a way of being for GIRVINists,
people that work at GIRVIN.
They think and design about such things.
In this way of feeling things, sensation becomes synæsthetic—it mixes emotional response into
intermixed tiers of sensate recognition.
We like to touch things, listen to the music, smell the place, maybe taste something—
and look into the details of the smallest expression of place—to the larger spectacle surveilled.
Tiny details reach into the minuscule dimensions of memory—
“I remember that.”
360º interplay.
Walk in. Sense.
Think about design as a progression—it’s a procession of the sight of presentation
from the street, to the texture of the footfall, the sound of the foot sliding on the texture of the floor,
the waft of the scent of the interior, the character of the sound of place
—muffled and softly textured—to an echoic reflection;
there could be an implication of taste—
perhaps in the air, or something to eat?
It’s usually a matter, for me, a reaching-out to touch, and feel the place—to listen carefully as an all-around absorption, feeling the sound, sensing the color.
And, every place has a scent—inhale.
And then taste—if you’re tasting something, could this all be influenced by the place?
How does that
work for you?
First off, slow down.
Take a beat.
Open up to the moment—
unclutter the sentinent channels—pay attention.
All very nice, philosophically, the opening to a wholly sensational world—but what does it mean in the construct of branding?
In brand space—consider that your brand, even a product on shelf, as a layering of color expression in the aisle—merchandising that makes a statement, packaging that is thought of holistically—all sides, all statements at shelf, dynamic merchandising.
I was standing in a brewery in Canada, studying the 1000s of cans that we designed for Mark Anthony Brands, Vancouver, BC.
Of course this is idealized, the shelf of infinity—you’d never see a shelf set like this—even in Anthony von Mandl’s wildest dreams.
Real world, brand space—it’s far messier, and so the integration, the synæsthesia of intertwined plays need to be planned as a spherical expression, from the top of the package, the foot, then front and back—and side panels.
Wholly, the principles apply.
In another conversation, designing for a feminine wellness product, we worked through the packaging shelf and website present space of trying to emotionally, and physically touch, every aspect of the brand treatment—and too, making sure it could be touched, experienced by her, the customer.
As above—the allegory of the beer wall—we used the design packaging
to be in clustered, brand-definitive arrays—something to be sensed by the viewer.
so, for example, working Nabisco’s [back then] folio, we built a sequencing that was
a Bullseye strategy, a tactical plan of sequentially aisle-walking the colorations,
a processional enclosure, a transitioning from warmer tones.
As a brand sentient, consider the psychic, emotional and physic nature of the strategy—
what is the layering that could be built into the modeling of it–s presentation—even in the written manner—the brand storytelling. In our experience, writing storytelling comes to positioning—how is the story framed for each audience, the heroes and heroines, the curves of genealogy and the swing of the plot, and the arc of denouement. It begins in one place and finishes in another. Or it continues…
In either analysis—the idea comes to the grouping of this Chinese seal—the whole circle, the 360º containment.
And you, as the Peaceful Brand Warrior, the shepherd and steward, shall be considering—how, in the management of this brand, this enterprise, can I be thinking about how the premise of this way of being and thinking—how can I apply this strategy?
Analyze the points of sensation:
1.
How can this brand be touched?
What components could be improved for a touch-related feeling?
2.
Is there a scent relationship to this brand—
how could that be adjusted to the storytelling of its mixture in human contacts?
3.
Taste and texturality—
this brand has a taste, that’s a particular challenge, which relates to the character of its flavor obviously—and two, towards feeling, its mouth texture, the quality of its mouth feel.
4.
Sound—
obviously, many brand experiences relate to sonic influences. “I know it, remember it, by the sound.” Could be melodic, could be the sound of the place—the reflective resonance of footfalls, the silence or busy-ness of the sound-related quality of the place.
5.
Sight, the most widely observed quality of brand experience,
mostly works as a summation of brand sentience, since this is the most obvious characterization. “Let’s see, I know this brand, it has this color, this patterning, it looks like…And I can see how it feels, if I were to hold it.”
As a brand designer and wanderer of many roads, and of many years, I think of it in this construct of experientiality—a multiplicity of planes, a concatenation of axes, it’s a spherical way of beingness; the arcs of perception are circular in their outreach, and their reach-in to your present.
I help.
Tim
GIRVIN | Strategic Brands
Digital | Built environments by Osean | Theatrical Branding
Technology Branding | Destination Brands
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