GIRVIN

09/03/2026

Volatility and Brand Alchemy

Everything changes; everything is on fire. Nothing is the same as it was; everything is the same as it shall be. In the mist of experience, it’s all changing—still, standards flow, and patterning emerges. While everything is in flux, everything goes as it has from the past—yet, now, the speed of the wind of change are accelerating. It is flitting, fleeting, faster....

Everything changes; everything is on fire. Nothing is the same as it was; everything is the same as it shall be. In the mist of experience, it’s all changing—still, standards flow, and patterning emerges. While everything is in flux, everything goes as it has from the past—yet, now, the speed ...

08/27/2026

Brand allegories | The Symbolism of the Knot

Certain symbols follow us through life, resurfacing at pivotal moments until we recognize them as guides. For brand strategist Tim Girvin, that recurring symbol is the knot—an ancient motif of inextricability, cycling, and containment found from Tibetan prayer flags to the Lindisfarne Gospels to the geometric mastery of Islamic art. Tracing the knot's journey through Celtic tradition and the intricate patterning of Casablanca's Grand Mosque, this piece explores what the eternal knot can teach brand designers about weaving meaning, memory, and connection into the customer experience....

Certain symbols follow us through life, resurfacing at pivotal moments until we recognize them as guides. For brand strategist Tim Girvin, that recurring symbol is the knot—an ancient motif of inextricability, cycling, and containment found from Tibetan prayer flags to the Lindisfarne Gospels to t...

08/20/2026

Congratulations to our client Kirsten Soderlind, the mind behind Arteriel, on the launch of her brand online! Our involvement started eight years ago—from the development of the logo, brand language, and pitch deck, to templates for print merchandise. Looks like Kirsten’s perseverance, patience, and gift for building connections (and connecting the world to art) is starting to pay off!

08/20/2026

The Symbolism of the Hash Tag

The Hatching Stroke and the Ubiquity of Archetypal Design Thinking # I was walking the beach near my studios and found the above timber mark, cross-hatched into a log, the proverbial “pound” or number sign. And I wondered about it. “When this type of mark is made, what meaning could it imply?" As a designer and symbologist (yes, an invented word for a scholar of symbols,) the quest for the kernel of the original idea and patterning in consciousness—whether visual, textual, physical or psychic—is a perpetual listening, it's that leaning-in, at full attention, an unbridled curiosity, to hear, absorb, learn, and know more....

The Hatching Stroke and the Ubiquity of Archetypal Design Thinking # I was walking the beach near my studios and found the above timber mark, cross-hatched into a log, the proverbial “pound” or number sign. And I wondered about it. “When this type of mark is made, what meaning could it imply?"...

08/13/2026

Coming to Las Vegas | A Talk on Motion Picture Branding

There’s a conversation that’s floating around—about the notion of handwork, handmade things; the other, start-up side of ai design. Everything’s digital, of course, in the final interpretation, and application. But to my thinking, "by hand, with mind and meditation," might be another rendering, pardon the gesture to the draftsperson. The mind side, of course, is the close-in listening, the lean-in to the story,...

There’s a conversation that’s floating around—about the notion of handwork, handmade things; the other, start-up side of ai design. Everything’s digital, of course, in the final interpretation, and application. But to my thinking, "by hand, with mind and meditation," might be another renderi...

08/12/2026

The end of an era, or just the beginning? If you’ve ever crossed the Wishkah River Bridge, you’ve passed under its iconic Aberdeen billboard. Seen by 8,000 drivers daily, the city needed to replace the faded artwork, but also wanted to revive interest in and celebrate the town itself (not just as a “Gateway to the Olympics”) with refreshed design and focus. They chose us to reimagine Aberdeen’s identity as a destination—full of history, culture, and industry.

08/05/2026

We’ve worked with Tom Roberts on all of his brands—dental offices, racing instruction in Germany at Nürburgring, and now his coaching and philosophical book about Flow.

08/05/2026

Ghost Branding, Stealth and Whisper Messaging

Ghost Brands and the Principle of Palimpsest I was thinking about the notion of a “ghost business,” that—in imagery—could be seen as something hidden, transparent and diaphanous. Towards the conception of ghostly-related design, and, for example, my simple detailing on the logo design for Ricky Gervais’s film, “Ghost Town” a comedic narrative of his in-human distaste, and later his deathly transformation where…...

Ghost Brands and the Principle of Palimpsest I was thinking about the notion of a “ghost business,” that—in imagery—could be seen as something hidden, transparent and diaphanous. Towards the conception of ghostly-related design, and, for example, my simple detailing on the logo design for Ri...

07/28/2026

We help foundations with their branding, and we’re proud to be brand design supporters of ACEF—the Arkansas Construction Education Foundation. A team even worked on building our logo.

07/23/2026

We love playing with letters and building monograms. Like this one, for our building, with our favorite dog in the building, Georgie.