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Girvin Delivers Solid Brand For Iron Man

May 6, 2008 | Tate Linden
A short post today - mainly because I'm going to send you elsewhere.

Tim Girvin over at Girvin: D.log has written up a great overview of the work he did for the new Iron Man film.  (He also appears to have done good work and similar descriptions for Beowulf and The Matrix.)

I love the way he's been able to help the telling of the story even with only the selection of fonts he uses.  To appreciate the power of his work - try to imagine The Matrix titles presented in Times New Roman...  Or Beowulf delivered on a flat white background...

Tim understands that there's more to telling a story than the story itself.  The setting plays a major role.  And... it's why ghost stories don't work so well at noon, but have people cowering over the guttering campfire as the full moon rises. 

Tim - if you read this - the next time I'm out in Seattle I'm buying you a beer.  I've only known about your work for a few weeks, but I'm already a big fan.   (You're one of the reasons Stokefire brought on a Font Geek - and a cool one, of course - to help us delve deeper into the potential brand strategy and execution for our clients.)

Any designer that doesn't know his or her way around fonts is a designer that is working with a major handicap.

Comments (2)
2 Comments
Tim Girvin May 7, 2008 8:54 PM

Tate, team -- friends,

Thanks for your kind remarks about the work. Coming from someplace called Stokefire, well -- I'm stoked and fired, all at once.

It's always important to know that the process of developing branding for motion picture / theatrical advertising is one of prolonged evolution. I started working on Iron Man in 2006, with the EVP there, working on it for Paramount and the leadership at Marvel.

And the point was to be conscious of the history of the brand -- Marvel's got grand legacies in comic identity. But, as well, to move it someplace new. Interestingly enough, the place that Josh Greenstein took it was -- after our work, close to one of the treatments that came from the past, letterspaced and re-ordered to a new metallic worked roughness. Wabisabi Ironed Man. There's another point, in the evolutions -- that's about the very strategy of the visual armoring -- what's that look like. When we began, it hadn't been decided on.

So like Favreau's rendering of Daredevil, there is a certain visual link that bridges from something like the "uniform" garb -- what does that look and feel like -- to the casting of the branding for the theatrical marketing. There's a lot of work exploring and defining that.

Iron Man probably went from one to many variations, in the continuing thread of design development and evolution. Been there, done that, explored this, explored that.

I'll have to do a book on it.

Actually, I've done a book on it. It's called:

My Portfolio:

Storytelling for Motion Picture Design.

All the best -- thanks, brother,

Tim Girvin | girvin@girvin.com | Seattle & NYC

Tate Linden Author Profile Page May 13, 2008 8:10 AM

Tim,

Thanks for dropping in. You've made another sale for your "My Portfolio" book.

While I'm an excellent branding guy and can understand what fonts bring to the table I'm not well enough versed in *why* the various shapes can have emotional or storytelling impact. I can tell that the impact is there - and can build the story - but I need the guys with the talent to create the image...

You artistically talented folks just seem like magicians sometimes...

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