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Against the Single Peak

The Pamir Knot is one of the places on earth where geography refuses simplicity. It’s a vast highland convergence in Central Asia where the Himalayas, Karakoram, Hindu Kush, Kunlun, and Tian Shan mountain systems meet, press against one another, and radiate outward. It is neither a single range nor a clean line drawn across a […]

Jun 14 2026 by Nancy Lerner in Brandshrink
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Towards a Poetics of Branding

While continuing to discover forms that reveal something hidden about branding, poetry continues to cross my mental transom. Not a surprise, really, since it embodies both ideas and techniques that interest me: It understands rhythm. It understands restraint. It understands that meaning doesn’t have to arrive in a straight line. A delightful piece by A.O. […]

Jun 12 2026 by Nancy Lerner in Brandshrink
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Yielding as Strategy

In our endless pursuit of challenging the default language of branding, we look for frameworks that loosen the grip of the obvious. We’re suckers for ideas that allow us to move past ideas grounded in contest, but as a matter of form, timing, and relation. One such framework comes from the Japanese martial tradition of […]

May 17 2026 by Nancy Lerner in Brandshrink
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The Aspirin Age, Again

I have revisited the 22 essays by prominent writers in The Aspirin Age: 1919–1941, edited by Isabel Leighton and first published in 1949, dozens of times over the years. From one reading to the next, it has always felt like a weather system that keeps returning under different names. The book’s title refers to the […]

May 3 2026 by Nancy Lerner in Brandshrink
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Nongkrong and the Art of Staying Put

Nongkrong offers a quietly provocative philosophy of relation. The Indonesian word is often translated simply as “hanging out,” but that translation barely grazes the surface. In the artist-run spaces of Yogyakarta, the city that serves as the hub for Javanese culture, nongkrong is the practice of spending time together without an overly determined purpose. It […]

Apr 21 2026 by Nancy Lerner in Brandshrink

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