Seattle and Raleigh-Durham marketing, graphic and brand design studio Design Kompany

This post is about finding the right name for your company and why it’s important.

A project manager’s book I flipped through once advised, “Name every project that you do.”

Giving something a name helps you really visualize the end. It’s like the beginning of Superman, where all those crystals fly up into the sky. Okay, not really, but you know what I mean. That a-ha moment, that incredible “Of course! This is it!” feeling that you just know in your very marrow is exactly the right thing. That it just couldn’t be any other way. You have it, square, clean and solid and it’s absolutely right in a world where oftentimes “right” is arbitrary. Your idea is grounded! And you’re sure. But seriously*. That’s the feeling.

Does it stir you?

Tagging your creations-to-be with identities is definitely a useful piece of advice. In fact, so helpful has this “name every project you do” line been for me in the last 12 years, I’ve already written about it in this blog. I compared projects to babies.

An example of hitting the right name: Design Kompany came up with the name “Flow” for a new line of glass sinks. It was our first getting-to-know-you meeting, and the name sounded good. It felt right. It stirred us. And it stuck.

Since then we’ve offered a bunch of ideas to other clients as we start to walk towards the starting line of our brand identity design process. Know what I mean? Starting before you really get in gear to start.**

You can’t have a great mark without doing some heavy-duty thinking about what you want your image to be.

What do marketing people do?

Marketing folks and branding people like us here at Design Kompany will all ask you variations of the same questions:

. Who is it you’re trying to reach?
. What is it you want to say?
. And, underneath all of that, Why should people care?

Can you answer those questions about your business?

If you said “yes,” read on about naming…

Free .pdf naming resource guide

One of Design Kompany’s awesome clients came to us looking for a name for her business, and we were jazzed to tackle such an important challenge.

What I found after collating notes from books and the Internet was this rather lengthy but on-the-money guide from a naming company called Igor International. It’s a 97-page .pdf, but here’s the thing. Our client found it so useful, she printed the whole thing and even left it with us to share as a resource for new clients. Now we have it in the library section of our new office setup. But in case you don’t have time to swing by and say hi to us, the guide is posted online, too, at Igor International’s Naming Guide.pdf.

Here is an excerpt from the summary page:

Creating Great Product and Company Names
Successful product and company names may appear to have been created by magic, but it is possible to develop names that are dynamic, effective and fully leverage a brand’s potential if you have the right process in place.

A process that is clear, insightful, logical and focused will lead to a name and tagline that are powerful components of your brand strategy, and pave the way for buy-in throughout your organization.

Before you begin, [Look!! It’s that ‘before you start’ point I talked about! –DK] it is essential to decide what you want your new product or company name to do for you. To make that decision, you need to understand the possibilities. A name can:
• Demonstrate to the world that you are different
• Be unforgettable
• Propel itself through the world on its own, becoming a no-cost, self-sustaining PR vehicle
• Be the genesis of a brand that rises above the goods and services you provide
• Completely dominate a category
As with any plan, it’s all about inspired execution.” –Igor International

Linguistics angle

Another resource is a little closer to home. I’ve met “The Name Inspector” a couple of times around Seattle. Here’s a link to this linguistics person’s guide, “10 tips for naming your company, product or service”.

I’ll post more notes from research as useful links come up.

*Not the Phil Collins album.
**It’s like me blogging this post instead of writing a chapter for Out of the Blue, the book I’m putting together on Design Inspirations from Scandinavia. Like the name?