Helpful words

We Do This Every Day: the Case for Professional Naming

We all perform routine tasks on a daily basis: brushing our teeth, preparing morning beverages, gazing at screens, and, possibly, perfecting personal crafts. Most people are lucky to get good at a hobby or two. Naming things is not typically one of those two things. In the naming biz, we see people take a crack…

Branding Can Only Take You So Far

There’s a simple formula to surf films: show people surfing. Rarely do these movies consist of an overt, or even covert, narrative or message communicated to the audience. Plus surfers don’t care much for propaganda. But on Saturday October 12, 2024 I attended the premier screening of Circles: An Ode To Shredding directed by Dana…

Our brand could be your life: A look at why some brands dominate people’s lives

Credit to Michael Azerrad and Mike Watt of Minutemen for the title of this blog, a nod to Azzerad’s book “Our band could be your life” and the opening line of “History Lesson – Part II”, a song written by Mike Watt of Minutemen. What is it about some brands that seem to take over…

The hidden value of side projects

  • About: Naming

Why a side project might be the best thing for your main project I’m no stranger to a side project. I’ve done plenty of them in my wheelhouse, like everything at No Picnic: Don’t Call It That, Run Studio Run, Go Name Yourself, Assorted Characters, and Extra Strength. I’ve also taken on side projects that are much further…

Destination vs. Wayfinding in a Naming Ecosystems

“See the city, see the zoo, traffic light won’t let me through.”  – Phish Where did you go recently? Maybe you went to the grocery store or maybe you flew to Salt Lake City. In any event, you had a destination in mind and how you got there was simply an exercise in wayfinding. A…

Read, Read, Read. Read Everything.

William Faulkner won the Nobel Peace Prize for literature in 1949. Two years earlier in 1947 he spoke to students of the English Department at the University of Mississippi. During a question and answer session after the talk, he handed down some advice to the students on how to be better writers. Here’s an excerpt…

Dollar Store Names: The Deals, The Steals, The Thrills

Dollar stores live in the world of practical magic. A place where $5 feels like $50, and a name can be the thing that turns “eh, maybe” into “why not?” The best dollar store names don’t just tell you what you’re getting; they evoke an emotional response, spark curiosity, or cleverly allude to their mainstream…

The powers (and limitations) of names in defining a category

  • About: Naming

One of the best parts of this job is the newness of it all. Naming is one of the first milestones of a newborn idea. That means we get unique insight into some groundbreaking developments, from AI systems to krill-derived protein supplements. Most of the time we’re trying to help founders stand out in a…

What kind of painter are you?

  • About: Naming

Ellsworth Kelly or Kelly Moore? There are a lot of models for how creative professionals interact with their clients. I want to introduce one that we’ve been using at A Hundred Monkeys recently. We have found it useful when trying to understand the relationships we want to have, and the relationships that clients are looking for….

We play well with others

We’re lucky to have some talented friends and partners in the branding world—design studios, strategists, consultants, freelance designers—who think of us when their clients have naming needs. Typically, this means working together to figure out how to seamlessly incorporate naming into the rest of their branding work. This is our jam. Working with a longtime…

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