Helpful words

Front of house: The power of foreign language naming in hospitality

Many people are drawn to foreign language brand names at one point or another. Whether it’s an exotic sports car, a fine wine, or a chic restaurant, the attractive phonetics, excitement of cultural exploration, or simply the mystery of the unknown can capture our imagination. Today, some light fare: we’ll dive into several courses of…

Meet me in Hot Buttered Rum: How to approach conference room naming

In November of last year my sister-in-law Erica texted me: “I need to come up with themes to name the conference rooms in our new office campus. Such as “tv shows”, “sports teams”, “types of trees” etc etc. Do you have any ideas?? I need to come up with 20–25 different categories (we have a…

Bringing short-term relationship energy to long-term relationships, and vice versa

At A Hundred Monkeys we talk a lot about how brands are like people. The name is the first impression, they have personalities, voices, and we grow to love them (or maybe the opposite) through experience over time. Interacting with a brand can be a lot like dating — or really, like any human interaction. Client relationships…

Good creative leads and where to find them

Or, business is slow. What are you going to do about it? Here at A Hundred Monkeys, 2023 is off to a slow start. New leads, referrals, and new projects are all below average. The first thing we wanted to check when we realized this was “Is this an us thing or an everyone thing?” So we reached…

Brand chameleons: how ever-changing brands might operate

Hear me out—I have an oddball question: why don’t some brands make a point to change their name, and their brand, regularly? As in, their name (and visual identity) change often to the point of transformation being core to who they are. Newness is the consistency.  I recognize this concept won’t work for most brands…

The shopping complex (and names that aren’t)

  • About: Naming

A branding lesson from none other than the strip mall The strip mall, a self-contained retail oasis and 20th-century Main Street, is a staple of towns across America. A one-stop shop where you can get a haircut, pick up a prescription, get your smoothie fix, and have your taxes prepared all in one run. Multi-level?…

assorted characters cover

Say hello to Assorted Characters 👋

  • About: Naming

Assorted Characters is a limited edition 3 volume zine of names and other found text collected by the team at A Hundred Monkeys. It is available exclusively through No Picnic Press. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been taking pictures of names and other language I find. This could be on a neighborhood…

New word, who dis?

What happens when we see words that are unfamiliar to us — in naming and beyond Ingredients, technologies, viral strains, street names, animal breeds. We see new words constantly—so much so that we don’t always notice when it’s happening. Our brains become accustomed to new words quickly after a bit of language processing, which of…

Brand architecture is a delusional fantasy

As I, a branding professional, understand it, Brand Architecture is the relationship between all of the branded elements within an organization. This could be subsidiaries, sub-brands, products, features, services—really anything branded within an organization. So if we take Nike as an example, they have owned subsidiaries like Hurley and Converse. They have sub-brands like Nike…

Look Before You Leap: 2¢ on Scoping Projects

  • About: Naming

This might sound really obvious, and it is: don’t say yes to something without understanding what you’re saying yes to. Obvious, right? Kindergarten level awareness. Don’t take candy from strangers, don’t run off in a crowded subway station, basic little kid rules. That being said, now that we’re no longer five years of age and…

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