Over the years I’ve taken thousands of pictures of names. It doesn’t matter if I’m on vacation or at the drug store, I always keep an eye out. As someone who develops names professionally I guess I’m just curious to see what’s out there. While I’m interested in work that’s professionally done by people who
How many types of names are there? At A Hundred Monkeys we divide our naming taxonomy into 29 species. We tend to find a new species or two every year — depending on how much time we have for exploration. Ask a trademark attorney and they’ll simplify it to two types–evocative and descriptive. Typical. Lawyers. While there’s healthy debate
Seriously. Mispronunciation of your name isn’t the worst thing that could happen to your company, it’s not even close. Like most people, you’re probably thinking about your brand or product as some singular, perfect project – and that makes sense, you’ve been working on it for years. No matter the amount of effort you’ve put
Brands are just like humans. Because we, as humans, have not evolved mental structures for dealing with brands in any other way. Brands communicate to you constantly, the same way other animals communicate to you, chiefly other humans. So we use that same part of the brain and those same mental tools we use for
What you’re giving up by chasing a name that does it all No matter how hard you try, a name for your company or product or service can’t do everything. So if you’re looking for a name that’s short and legally available and descriptive and memorable, you’re using 90% of your energy to get 10%
Developing clear roles and responsibilities at creative studios Atits simplest, responsibilities are about knowing who does what. It’s important that everyone at your studio has clearly defined roles and responsibilities. If you asked people who work for you to write down everything they’re responsible for, do you think they could do it? Better yet, do
Eli’s latest book Run Studio Run has been featured in Grain Edit, the modern graphic design inspiration blog. https://www.grainedit.com/2017/12/19/run-studio-run/
Creative people are not business people, huh? Creative Director, Eli Altman says otherwise in his new book, Run Studio Run. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1246751326/run-studio-run-the-business-of-running-a-creative
If you arrived at this page you probably already know that we think about names a lot. We can’t help it. We’re passionate about naming. So it’s no wonder that when we come across “curious” or “odd” names in the wild we can’t help but take note. It was only a matter of time before
Creative Director, Eli Altman sheds some light on how to create a stand-out business name with The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2017/aug/22/longer-is-better-and-dont-invent-words-picking-the-right-name-for-your-business
