Hillary Clinton will be the 45th President of the United States. We’ll almost certainly address her as Madam President: the NIH and the USGS already plan to. (The ITA is a bit behind the times.) “Madam” is also the standard term of address for female Senators and Speakers, as well as many female heads
In Episode 1 of Ryan Learns Something, Ryan quits his job and gets $15,000 to start his journey of self-directed learning. He learns how to name things by seeking out a company naming expert: Eli Altman. Ryan learns the history of naming companies and the trends that affect brand names. He reads “Don’t Call It
Shortly after midnight on March 1 2016, Yosemite National Park was quiet. Tucked in the park’s backcountry, tent campers snored in their sleeping bags. Nocturnal animals emerged from the conifer forests to hunt. But the silence was broken as workers drove from landmark to landmark, tearing down old signs and riveting new ones in
The branding efforts of Mast Brothers Chocolate typify the American craft-culture renaissance. We’re told the chocolate bars, ground from premium beans of tropical origin in a small city loft, are the pride and obsession of siblings Rick and Michael Mast. In promotional photos, the brothers pose in front of burlap sacks in their factory, dressed
The Problem: Communicating a tangled message Starting a new category Serial fiction reminds most people of the 19th century. We think first of Dickens and Austen, The Three Musketeers and The Brothers Karamazov. Today, Serial Box, a company founded by former client Julian Yap, is rebuilding the serial for the 21st century, complete with digital
Deconstruct is a propaganda venture from A Hundred Monkeys in which we perform close readings of new names belonging to companies with large legal teams. “Freeform … free to take whatever shape feels right, free to push beyond the expected. Free to get from point A to point B in a line that’s nowhere near
In 1993, nine New York rappers dropped an album that would go on to… I don’t need to finish it, do I? You know who the Wu Tang Clan is, and if you don’t, you can read one of the many pop-cultural accounts of their rise to stardom, power, and a place in the hip
In June of 1896, a gold prospector named William Dickey was digging on the banks of Alaska’s Susitna River. Towering over the river valley was a giant peak, rising over 20,000 feet. While Dickey labored at the foot of the mountain, news arrived that William McKinley had won the Republican presidential nomination. Elated, the prospector
If you were to take a walk through a California orchard in 1920 or so, you might come across a tree bearing a large, egg-shaped fruit. The fruit is covered in tough, green skin. Plucked from the tree, it ripens, turning a duller green. You would know it as the alligator pear. The avocado, as
Deconstruct is a propaganda venture from A Hundred Monkeys in which we perform close readings of new names belonging to companies with large legal teams. Last week, Whole Foods announced the launch of a new chain of grocery stores. Described as “a smaller-store concept where value meets quality,” the new chain is intended as a
