Announcing: FOND

A company name should reflect a single, big idea. By rising above the functional and descriptive, a name that speaks to a higher-order idea can endure and inspire forever.

At one time, the name AnyPerk made sense to its founders, as it describes functionally that they provide a range of perks to employees of their corporate customers. That is technically true: AnyPerk does provide product discounts and other perks.

But they are really more than that. The company had long-embraced a single, big idea to define their brand: “The employee happiness company.”

As a name, AnyPerk says nothing about this noble reason for being. Moreover, as the company expanded beyond perks per se to also offering rewards and other benefits, AnyPerk was limiting.

It had to change. 

I was honored with the invitation to create a new name for the company.

For six weeks, the senior team at AnyPerk and I weighed the relative merits of 140 names that cleared preliminary global trademark screening.

And today, AnyPerk, “the employee happiness company,” announced their new name: Fond.
 

As a single, big idea, the name Fond will remain always relevant to the company and their customers. It will endure even as the company evolves. It’s easy to like.

I couldn’t be happier for them.

For their internal launch event, Fond asked me about the name. Here's what I said:

Fond's blog has a post detailing their rebranding. Their VP of Marketing, Michael Stapleton, offered these kind words:

"We're thrilled with Fond! Anthony did a wonderful job uncovering this name that was remarkably untaken. It so clearly reinforces our mission of 'helping companies build places where employees love to work,' but isn't an obvious, too-on-the-nose choice. It also leaves room for the brand flexibility we need as we grow."

Congratulations to my wonderful clients at Fond on their successful launch!

Jaunt: The Story Behind the Name

“You’re going to need to sit down.” 

That was the understatement of the day.

Taking a seat in my client’s office, cluttered with computers, video equipment and prototypes, I strapped on the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.

I was now looking at the same office, but in the monitor of the VR headset the room was neater. My three clients had shifted positions. As I turned my head, I could see them seated around the room; in front, to the side and behind me. They started throwing a Nerf ball to each other and my head turned to follow the ball. 

I could swear that the ball was being tossed around me. But it wasn’t. It was a 3D video recording that so closely mirrored reality, I could only react by gasping and giggling. 

It was a real “Mr. Watson, come here” moment. I was bearing witness to a new and profound invention: Cinematic VR. And I was honored with the task of naming it.

The Briefing

The opportunity came to me through Character, an outstanding branding and design agency whose work I admired. We had worked sequentially on the same projects but hadn’t yet collaborated. Character designed packaging for products I named, like the Plantronics Rig gaming headset, and they designed the identity for Zact Mobile, which I also named.

Character’s work designing the Android identity system for Andy Rubin, the mobile computing pioneer, had led to other interesting projects, such as this mind-blowing VR startup.

Character and I rendezvoused at Redpoint Ventures where our clients were “entrepreneurs in residence.” This unassuming office building belied the fact that within it, the future of entertainment was being invented. 

Three clients briefed us: Jens Christensen, Arthur van Hoff and Tom Annau. Their words flew around the room: immersive, transporting, transcendent, virtual presence, mimics reality, a whole new medium, science fiction, Jedi training ball. When Jedi training ball is used to reference a new technology, it’s going to be a big deal.

Meet the clients.

After the briefing, they whisked us to the office next door for the demo. It was weird, this nondescript, plain-vanilla space was strewn with crazy, never-before-seen inventions-in-progress. There was the 3D-printed sphere covered with lenses, the dev kits of the Oculus Rift, and assorted networking, videography and optics widgets strewn about.

Meet the camera.

To establish a baseline experience in virtual reality, I was handed an Oculus Rift headset loaded with an off-the-shelf demo called Tuscany. I put it on and saw a computer rendering of a well-manicured Tuscan estate. I rotated my head to look around. Using a trackball, I wandered the property. Wearing special VR gloves, I could grab or throw objects. It was pretty cool.

Tuscany: Cool. But not cool enough.

Despite being cutting-edge, the Tuscany demo was quickly eclipsed by the technology my clients’ were creating, which was nothing short of astounding. Their high-definition video feed in the headset was completely convincing. I really felt like I was watching something happening live all around me. In the Tuscany demo, I was aways aware it was CG. 

Ask your doctor if Jaunt is right for you.

The Strategic Framework

Being there. That was the promise of this new technology. Concerts, sports, family reunions, Presidential press briefings, sightseeing. All these things could someday be experienced remotely yet immersively. I’ll admit running a little hyperbolic, but I’m telling you: Cinematic VR will change everything. This technology represents a paradigm shift in entertainment and communications as significant as the radio or television. 

I reviewed the notes from the meeting and synthesized them into name objectives. Name objectives should be MECE: Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive. It’s tempting to etch every detail about a product or company into objectives, but it’s better to leave details out that might distract or take creative down an unproductive or short-sighted path.

Here are the name objectives for the cinematic VR project:  

The new name should support or connote a brand that:

• delivers unprecedented experiences presented in an entirely new medium
• provides immersive, virtual experiences that are completely realistic
• is capable of representing an entirely new category of experience
• transports people to another place 
• is not limited to a visual experience

The new name will refer to an experience, hardware, software, a website and app, among other things. 

The new name should have the ability to be appended as a modifier, as in ESPN 3D, The Avengers Blue-ray or Pacific Rim IMAX. 

The name should be relatively short and easy to spell. 

The trademark and domain should be available or acquirable.

• The domain might include a modification of the name, or be something other than .com (though not .net or .org).

The Names My Destination

Upon approval of the objectives I started naming, plundering the worlds of immersion, travel, space, entertainment and verbs. I scoured science fiction – teleportation in particular – and found The Glossary of Science Fiction Ideas, Technology and Inventions, an alphabetic inventory of over 2400 glorious gadgets, gizmos and doodads. It is the go-to resource for studying futuristic, albeit fictional, advances in science. 

It was there, filed under J, that I found the entry for Jaunte Stage – a little space to teleport. Alfred Bester’s 1953 novel, The Stars my Destination, introduces jaunte to mean teleport. A Jaunte Stage is a platform for teleportation. 

Jaunting, in the novel, was not named after the word jaunt, but after a character, Charles Fort Jaunte, who discovered the ability to self-transport by mind power alone. Jaunting was not a technology, but a psionic capability.

Any man was capable of jaunting provided he developed two faculties, visualization and concentration. He had to visualize, completely and precisely, the spot to which he desired to teleport himself; and he had to concentrate the latent energy of his mind into a single thrust to get him there. 

–Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination

Decades later, Stephen King wrote a short story about teleportation called The Jaunt. He got the name from the same place I did. Quoth The Jaunt:

“Of course you know that the Jaunt is teleportation, no more or less,” he said. “Sometimes in college chemistry class and physics they call it the Carune Process, but it’s really teleportation, and it was Carune himself — if you can believe the stories — who named it ‘The Jaunt.’ He was a science-fiction reader, and there’s a story by a man named Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination it’s called, and this fellow Bester made up the word ‘jaunte’ for teleportation in it. Except in his book you could Jaunt just by thinking about it, and we can’t really do that.” 

– Stephen King, The Jaunt

Bester did not make up the word jaunt, only its use as teleport. We don’t really know where the word jaunt first came from. It might have originated in Old French. We do know that it was originally pejorative and meant “a tiresome journey” (1590s) or “to tire a horse out by riding back and forth on it” (1560s). The current, positive meaning of jaunt to mean “a short pleasure trip” came about in the 1670s. 

Oddly, the word jaunty does not come from jaunt, but from French gentil (meaning gentle, genteel). Despite jaunty meaning “having a lively, cheerful and self-confident manner,” and jaunt meaning a “lively, cheerful excursion,” their resemblance is just a coincidence. 

I created 1200 other names for the assignment and over 200 were screened for preliminary global trademark availability by my long-time trademark partner, Steve Price of Tessera. I worked closely with Character refining the list and over 100 names were presented in two rounds of work. 

Context is King

It’s vital to stage name candidates in a presentation so they have the best chance of acceptance. As a presenter, you must help the audience suspend disbelief that these are not just words on a page. That requires presenting name candidates in a fait-accompli, real-world context. The more a hypothetical name looks like it’s an actual living, breathing brand, the better. (More on that topic here.) 

I chose to present the names in a mocked-up entertainment website. The visual identity development had not yet begun and my client did not have a website, so I started with Ticketmaster’s website then altered it to fit my client’s prospective future. This is what the Jaunt name exhibit looked like for the name presentation: 

The right context makes a hypothetical name seem like a done deal.

Fortunately, Jaunt’s final identity and website is way slicker than my hack. 

The client loved Jaunt. Here’s why:

• A jaunt is a short trip for pleasure, just as their technology offers a fast and fun escape
• The name has already been validated – twice! – as a perfect name for teleportation, which is itself the perfect metaphor for cinematic VR
• It’s short and pairs well with other brands as a technology platform (“See Wimbledon live in Jaunt!”)

Jaunting Ahead 

Following my client’s full legal screening, the name was adopted. Character created Jaunt’s iconic identity:

The name was launched on a snappy website highlighting power-player testimonials:

“Jaunt has created a completely new experience that will change the way we enjoy media.” 

–Brad Wechsler, Chairman of IMAX  

“Jaunt is a total sensory experience unlike anything I've ever seen.The creative community is going to blow our minds with this technology over the coming years.” 

–Peter Gotcher, Chairman of Dolby

I loved how the client incorporated the name into their messaging. From the website:

“The idea for Jaunt originated in early 2013 when one of our founders returned from an amazing experience at Zion National Park.  What if he could go back there for a brief jaunt, at any time, from any place?” 

For further reading on the technology and future of Jaunt, check out these articles:

Meet the Crazy Camera That Can Make Movies for the Oculus Rift 

Virtual reality has another ‘wow’ moment as Jaunt introduces 360-degree cinematic videos 

Jaunt wants to make virtual reality a platform for beautiful, immersive cinema

I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to name Jaunt. Thank you Tom, Arthur, Jens, Ollie, Ben and the rest of the talented team at Character.

- Anth

Funny Business: The Game for Namers

Namers of the world, rejoice! I bring tidings of great joy, for unto you a game is born. And the name of that game is Funny Business.

Funny Business, “The Hilarious Game of Mismatched Mergers”, challenges players to give names to companies that have merged. The funny part of Funny Business is that the mergers are of incongruous businesses. What name would you give to diner that merged with a hardware store? Or a fruit stand and a cruise line?

What It Is

Four to eight players compete to give the best name for two businesses that have come together. Two “business cards” are drawn for each round of play, each card features a type of business and a list of related words to inspire a name. For example, the business Comic Book Store includes action figure, edition, graphic, superhero, strip, villain, et al. The names each player comes up with can include those words but don’t have to.

Game Play and Voting

Each player anonymously writes down their one best name on a card and the cards are shuffled. A “Boss,” who rotates between plays, reads each name aloud and players secretly vote on their favorite one. The Boss may not vote on their own name, but other players may. After voting, the votes are tallied and points are awarded according to who gets the most votes (2 points), who voted for the winning name (1 point), and the Boss earns double of any points he or she earned in the round. The voting system is ingenious, ensuring that players are not incentivized to vote for their name, but to vote for the best name. Or, at least the name they believe will earn the most votes.

The Verdict

My greatest surprise with Funny Business is not that the game exists (though: hallelujah!), it’s seeing how amazing names are developed by every non-professional-namer I’ve ever played with. The last game I played was swept by my nine-year-old niece.

Funny Business is a fantastically fun game. It’s great for adults and kids – the box suggests age 12 and up, but, in my experience, younger precocious kids can hold their own. And, at less than $8 bucks discounted on Amazon, you really have no choice but to run to your local Amazon (it’s not far!) and grab a copy of Funny Business to play this holiday season.

Have fun!

Wanderful: The Story Behind the Name

“Mickey Mantle needs a new name.”

That’s how I first heard about the assignment, when a colleague told me about his client named Mickey Mantle and his yet-unnamed interactive children’s book company.

To name a publisher, imprint an imprint, title a maker of titles; this would be a dream assignment.

The resurrection of an old brand would be the inception of this new one. Living Books, the products that created the category of highly interactive children’s books, was dormant for years. Broderbund was the original publisher and in a series of acquisition/mergers/spin-outs and ownership changes, Living Books ended up as the property of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Despite a decade of great success, new stories in the Living Books series were not released, and the software languished without updates to newer operating systems for PC and Macs.

Mickey Mantle, once Broderbund’s VP of Engineering/CTO and now an entrepreneur, struck a deal with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to re-publish the Living Books series, which includes about 20 individual stories each by a variety of noted authors, including Mercer Mayer (Little Monster), Marc Brown (Arthur), Jan and Stan Berenstain (Berenstain Bears), Dr. Seuss and others. For today’s kids, the assets from the original CD-ROM titles, like  graphics, animations, sound and music, would be used directly by a new technology platform developed by Mickey’s team running on iPads and iPhones, Android mobile devices, and current Mac and PC computers.

Once again, Living Books would live, but it would have to do so under a different name. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt allowed the Living Books content to be re-published so long as the Living Books name remained theirs. That required the new publisher to use a new moniker but could include an attribution that the stories were “originally published as a Living Book by Broderbund Software” and the display of a small Living Books logo accompanying the attribution. The new name would have to coexist and contrast with the former one.

The original Living Books logo

I interviewed the founders of the company: Mickey Mantle; his wife, Natasha Krol, a PR and marketing veteran; and Mark Schlichting, an expert in child education and language development, a children’s book author and illustrator, the creator of the hysterical, award-winning Noodle Words app, and the original creator of Living Books.

I learned from them that Living Books and its reincarnation were richer, deeper and far more interactive than other e-books. Every page of every title features a multitude of tappable elements. With a dozen or more things to do on each page, children linger longer. Their attention, knowledge and imagination are strengthened as a result.

The new brand had two key facets: education and play. Because education is sometimes framed as work – homework, schoolwork, et al. – I first believed these ideas stood in opposition. Indeed, the pedagogical foundation of Living Books 1.0 was rigorous enough that thousands of schools incorporated them and accompanying teaching aids into their curricula. Even today, some schools keep legacy Macs or PC systems around just to retain access to Broderbund’s wunderkind series.

In our discussion, Mark explained to me that play actually enhances learning. If kids have fun while learning, they will engage more deeply and eagerly with the materials. The new brand and its name would have to convey that these interactive books are both educational and fun in order to appeal to kids, parents and educators.

The new name would also have to stand out in the absurdly crowded iTunes and Android marketplaces (500,000 apps and counting). Presented with a list of hundreds of interactive book choices, the brand name needed to leap off the screen to catch the attention of a busy parent or impatient child.   

I wrote name objectives that assimilated and synthesized the interviews and background research into one page. With the criteria for name development and selection established, creative development could commence.

Quoting Maurice Sendak, who passed while this naming project was in development: Let the wild rumpus start!

The Internet was my creative playground. I discovered inspiration researching children’s words, vocabulary acquisition and development, “Dolch” words, fairy tales, games, verbs, exclamations, and children’s word play. Foundational words like fun, happy, laughter, tickle and learning were fed into corpora engines, word lists and other online naming powertools like Wordnik, Sketch Engine, and OneLook. Specialized children’s sites like Lanternfish supplemented my longstanding resources, as did primary research with my nieces and nephews. Watching the kids, who age from 4-7, play with a beta version of Living Books on my iPad demonstrated its power; they threw themselves into the stories and played with rapt attention.

Here’s a list of some of the creative searches I did online. Please consider this list a handy resource for your naming projects:

action verbs
animal sound verbs
baby talk
cvc words
double letter words
first verbs
first words
frequentative
fun words
funny laughter words
happy-happy joy-joy
i am talking
idioms for kids
idioms in education
laffterglow
language acquisition
language development
the first words that children learn
learning words
list of verbs
meanings pictures sentence list
movement-fast
movers and shakers
my dogs words
my little ponies
of imitative origin
onomatopoetic
phrasal verbs list
place names of distinction
potionbook
punkin words
rhyming words
songs
sounds
stragglers
that’s funny
time to be cute
verbs
verbverse
wander
wander rhyme
wonder
wonder rhyme
wordplay is child’s play for punsters
words my 19 month old daughter says
words used by or to young children

I also used Sketch Engine quite a bit. Here are some of the terms searched for this project. Bear in mind that Sketch Engine requires a paid subscription (well worth it!) and thus links will work only after you've logged in:

fun

book

laugh

learn

play

playful

smart

tickle

wander

wonder

These lists illustrate how different resources can be used to delve into one idea, and the surprising sources of inspiration that can come up when you’re freely exploring (my little ponies!). These offer glimpses into a naming mind.

 

The stories in Living Books are playful and multidimensional, and I strived to create names that were, too. Making frequent use of a specific creative technique – letter substitution – generated scads of such names. It’s the same method I used to name Fanhattan and BrainForest.

The words wonder and wander, being one letter apart, were already mingling. I researched all English words that contain wonder, and respelled those results with an a. Thus, wonderful became wanderful.

Wanderful is packed with paradoxes. It brings together many ideas, yet is perfectly simple. It is a new word that feels familiar. It is as surprising as it is comforting. Wanderful describes the books, full of joy and the invitation to explore. It describes the free-form play afforded by Living Books’ expansive and non-linear interactivity. It describes whimsy and curiosity, delight and enrichment.

After preliminary screening, Wanderful was presented along with 30 other candidates. The client team deliberated and chose Wanderful plus a few backup names for full legal vetting. Upon clearing, Wanderful was adopted as the final name.

The wonderful Wanderful identity designed by Wild Out West

The Wanderful icon, now available at an iOS app store near you!

It might be coincidence, or maybe zeitgeist, that the day before Wanderful was announced in June, the New York Times Sunday Review featured this passage in an article about presence and happiness:

“In a modern world, when can we come closest to our original, thought-free happiness? Well, the Harvard psychologists noted that, after sex, the two activities during which we are most fully in the present, are conversation and exercise. Rousseau saw this as well; but forget the treadmill: he lost himself in mountains and valleys and, while walking, conversed with himself. Indeed, ‘Reveries of the Solitary Walker’ is a manifesto on the benefits of wondering while wandering.”

The Wanderful brand launched ahead of the books themselves. Starting today, Wanderful Storybooks will be sold in the iOS app store for $4.99 each. Android and Kindle versions will soon follow

It’s a Wanderful launch party: Mark, Anthony, Mickey

Congratulations Mickey, Natasha and Mark: What a Wanderful world this will be!

Look for Wanderful on the iOS app store, Facebook, Twitter and on their home page.
 

Lytro, the Camera of the Future: Named by Operative Words

I've had the privilege of naming many innovative technologies in my career. But none have garnered the kinds of headlines that Lytro, a new computational photography company, has:

“Lytro Is the Camera of the Future" (CNET)
“Lytro: the ‘magic camera’ that's blown our minds” (CNET)
“Lytro Launches to Transform Photography with $50M in Venture Funds” (TechCrunch)
“Lytro’s Camera Lets You Shoot First and Focus Later” (New York Times)
“Lytro Camera to Shift Focus of Photos” (Wall Street Journal)
“Lytro Camera Lets You Focus Photos After You Take Them” (Wired)
“Camera Startup Promises a ‘Picture Revolution’” (Venture Beat)
“Lytro: The $50M Tech that May Change Photography Forever” (Fast Company)
“Lytro Changes the Way We Take Photographs” (CBS News)
“No focus, no problem! Out of focus pictures soon to go obsolete” (Examiner)
“The Making of Lytro” (K9 Ventures)
“The Future of Digital Photography” (PCWorld)

The list of headlines like these goes on and on.

When I was invited to name the company, then named Refocus Imaging, I could tell this was going to be a special project. The clients were fantastically brilliant, and there was great chemistry between us. My enthusiasm, which typically runs on the high side, was boiling over.

I was giddy over the opportunity to name the future of photography. Photography has always been near and dear to my heart: My father is a retired photographer and cinematographer, and I take pictures, too. I studied optics in college under David G. Stork, and, at Landor, named other photography technology (like Photoshop Lightroom and HP Instant Share). 

I can’t go into details about the strategy or alternative names I developed for Lytro, but I can say the project was dreamy from start to finish. Charles Chi, Lytro’s Executive Chairman, feels the same:

“Anthony was a pleasure to work with.  Very professional and effective.  I highly recommend him and would work with him again.”

Thank you, Lytro, for engaging me on this amazing assignment!

And congratulations to the Lytro team for their continuing success.

UPDATE: July 27, 2012
Sequence Branding, who designed the Lytro identity system, has posted a thoughtful piece about naming. They reference the Lytro naming and say a few kind words about yours truly. Thanks, Heather and the rest of the Sequence family!

UPDATE: July 8, 2011
The gratitude I expressed above is actually incomplete. Until now, I couldn't reveal my partner on the Lytro branding project. Now I can say, it’s Sequence Branding who hired Operative Words to create the name, Lytro. Sequence developed the brand strategy, the kick-ass logo and look and feel system, and the admirable tagline "Picture Revolution" for the company now known as Lytro.

Thank you, Sequence, for inviting me to collaborate with you on this once-in-a-lifetime assignment!

- Anth

Bracket: The Story Behind the Name

A name should be worth a thousand words.

That is, a brand name should be able to simplify a complex set of ideas into a single word.

That was the creative challenge Operative Words faced creating a new name for a division of United BioSource, a Medco-owned company that, among other things, helps pharmaceutical companies run efficient and effective clinical trials.

Three key features of my client's organization were factored into name development: people, process and precision.

People, that is the people who work at the company, are responsible for helping solve their pharmaceutical clients clinical trial challenges; their people write the brilliant software that helps clinical trials run remarkably efficiently and effectively; and people are the ultimate beneficiaries of the company's know-how as new and better medicines are launched into the market.

Process is tantamount to the whole category of clinical trials. A clinical trial is a process, so even though process generally would not be differentiating, the articulation of my client's special brand of process could be.

Precision characterizes well-run clinical trials; it reflects research data that is complete and pinpoint accurate; and it corresponds with the carefully defined parameters of valid and projectable product studies.

Creative name development followed these paths. The ultimate name was discovered while thinking about the people who worked at UBC and how they treated their clients. I dived into the notion of support. One of my resources is a great desktop application called Word Menu. It's also available in book form, but the software let's you do things that you can't do with a book.

Word Menu lists words and their definitions in categories. So if you look under 'fish', you'll find a list of different types of fish. If you look up 'action words', you'll find dozens of those. It's quite handy.

Typing in 'support' -- a key attribute of my client -- into Word Menu's search box returned 490 results, each of which was an entry or definition that included the word 'support'. In that list, I found 'bracket'.

Brackets do indeed provide support. But the word 'bracket' says more than that. A good name like Bracket is polysemous, it has many meanings.  Brackets provide support, and, as symbols, they are endemic in clinical trial reports. Brackets are used to indicate subsets; they delineate and thus suggest precision. The word 'bracket' sounds smart and strong.  And, as a real word, it's easy to relate to and understand, unlike some of my client's competitors who have Latinate coined names that are alien and institutional.

Miraculously, Bracket was also available as a trademark.

The denotations and connotations of Bracket are perfect for a company that wants to reinforce precision and support. It demonstrates that a name with many meanings will ultimately fit one company perfectly when presented in a real-world business context.

Bracket illustrates that just one name can be worth a thousand words.

Scribe Winery: The story behind the name

Telling a story is a lot easier when there's a story to tell.

Companies that sell the same things as others have to create a perception of difference, otherwise they're doomed. That's where branding comes in.

However, discovering -- or inventing -- a brand's point of difference isn't always obvious.

But sometimes you get lucky when there's not just a difference, but a relevant one.

I was lucky enough to name a winery that offered something special: A story.

Now dear reader, if you're really on the ball you'd call me on that. There's scads of wineries that have a story to tell, right?

Our winemaker comes from generations of....

Our vineyards are kissed by abundant north slope sunshine and a soft ocean breeze.... 

Our soil is a unique blend of Egyptian clay and 400-count gravel.... 

Our property is patrolled by Shep, the graying Labrador that raised our master winemaker and taught him all he knows...

The thing is, these winery narratives all sound pretty much the same (except maybe that last one about the Labrador). That's why I was tickled to name a winery which had a story remarkably different.

My client, Andrew Mariani, told me about the property he and his partners just bought on the border of Sonoma Valley and Carneros. As we drank wine in San Francisco's Dolores Park -- a great place for a project briefing -- he regaled me with property's colorful history:

This was the place where artificial insemination of turkeys was perfected. Before that milestone, turkeys could only breed the old-fashioned way. Turkey is now available just about everywhere thanks to this innovation.

There's a house on the property that was a speakeasy during prohibition. Rumor has it, this was also at times, a brothel.

Back in the day, a plane crashed on the property.

The winery's property is the setting for stories like these, whose importance and relevance isn't just limited to a storied place. Storytelling itself is important to people who can pay $60 retail for a bottle of Cab.

Those who are able to afford expensive wine have probably accumulated enough nice things that it's their experiences which set them apart. When you already have money, stories are the valuable currency that buy bragging rights.

Armed with the insight that this winery's property had real stories to tell, and that stories are important to their future customers, I recommended the strategy that this brand should be  defined by storytelling.

As part of my strategic and creative branding work for the winery, I offered them ideas of how they could bring storytelling to life. One idea was inspired by a local (San Francisco) Japanese restaurant whose restrooms have hidden loudspeakers quietly playing an audiobook of Japanese language instruction. I suggested the winery do the same, but with audiobooks of literature as the background "music".

Once the central brand idea of storytelling was agreed-upon, the naming creative work could begin. With such a focused and salient direction, the naming itself was, frankly, pretty easy. I scoured resources -- most online -- that listed terms from the worlds of literature, writing, and storytelling.

From my master list of names, I culled several dozen for preliminary trademark screening. As I recall, about 20 made it through and those were presented to my clients.

A handful were shortlisted and two names survived their full legal screening, one of which was Scribe. After spirited discussions, Scribe was adopted as the final name.

Scribe launched with an identity and website designed by the brilliant craftsmen of Nothing: Something: New York. I'm thrilled and thankful their design work is so faithful to the brand. And my God, it is exquisite:

The Scribe website is equally textured, redolent of an old book with weathered typography and vignetted images. The story of their property and its lineage of owners is presented as major and minor "Chapters". The brand reveals a playful side when small insects, such as those which presumably inhabit their soil, skitter across the page. They serve as a reminder that the property has brought forth life, not just to a brand, but to acres and acres of fruit that will, with time and craft, become their wine.

That's the story of Scribe. May their success live happily ever after.


UPDATE: June 2010

Scribe Winery pairs well with foodies. Here are a few recent articles:

Sonoma's Wildest Party (Food & Wine)
Carneros turkey farm returns to its winery roots (San Francisco Chronicle)
Lovely Package

Run Client Run: Stories from a 17-year relationship

There's nothing wrong with a one-time fling. It can be fun and fulfilling -- up to a point.

But in my experience, there's no substitute for the deeply satisfying connection when two people are committed to each other for the long run.

I'm talking, of course, about client relationships.

I've been lucky enough to have a relationship with one particular client for over 17 years. Last week, this client -- who has also become a good friend -- launched another business that I named.

I wanted to honor and thank my client by sharing our stories -- and the 11 brand names we've created. I'll also describe my thinking at the moment I named his latest venture, Run Brain Run.

In 1992, I applied for the position of Creative Services Manager at Aladdin Systems, a small software company that specialized in utilities for the Mac. David Schargel was Aladdin's  president and in charge of marketing  -- as all company presidents should be.

Working for a Macintosh software company would be dreamy. I had been an Apple fanboy ever since my Dad got an Apple II+ when I was 12. Aladdin Systems was known for StuffIt, the Mac's de facto compression standard; working for a standard-bearer like Aladdin would almost be like working for Apple. Kinda. Sorta. OK not really. But still....

After David hired me, he said my effusive cover letter got his attention. As I recall, I gushed "I eat, sleep, dream, and drool Macintosh". It sure ain't "bleed six colors" but seemed to do the trick.

And just this week -- 17 years after he first interviewed me -- David revealed the exchange that actually got me hired:

By far, my most memorable moment during your hiring was when I asked you, "Do you drink so much coffee that you sometimes start to shake?"

You did not hesitate for a split-second and said, "Is that going to be a problem?"

Not my clever cover letter. Not my creative chops. Not my enthusiasm. It was my predilection for caffeine that really won him over. And just maybe, he had a hunch that I was -- thanks to my beverage of choice -- quick on my feet. Jittery, but quick.

David and I shared an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny polka dot of an office. During the months we worked in close quarters, I learned a hell of a lot about real-world sales, marketing and customer service. He was a true mentor who also showed me how perfect a boss could be. To this day, I envy his ability to manage people, keep them happy, and help them perform at their best.

The first name I created at Aladdin was SITcomm, easy-to-use telecommunications terminal software that incorporated StuffIt compression.

SITcomm ostensibly stood for Simply Intuitive Telecommunications, but savvy users would spot the StuffIt file extension -- .sit -- built into the moniker. Like the company behind it, the SITcomm name was fun and breezy. Easy for online newbies, but with enough insider-appeal to appease the early-adopter, unduly-influencing, geekier-than-thou critics at BMUG.

As Aladdin Systems' Creative Services Manager, I wore a lot of hats during my three-and-a-half years: copywriter, production artist, designer, ad agency liaison, product marketing lead, product manager, spokesman, product demo guy. I had been there a year or two when David asked me to design a new corporate identity for Aladdin Systems. It would be my first-ever CI project.

The inherent difficulty of designing a logo was made more difficult by the parameters set by the company's senior management team:

• It had to be an A
• It had to include a lamp

Alrightythen.

This is the logo I designed for Aladdin:

To all the brilliant Landor designers I've worked with: Go ahead. Laugh away. Get it out of your system. Hopefully someday -- maaaybe -- I can recoup some of your respect.

David has always been an entrepreneur. He left Aladdin (which he co-founded with Jonathan Kahn, another longstanding client who deserves his own future post) and went into the mobile software business. This was back when Palm Pilot was the name in the PDA category and hadn't yet been shot down by Pilot Pen Corporation.

David wanted his new company name to unequivocally suggest "portable". I came up with Aportis. Probably not my best work.

Aportis' flagship app would be a hierarchical to-do manager and idea organizer. It, too, needed a name.

I remember the moment I came up with Brainforest: I was riffing on the word "brain". I liked its sound, brevity, and evocativeness. "Brain" was relevant and productive -- a good working part. I thought of compound words that included the word (like Brainstem), but also compounds that included a rhyme of "brain".

My thought stream in schematic:

brain...rain...rainforest...Brainforest!

Brainforest would serve as more than a name. It became the organizing principle -- the frame -- for the product. Brainforest stores users' content in hierarchical trees composed of branches and leaves. Neat.

David eventually got out of the software biz and sold Brainforest to Ultrasoft. Lo these years later -- at least a decade -- Brainforest is still available for download.

Our next collaboration would be for something completely different: A Portland walking tour company. After a lifetime of working in the digital realm, David was ready to go analog.

He adopted Portland Walking Tours as the DBA. That name's David's creation and to my surprise it's served him well. Standing out is a tall order for a name so descriptive. But it goes to show that there's more to a company's success than just its name. With an affable, business-savvy founder, even names like Portland Walking Tours -- or Microsoft -- can thrive.

David adopted these names I developed for specific Portland Walking Tours:

• Epicurean Excursion - An upscale tour for foodies
• Beyond Bizarre - Explore spooky, dark and paranormal locales (mostly for adults but also for families with kids)
• Wokabout - A tour of Portland's Chinatown

Walking tours of Portland were just part of David's bigger vision: To create a company where "resident experts" could share their love of a place with travelers and citizens. I was asked to help name that company, too.

The new enterprise would include, but not be limited to, Portland Walking Tours. As a holding company it needed a flexible name. David asked for something business-like, since this would be a business-to-business business.

David liked Hometown Advantage when I presented it. Then, upon hearing that I registered HometownAdvantage.com, he positively loved it. As names go, it's a straight shooter. No one's getting fired for hiring a company with that name.

A year later, David approached me with a new challenge: Name an urban "game" company that would be hired for team-building "or just plain fun".

Several name objectives emerged from our early discussions:

• It should support the key brand idea of "fun with a purpose"
• It should not include words like "go", "adventure" or "scavenger"
• It should appeal to corporate team leaders
• It should appeal to residents
• It shouldn't sound too athletic
• It should accommodate many different types of team games and hunts in many different places

I had a blast brainstorming. These themes surfaced organically during the creative process:

• Hunt/search
• Games/puzzles/clues
• Mind/brain/head
• Groups/teams
• Out and about
• Race/quick

When I create names, I go deep then move laterally. Each direction is individually explored as a foundational list of relevant words, word parts and phrases accumulate. After reaching a critical mass of ideas for each theme, I cross-pollinate by combining words from the different categories.

Overlaid on that creative technique, I'll visualize myself using -- and loving -- my client's product. I put myself in an imagined moment where I'm totally absorbed and excited by the sheer awesomeness of what I'm naming. During that time, I believe the make-believe. The feelings, images, and words inspired by my fleeting zeal are fuel for names.

As I thought about David's new game company, I pictured myself in a team on a hunt. We're huddled around a notepad and puzzling through a clue. People are shouting out ideas. I feel the pressure to solve the problem before our opponents. The urgency is palpable, even though it's imagined: "Hurry! Hurry!" "Think faster!"

"Run, brain, run!"

Helllooooo....

I knew Run Brain Run was a keeper. Just three words capture the quintessential customer scenario, a snapshot of reality. Run Brain Run gives people the feeling they are listening in to a heated contest that's always in progress. A moment of visceral excitement is frozen in time, like a blink that never ends.

Run Brain Run has a distinctive yet natural structure. Very few names repeat its beginning at its end, a rhetorical device called epanalepsis. The only two examples I've found are a boy's sportswear label called No Billy No and the 1960's BBC satire, That Was the Week That Was. If you know of other epanaleptic brands, please do share.

David shared my enthusiasm for Run Brain Run. I'm so glad he ran with it.

Hat tip to Jon Supnick who designed the logo with a wit befitting the name:

Two of the games offered by Run Brain Run I also named:

• Search Party: A fun-filled team quest 
• Alias & Alibi: A spy-themed challenge

David, congratulations on your new company.

Thank you for being such a great client.

Long may you run.


- Anth