Helpful words

Eli Altman discusses URL strategies with Inc.

“No one inputs URLs directly anymore. A magic search bar takes care of that for you,” says Eli Altman, creative director of A Hundred Monkeys, a branding and naming firm. He suggests putting an industry phrase in your URL–recall that Elon Musk’s Tesla is still online at TeslaMotors.com. Or a customer prompt: Dropbox.com was originally…

Show and Tell

Let’s translate a few common phrases: “You can trust me” means “Don’t trust me.” “This is going to be fun” means “This will definitely suck.” “We care” means “You are a number to us.” Say these, and you’re sending a message that’s the opposite of your intent. Sometimes, saying it outright isn’t enough. You have…

The Frozen Pea Problem

  • About: Naming

It goes like this: Have you ever named food? Yes. Have you ever named frozen food? Sure. Have you ever named frozen peas? No… We’re really looking for someone with specific expertise here. A fictional version of a conversation that’s happened countless times: cookie shops, new-age health products, luxury cruise lines, whatever—people are looking for…

Don’t Call It Anything: House Bills and Hurricanes

Even without Katrina and Audrey, hurricanes with female names are twice as deadly as their masculine counterparts, according to a recent study. The theory: potential victims aren’t as threatened by feminine-sounding storms, don’t prepare as diligently, and suffer the consequences. If a clearer case for the power of the name exists, we’ve yet to hear…

Surfin' URL.

How to Find a URL

So you found a name you love. Then you tried to find a URL. You wanted nameyoulove.com, but the person who parked it is MIA. Now you’re banging your head on the keyboard, digging for a random group of letters and numbers that’s also an available domain. Stop. Save yourself a headache—let us help you figure…

Don’t Click That: The Clickbait Virus

On a bad day, the website Upworthy attracts some 1.5 million unique visitors. Good days see 5 million visits. That’s a hell of a lot of ad revenue without much overhead—the site just writes a bit of copy and hosts other people’s content. So, you know, good for them. They’re making money. Because Upworthy gets…

Branding is Just Like Life: First Date Edition

How would your brand do on a first date? When we say that we build human brands, we aren’t spouting corporo-speak. We imagine brands as people. Even better, we imagine brands as people doing what people do: hanging out at the park, figuring out which trash bin to use, or—in this case—meeting someone on a…

Airbnb's-New-Logo

In Defense of Airbnb’s New Logo

Airbnb’s new logo looks like a vagina. Or balls. Or just about any combination of sex organs. When the company announced an identity redesign, most people said, “Hey, genitalia!” A flurry of tweets, clickbait, and listicles ensued. In the first wave, pundits argued whether the logo did, in fact, resemble a vagina. Tweens squinted and…

Don’t Call Them Wearables

Technology is easy to recognize. One glance at a coffee shop laptop and you know it’s a Macbook Air – doesn’t matter if it has 12 stickers on it. This is generally applauded as good product design. If you can recognize a laptop in the wild with a sideways glance, the product can practically market…

Say Croissant

9am. Café. Glass case. A croissant, its buttery, flaky texture a siren call to your empty stomach. A twinge of nostalgia tugs at your heartstrings. Or is that indigestion? “I would like a…” How are you going to say croissant? You could go with a crisp, hard C. You could start from the back of…

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