Names, and the reasons for them
We name companies, products and the things inside them, and we write the sentence the company says first. Every engagement is a fixed fee over a fixed number of weeks with a stated number of names delivered and the trademark screening already done. We do not design logos and we will tell you who should.
Engagements
See everythingA name you cannot register is not a name, it is a mood
Screening happens before the presentation, not after it, which is why nothing we have presented in four years has been withdrawn.
The standard way this goes wrong: a studio presents forty beautiful names, the client falls in love with one, and six weeks later a lawyer kills it. We screen the longlist ourselves against identical and near-identical marks in your classes and your markets, and we run a linguistic check in whatever languages the constraint list names. It costs us about a week of every sprint and it means the twelve names you see are twelve names you could sign tomorrow. In four years none of the names we have presented have been withdrawn after the fact.
How a naming sprint runs
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1
Week one: the brief and the constraints
Two hours with the people who will actually have to say the name out loud, and a written constraint list: languages it has to survive, the categories it has to clear, and the three names your board has already fallen in love with.
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2
Week two: two hundred names
Generated, argued over and cut down internally. You never see this number and you should not want to — a longlist presented to a client is a studio asking the client to do the work.
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3
Week three: screening kills most of them
Identical-mark screening in your classes and in your markets, plus a linguistic check in the languages on the constraint list. About eighty per cent of a good longlist dies here and that is the point of doing it before the presentation rather than after.
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4
Week four: twelve names with their reasons
Twelve names, each with the argument for it, the screening result, the domain position and an honest note on what is wrong with it. Every name on that sheet is one you could actually use.
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- 4 weeks
- 12
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What clients say
Twelve names, all registrable, each with what was wrong with it. One meeting.
- They screen before presenting. Our last agency did it the other way round.
- Told us we needed tone of voice, not a name, and charged us less.
- No retainer means starting a new sprint each time. Fine, but plan for it.
- Fixed fee, fixed four weeks, delivered on the day they said.
- We own all twelve names outright. They put it in the agreement.
- They do not do identity and refer it away. Slightly inconvenient, clearly honest.
What clients ask before signing
Search the site-
What does the fee cover?
The brief session, the internal longlist, the screening, the linguistic check and the final sheet of twelve names with their arguments. There is no separate screening charge and no expenses line. -
What does screening actually mean here?
Identical and near-identical mark searches in the classes and markets on your constraint list, plus a linguistic check in the named languages. It is not a legal opinion and we say so in writing; it is the work that stops your lawyer killing the name after you have chosen it. -
What if we hate all twelve?
It has happened twice in sixty-one sprints. We run a second round at no charge, once, against a revised constraint list. If the second round also fails we refund half and part on good terms. -
Do you design the logo?
No. We are two writers. About a third of our enquiries are referred to identity designers we rate, we take no fee for the referral, and we will happily work alongside whoever you choose. -
How long does it take?
Four weeks for a full naming sprint, two for a product name, six for a rename with a migration note. Those lengths are fixed at signature and we have missed one of them, by three days, in four years. -
Can you work on a retainer?
No. A sprint ends and the sheet is delivered. If you need another name you start another sprint, at the same published fee, which we think is a better arrangement for both of us than a monthly invoice for nothing in particular. -
Who owns the names you do not use?
You do, all twelve, outright, from delivery. We do not recycle rejected names into other clients’ sprints and we will put that in the agreement if you want it there.
Tell us what it does and who has to say it out loud
That is enough to say whether a sprint is the right shape and what it will cost. If naming is not what you actually need, we will say which of the two things you do need instead.
Names and their reasons
EverythingStart a naming sprint
What the thing does, who has to say it aloud, and when you need it. We reply within two working days with a shape and a fee.
- 09:00 to 17:30
- 09:00 to 15:00
- Closed
Kingston, Saint Andrew