Dynamic — dy·nam·ic
Pertaining to or characterized by energy or effective action.
Vigorously active or forceful.
Designing a new brand from scratch is quite hard. I’ve learned this not so long ago…
Achieving a brand that’s both smart and loveable proved to be quite hard. In the end, I think our team was able to accomplish this but there was a constant tradeoff between quality and execution along the branding process.
This post briefly describes how the whole process took place.
0. First experience
You might not know this but our first brand name was Mucho Work.
Why? I challenge you to find a cool and available .com domain for your business during a 2-hours brainstorming session 😉
Why not? First of all, it’s a very latin name and is not easily related to tech jobs. Some people were perceiving it as a joke, therefore, we realised it was a non-realistic name for our business. Our clients didn’t take us seriously…
1. Ground rules
After our first bump on the road, we felt the need to establish some ground rules before diving in again:
- .com domains aren’t a must-have.
- Naming proposal will be based on team suggestions alone.
- Outside feedback will be taken into account for the final call.
2. IGOR
After the first trial and setting up some basic rules, we felt like we were going sideways again…That’s when IGOR naming process came into action.
IGOR is a naming and branding agency that came up with a structured process to support a naming decision-making process, making it clear and transparent for everyone in our team! This transparency was essential.
Here’s the whole process explained in detail by IGOR:http://www.igorinternational.com/process/naming-guide-product-company-names.php
3. Obstacles
We had a few nice ones 🙂
- Although it was not compulsory to have a .com domain, we still looked for them, however, finding available .com domains is near impossible.
- Brainstorming sessions SUCK hard. Creative juices can’t flow with beer alone. We tried that and wasn’t enough.
- Since JOBBOX wasn’t available under .com we decided to select another domain. Long story short, we selected because .io adds a geek feeling to our brand (io ~ input/output).
- Biggest obstacle was coping with Time versus Execution. It took our team a long time to come up with a good naming but, at least, the whole naming process was transparent and logical.
4. Short-list
The outcome of the IGOR process was this short-list:
- Talentbay. Some people liked it but it was noted that somehow “talent” is considered bullshit nowadays.
- Jobox. Would be our #1 but Job·ox usage is dangerous… “Ox” means bullock is some parts of the World.
- Jobz. Considered awesome by startup folks, but different audiences didn’t get the point.
- Jobbox. A loved one too. There wasn’t an “ox” situation as Job and Box are spelled separately. We chose this one 🙂
5. Dynamic brand
After a comprehensive design branding created by Ivan Vuksanov, a dynamic Rubik cube was born.
The different coloured squared spaces are going to be computed near-realtime in our future website, which makes it a dynamic brand as it changes over time. It symbolises the multitude of connections and hidden combinations in our daily lives.
This intended dynamism is intimately related with social referrals. Just think about how many human-to-human combinations exist that recruiters couldn’t possibly imagine and would love to know about…
The greenish colours were elected since technology is usually related with green (e.g. matrix movie, motherboards). It’s also the colour of nature which brings an organic mood into the brand. Finally, it represents the colour of the most famous bill ($), and that represents the financial rewards that will be given to folks who submit referrals on our future website.
6. Final result
7. Just a few combinations
Final note: please keep in mind that this blog post was written by a software engineer. If you’re a brand geek, please go gentle on me!
Cheers,
Pedro Carmo Oliveira
http://www.pcbo.me
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