It can be a joyous exercise to brainstorm names for a new business -- almost as much fun as naming a baby or a pet. But before purchasing that domain at Go Daddy.com, consider this mistake I made. The first of many.
When thinking of names for my shop and its accompanying blog, I made a list of relevant keywords like collection, tablescape, mantlescape, collage, still life, tableau, vignette.
Of those words, I loved 'still life'. It implied artful arrangements that are carefully composed and that convey a rather specific moment in time.
And the creative possibilities! I began compiling lists of ubiquitous twenty-first century objects that could be building blocks. This image below is one of the first arrangements I created. It contains my beloved collection of French paperbacks.
From there, I decided my blog should be titled Still Life No. 3. The "No. 3" would be a reference to the phase of life I'm in. My first 'life' was childhood through young adulthood, when everything was egocentric. My next 'life' came when I had children. And now that my children are leaving the nest, I'm at the threshold of a third 'life', a life where I can venture out on my own again. Thus, Still Life No. 3.
Perhaps a little esoteric but that's how I roll.
Besides, business names with numbers are cool. I couldn't think of an image that would be representative of my work, so incorporating a number into the name provided a graphic solution.
Holiday card designed by Herb Lubalin. .
Semi-Permanent 10 tote bag design by Jessica Hische.
Hand lettering by Mary Kate McDevitt.
My first perfume. Chanel No. 5.
I had already done a a quick search on Go Daddy and many versions of the name were available. For example:
stilllifeno3.com stilllifenumberthree.com stilllifenumber3.com
And now you can see my mistake.
They all looked awful. Written out as a domain address, the title was confusing. That clump of 'l's bookended by the 'i's. Like a bunch of branches sprouting in the middle of a sentence. Worse, the more I stood back and studied the name, the more I saw other words like 'silly' and 'stiffen'. I didn't like the words 'silly' or 'stiffen.'
And the user's constant guesswork at how to spell out the 'number 3'.
I was sad to let go of that idea. And to let go of all the still life compositions I had planned. "Still Life with Shoes" was going to be incredible.
But it was back to the drawing board. Where I made another mistake. Read about more domain name mistakes here.