Unlike industries such as automotive, which spend big bucks hiring branding and naming experts, architects often name themselves – sometimes on the fly.
There’s the story about ARO (Architecture Research Office) in New York. The name is generic, but what can you expect from the partners who named themselves on the way to a meeting, said Christian Unverzagt, design director at Detroit-based M1/DTW, a multidisciplinary studio specializing in design.
— Crain's Detroit Business
Architects spend years designing a single project, so it may come as a surprise that they sometimes name themselves in only a few minutes. While some firms have chosen a more clever approach to naming—Design, Bitches and BIG (with web address BIG.dk) spring to mind—many firms seem to choose from the oblique vowel-less bin, sounding less like design entities and more like grim governmental agencies. Many of them just cut to the chase:
What's the ideal architectural name? A while back, Archinect's forum commentors took a crack at naming:
8 Comments
I had to name my firm gruen because someone already took my real name "Zaha Hadid"
Firms with cute names generally suck. Not sure why the correlation.
I never put my name on any of the doors I owned, biggest mistake I ever made looking back…unless a firm morphs into a corporate giant the primary thing you initially sell is yourself, so when someone asks you your name and asks you what you do, the next question shouldn’t be “oh, who do you work for?”
I've already named my future firm TWA. Stands for "Three Word Acronym"
I always liked "Hayes, Large, Suckling, Fruth and Wedge" out of Harrisburg, PA. Took them 20 years to change it.
Dick Busch Architects will never not win this game.
With the logo to match...
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