As the end of the semester rapidly approaches for my Website Development class, I am turning toward my final project proposal. I plan to use this course to force myself to design, develop, and go live with a portfolio-of-sorts website: a showcase for my art, illustrations, paintings, photos, sketches, design projects, etc.
Problem is, I’m stuck on what to call the website. I almost certainly should not be brainstorming out loud before incorporating, registering, or even deciding.
I tentatively registered www.cabarts.com, for my initials (C.A.B.), a few months ago, but I don’t like it anymore. One of the best notions that anyone’s come up with is the idea of incorporating a childhood nickname, something that injects a personality into the brand. And I love that notion. So, I immediately went to one of my favorites, ‘bean.’
When I was younger, I was Stringbean and Beanpole (I’ve always been pretty chronically underweight, and I very definitely eat); in middle and high school, it was Chris-teeny-beany or simply Bean. To Emily, I’m still Bean. Two of the design firms that my office works with are called Peapod and Orangeseed, and they not only use these images in their materials, but also in their vendor-gifts. It’s fun, creative, and I love the idea of invoking that kind of literally organic and creative growth. I like that beans are seeds. I also love the nod to Pythagoras, the Greek philosopher and theorem-innovator, who was perhaps the most famous vegetarian of the ancient world. He didn’t eat beans because their seed-pods looked human to him; he considered their consumption tantamount to cannibalism.
However, it doesn’t seem meant to be. Stringbean Design is a real, already existing company, and they do exactly what I am trying to do and I’m mildly jealous of their website. In the same field—but slightly less creative in focus—is the Beanstalk Group, which again, would involve stepping on toes in terms of ID and industry. Beanpole, brightbean, and sunbean are all in use. Even beanbean.com is taken, by yet another doppelganger artist/photog/illustrator/designer, but so over-the-top overproduced that it is functionless. Let’s just say I’m not the biggest fan of 100% Flash websites (they tend to dissuade referring links), and that some Chinese girl went to a lot of effort to display nine photographs on the web. (Unless you’re designing on behalf of a band—or the movie Pan’s Labyrinth—websites should never play music!) But I don’t want to give up on bean; I feel proprietary still. I decided, also, that I prefer Communications to Design as the noun-part (it feels a bit like naming an indie band; there are rules. Or at least accepted formulae).
