Help rename Stagestack/Expressive

[aaffonso]

My suggestions that have .com domain already taken:

- ByHand

- FreeVector

Other with domain available:

- Go and Draw / Go 'n' Draw

- goVector

[john-jam]

I've been bashing a few ideas into a dotcom domain name tool and it seems all the really zippy names have been snapped up. When I looked earlier this week these were still free:

vectoreze
invectix
vectism
vectoreen
ultravect
ubervect
vectomate
patheaven
pathenerium
pathagogo

The alternative is to have an unrelated word or one which is possibly meaningless, such as korple, henchbox or dartbooth (d'art booth). Drawbooth.com is still there!

[Aspensound]

Was 'Expressive' actually that bad?

My original impression was that 'Quasado Expressive' was actually a rather clever piece of marketing — simple, communicative and effective:

Creative people are all about expressing themselves (albeit often within a brief).

'Expressive' also has connotations of movement or speed, suggesting life and energy.

It has similarities with words such as 'progressive', 'impressive', 'effective', 'transmissive', all positive traits of our profession.

'Quasado Expressive', deliberately or otherwise, even vaguely hints at 'QuarkXPress', which may or may not be a bad thing (I'd say it's a good thing) ...

I like a lot of the proposals already on this thread, but I haven't seen anything as convincing, or as original and all-encompassing as 'Expressive'. And it rolls off the tongue (unlike Stagest??? — I've forgotten that one already).

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to come up with anything better than any of the above.

So, I'll have to suggest ... 'Expressive' !

Yes, I think that too, Expressive is so Expressive.
Why you (or someone) must "reinvent the wheel"?
Is there any really good reason to do that?

[FFH Thü]

Is there any really good reason to do that?

Unfortunately yes, there are three reasons.
First, there is an app already out there with the name "Expressive" (helping children to communicate).
Second, the name is very close to the name of another vector design app called "Expression" (now in the hands of MS).
Third, "expressive" is a common word, so searching for it brings up a lot of negative results.

[quasado]

I've participated in a LOT of naming/branding projects. Here's the thing - getting a .com name is all but impossible on a word found in the dictionary. compound words are easier - foobarsoftware.com or foobardesign.com is easier than foobar.com - but it's still no walk in the park.

I think the best names are NOT literal. Here's a for instance. At Micrografx, we had a product that competed directly with PowerPoint. It was called "Graph Plus," because it came from a graphing/charting point of view. But we expanded the feature set to encompass all that PLUS everything you could do with PowerPoint. We needed a new name. The company held a contest. The guy who won was the CEO, believe it or not, because he thought 'outside the box' for a name that didn't have "Presentation" or "Graphics" in it. Instead of focusing on FEATURES, he thought about BENEFITS. And he came up with a name that just blew me away:

CHARISMA

Think about it. What do you want to project when you give a presentation? Charisma. What's the difference between a presenter and a master at giving presentations? Charisma. It was brilliant. (Sadly, the product got trampled in the marketplace, when Microsoft applied the concept of "but wait...you also get" to create a bundle (MS OFFICE) where you paid for Word and Excel and got PowerPoint essentially for free.

We need a name like that. Something that will stir the soul. Something that won't talk about features, but benefits. Something that will appeal to emotions, and not just feature sets.

I've not yet come up with a name that blows me away in the same way that Micrografx Charisma did. But here are some ideas that might spur some discussion amongst the group:

Rational Design (rationaldesign.com is available for purchase)

OnPoint Design (ditto)

Drawing Board (drawingboarddesign.com is parked, but likely available. You could just call it "Drawing Board" and get a url like "backtothedrawingboard.com" which should be available)

Draw.com and LineArt.com are both parked. For the right $$$ they are probably both available.

Paradigm paradigmdesign.com is available.

Hope this helps.

This is EXACTLY what we're thinking too! I mean, first of all thank you all together for such a broad range of names but.. honestly we would not want to have words like "free" or "vector" in the name of the app. Especially in the later case, vector is too specific and not very creative in my opinion. I think, a name should not be required to describe the functionality of the app, it should be more about benefits like described.

Thanks so far!
Alex

[enzobort]

FreeDraw

[FFH Thü]

Quasado has now selected a list of names out of all the suggestions they received. You can now vote on your favorite name on our news page

http://www.freehandforum.org/news.html

[Bertrude]

Interesting choices.

I'm surprised 'OpenHand' is the most popular so far as it implies the software is open source (which would be amazing) and I'm gutted that 'Alfred Wobble's Wonderbox of Everything' isn't on that list

[cartozen]

I am also surprised that Openhand vs Righthand is in the lead (see below). If it was an open source/open spec project I think it would be appropriate to use the word 'open' in the name, but seeing it will be private ... well Righthand, Lefthand, Backhand seem more fitting. Keeping the word 'hand' in there does give some consistency and legacy for those who have been using it since the Aldus days.

YOUR VOTE
Rename Stagestack (former Expressive) to:
InspiredArt – http://www.inspiredartapp.com
2 (3%)
Invectix – http://www.invectix.com
8 (12%)
Kuduu – http://www.kuduudesign.com
5 (7%)
NewBlack – http://www.newblackapp.com
2 (3%)
OpenHand – http://www.openhandapp.com
35 (56%)
Paradigm – http://www.paradigmdesign.com
4 (6%)
Progression – http://www.progressionapp.com
9 (14%)
RightHand – http://www.righthandapp.com
13 (20%)

Create a poll like this

[Tom]

I'm surprised 'OpenHand' is the most popular so far as it implies the software is open source (which would be amazing)

that was my first thought as well.


I personally like the idea of using a German word* - I was looking at Skizzen (Sketches) - the .com domain costs around US$2,000. But the word is possibly not expressive enough (as requested) of the apps versatility?


I think maybe the made-up-name might a good route. Kuduu is interesting but too obscure and doesnt sound that great imo.


* no offence intended, but I mostly find that non-english people's choices of english words just dont sound or feel right. (Native german speakers might feel the same about me choosing german words.) Re english words, there's the problem that most dot com sites for english words are gone - or would have to be bought for large sums.