Because we don't do stale names... Frito-Lay taps EMW

As vending machine junkies, we were floored when Frito-Lay called us out of the blue. The salty snack giant was attracted to our whimsical style and fresh approach to naming, which is a great fit for their new flavors and products. With brands like Cheetos, Doritos, and Tostitos, Frito-Lay is the snack jackpot and we're thrilled to have them as a client. Of course our projects are super top secret, but we'll let you know when we can let the cat out of the potato chip bag.

This evocative name takes the cake...

Recently, my friend John was suffering in 102º heat and sighed, "I dream of air-conditioning." That reminded me of the most wonderful cake shop name ever, I Dream of Cake, which is on trendy Grant Street in SF's North Beach. (I have admired founder Shimnin Li's creations forever and recently got to taste one at a swanky FWE&E event honoring Google maverick Marissa Mayer, who incidentally is an investor in IDOC.) I wrote to Shinmin and asked her about the origin of the name. She said... "I came up with our company name while sitting in a cafe with a friend. We sat over coffee and jotted down any names that came to mind describing cake and art.
I think I Dream of Cake was actually my friend's joke suggestion. But when I heard it the name it immediately stuck with me. It not only conveys the message that I can create anyone's dream cake, but suggests that I, the baker, dreams of cake too. I often will go to bed with a technical or structural cake problem and come up with the solution in my dreams. I also like that the name encourages imagination and creativity. And, this is my dream job." Wow, talk about a name with layers! Eat my words, indeed! Check out her photo gallery of breathtaking cakes, which include replicas of handbags, shoes, and teapots.

Contest to name new Doritos mystery flavor

The marketing geniuses at Doritos have launched another brilliant promotion - asking their customers to name their new mystery flavor, currently called X-13D, which is packaged in a can't-miss black bag. You have to taste the chips to figure out the flavor. The winner of the contest will become a "Doritos Flavor Master" and get to taste test the latest snack innovations from the Doritos brand, as well as receive free Doritos Tortilla Chips for a year. (What is that, like 3 bags a day for a hungry teenager?) For more details, go to this annoying Flash website, or (how's this for Gen Y...), text "X-13D" to 24477.

Hey, it's a tax write off.

A lot of people ask us about the NAMING license plate on our website - we know it looks like it was created in Photoshop, but I can assure you that it's the actual plate on my car. (I couldn't believe that it was actually available when I got it a few years ago.) And while I usually switch my vanity plate every few years, this is a keeper. If you want to see my collection of former vanity plates, stop by the Eat My Words office - they're all displayed on the wall, including AD QUEEN, SIN MORE, FLOAT ON, and C MONKEY.

Best Laundromat Names

Writing about the dog wash Laundromutt (below) reminded me of SF's hippest laundromat/cafe, Brainwash. It has sleek machines, live music, and you can score crack right outside. I love the wildly colorful chairs, which are so cool, most of them have been stolen. (BTW, the chair artist, Melisssa Hutton, has a piece in the Eat My Words wall-to-wall art collection. My favorite laundromat name is Sit 'n Spin, which was in Seattle's hip Belltown neighborhood. They carried the concept through with shelves of campy board games and plenty of living room furniture for lounging around while your clothes dried. (I just read that they closed two years ago. And now a laundromat in The Castro is using the same name. What's up with that?)

Laundromutt!

Our awesome StudySmart client, Alex Gramling, (who is the president of the Eat My Words fan club), tipped us off to this hysterical name for a dog washing place in Cambridge, MA - Laundromutt. We also love the cheeky name for their waiting area, the Barka-Lounge, where you can watch TV while you wait.

We tried to be sexy...

We always get asked if we only create playful names. While those certainly are our favorite kind of names and the ones we feature in the Eat My Words portfolio, we occassionaly do more straight-forward corporate names. For instance, Landor refered Marcus Associates to us to help them rename Areva, a West Coast transformer company. In 3 days. While our recommended name was Tesla, after Nikola Tesla, the wildly popular (and hot!) Serbian inventor (who incidentally was born during an electrical storm), the client chose a more conservative name, Pacific Crest, to reflect their Southern Oregon roots. Sorry, Nikola. Oh well, at least you have a hair band named after you.

New name for Safeway brand

If you shop at Safeway or any of their sister stores, you may have noticed their sexy new house brand, Eating Right, created by the package design geniuses at Anthem. They hired Eat My Words to come up with a phrase for the system of color-coded spots on each package that feature the dietary benefits and nutrition facts. We coined it "Spot Your Needs." We also wrote packaging copy for 150+ SKUs from frozen entrees to cereal. (Don't you ever wonder who writes all the copy on the cereal boxes you read?)

EMW office featured in HOW's Creativity Issue

HOW magazine is a bible of the design industry. Every issue includes a feature on a swanky design studio in their "Workspace" spread. They have never featured a naming firm, but when they saw photos of the wildly colorful Eat My Words office, the editor decided to bend the rules. Look for the spread and gushing article in the June issue pictured here or download it from our Press page. BTW, a key piece of the Eat My Words art collection, Our Lady of the Eternal Double Latte, by Seattle artist Michael Jacobson, was the subject of a full page feature in HOW nearly 15 years ago.