Cheers Cookeaa

“(Insert surname) Engineering” > I’m not a fan of this as I don’t think it is memorable.

Plus I feel that with “engineering” in the name people will think we are a machine shop, (or a washing machine repair man).

I think the term engineering is too devalued now. Don’t get me started on the IMechE….

First page google hit on a serch for “Engineering design” (after all the product design courses)…

JNDC Engineering Design

You can bet your left testicle that “JN” and “DC” are just the initials of the founders. Keep it simple IMO

from my experience with sub contract design companies, the ones with the middle management “blue sky thinking” names have been far less useful than those with family names or your standard engineering company names and now every time i see a name like “radical engineering solutions” or “epic design technologies”, i carry on looking elsewhere….

philconsequence – Member
lolcad ?

bound to get some people stumbling onto your site looking for cats

Surely LOLCADZ? 😀

Google told me this “Apple wanted to distance itself from the cold, unapproachable, complicated imagery created by other computer companies at the time. They looked for a name that supported a brand positioning strategy that was to be perceived as simple, warm, human, approachable and different”

Seems to me you want to be promoting your ability for design innovation by differentiating your name in a similar way.

Maybe ‘Wheel’ doesn’t quite have the same cachet yet, but think Virgin, O2, and creative design agency names like Squeeze, Splendid and fourleaf etc etc.

The CAD Factory

ConceptCAD

I agree that Engineering / Engineer is a devalued term these days, apparently the fella who fixes our office printers (or fails to) is an “Engineer” he must be a chartered member of the “Xerox institute of toner changers” or something…
Certain institutes don’t help the cause either…

but it all depends on who you are selling to, if your selling Mechanical Engineering services to Mechanical Engineers, working for Engineering businesses (like what I be) then I think you need to make it clear, we deal with a few “Design houses” who are actually more “Engineering Design consultancies”… I’d look for the keywords Engineer(ing) and Design, if ou just use the word “design” I’ll assume you chop out web pages for a living…

Just don’t slip into cryptic bullshit, or my personal favourite which is pick to a colour and an object or animal; combine the two and hey-presto you’ve got a business name.

(apparently favoured by Graphic/web designers, ad-agencies and “Branding consultants”) Examples:

“Red Dog”
“Mauve Turtle”
“Indigo Door”

It’s piss easy really…

Most of the businesses I come across in your line of work do their damndest to crowbar Abbreviated keywords in like “Tech” or “Inno” into their title, I’d suggest you don’t…

I like your style of womping – I’ve got it….
“Innotech”.

£50 please.

DrP

Finite Elephant Analysis. Everyone will remember it!

Mr Bear,

Take cookeaa’s advice it is very sensible. As I fit right into your target market you would have almost no chance with some stupid up to the minute, here today bust tomorrow name at our place. If you put solid words like Engineering/Design in your company name old gimmers like me may take you seriously enough to give you some work. A company whose name says what it does or that sounds solid and reliable in the manufactureing sector (even if you don’t make anything) may give you a better way in and some cred. After all many of the people who are going to authorize the spend on what you do will be some cranky old t..t that made his way via the shop floor. He’ll know he needs a company like your cause the people who work with him will be telling him so and he understands he is now out of his depth (drawing boards, pencils, rotring pens, razor blades and slide rules will not be back). How will you convince him that you are up to it at a glance, Aireyfairyjustgotadegreeinnowtinovdesignstuff Ltd will not get by him.
Good luck by the way!
PS I am not suggest you have just got a degree, just trying tell how it could be seen.

I do Brand identity and naming for a living so drop me a line we can talk.

My emails in my profile.

‘What a CAD’

Funny that – I work for a CAD consultancy in a place in North Yorkshire with a castle already… 😯

drop me a line we can talk.

Ooh. Is it a secret?

I’d like to put forward the following:

“The Bollox”

ProtoCad Engineering

Thanks for all this feedback guys (and gals)

I agree coming up for a name for a company is very difficult. If you are designing and creating prototypes then I guess there is some creativity going on, maybe something like;

Creative CAD and Prototyping LTD (assuming you will be a limited company)
Creative Engineering Solutions and Prototyping LTD.

I agree with ‘mt’ including engineering/design in the title may help you for getting more work through the door.

Thomas & Phillips Ltd – the two best cads in movie history.

Seems to me you want to be promoting your ability for design innovation by differentiating your name in a similar way.

Maybe ‘Wheel’ doesn’t quite have the same cachet yet, but think Virgin, O2, and creative design agency names like Squeeze, Splendid and fourleaf etc etc.

While it’s a valid point and has worked for these companies the major difference is marketing budget. Unless you have the money and are willing to spend it no one will ever know what it is you do.

Ooh. Is it a secret?

That would be telling wouldn’t it?

We are not planning on spending a lot of money on marketing. I think we just need something that is memorable, to the point, not too much of a mouth full.

Will others just shorten our name when discussing us?

For example,
Total Engineering Systems – I’m sure people would call it TES, so should it be called TES anyway?

CADesign
Angry Turtle InnotechUK
Flex Engineering
Pro Zen Peas Design

and my favourite:

goggle

CAD to the powwah of SIK ?

Perhaps get the disipline in there use the word “Mechanincal Engineering” or “Mechanical Design” (I’m assuming that’s your primary field)…

Don’t put “CAD” in your title either, if your selling Engineering design services I would expect you to be able to use CAD, chucking it in the title is another Grad’ startup identifier…

As for the Acronym thing that’s not a bad idea, really the best “Combo” would be a straight forwards forwards descriptive name which could be turned into a memorable acronym…

How about:

–“Intelligent Design Engineering and Analysis Solutions” or “IDEAS” for short…

Cookeaa, like it as a full name/byline. IDEA on the business card only would still not get past the the old grump here though. Just who I be talking about?

Shame your not based in Central Hampshire otherwise you could be CADsWallop. 🙂

Well the company I work for is called Hunts…We’re a printing firm. I don’t know where the name stemmed from.

…with sealing wax and string.

It’s got to be IDEAS IMO 2 reasons:

1) Plural sounds better i.e. you have many, many Ideas not just the one…

2) You can stick the word “Solutions” in the full title, Engineers like Solutions, it’s a positive term and it focuses on meeting the clients needs… you could use “Services” but it’s not as warm and fuzzy as solutions…

We Do CAD.
Infinate Monkey Analysis

IDEAS is looking very good. I’ll see what my business partner thinks.

IDEAS is a good one

Our company is 360 rope solutions (bit of a Mouthful), but refer to it as 360. Seems to work for us. We have small online presence http://www.360rope.co.uk , its a relatively niche industry our site relfects this and act as an online brochure/”showcase”.

We used a local, very reasonably priced design company for the logo and word press site builder, based in North Yorks. I can give their details if you like.

I’m begining to wish we wern’t called innovations now, especially as all our software is legit and its a long time since i was a student. I guess it was mainly because we deal in innovative solutions to client requirements, still horses for courses… 😉

I like the 360 rope logo.
My bro in law is a graphic designer, so I hope to get a freebie off him for that thanks.

I did think of using 360 (or 365) in a name, but I am not sure we can say we do everything which I think 360 reflects.

‘complete’ kinda conveys the same thing as 360 in your context perhaps?

OP why not something in Latin or Italian or even an Isambard Kingdom Brunel reference?

(Leftfield)

I did look at the Greek gods and liked

Metis – Titan of good counsel, advice, planning, cunning, craftiness and wisdom.

But I’m not sure it really works. Who would know the titan of cunning??

I’d suggest you have a bit of a brainstorm OP (offline)…

you and your partner get big old sheet of paper and don’t worry about what sounds “cool” or “businessey” but focus on what the company does (will do) and what impression you want to convey stick down key words (however odd they might seem) relating to that. and then break out the thesaurus… You are probably the two people who know best what it is you want to put across…

you can test the top contenders on us if you like…

IDEAS has links to I-DEAS though