Creating your company name can be a little overwhelming, we know, we have been there. So we have decided to include some helpful tips for when you need to find that perfect name.

1. Know what you are trying to communicate
Firstly you need to do some soul searching. Understand your brand and the values and message you are trying to communicate. If you are a fun, cheeky brand like Virgin, your name should reflect this. If you are a company that is all about creative solutions, such as Apple, perhaps tapping into a metaphorical story will present the solution to your name.

2. Uniqueness
The fundamental purpose of a brand name is to distinguish one product from another, so a brand name should be distinguishing. You are offering something different from your competitors and your name should reflect that. Your brand is not just another face in the crowd.

3. Longevity
We hope your business grows and your name should be able to grow with it. Names can be too literal, which will limit you if you should diversify in the future. For example OneSteel (once BHP), are now changing their name to Aarium, due to the fact that a large portion of their business is now in mining, not just steel. Names should be able to last, you don’t want to go through the naming process all over again.

4. Memorable
Here you have to help your audience out. Names that are hard to say or spell will be easily forgotten. Names that are fun and clever will be remembered. Straightforward names can be too dull to retain but metaphors intrigue the audience and are more likely to stick in their minds.

And remember you may not know the perfect name as soon as you see it. ‘BlackBerry’ could have been named ‘EasyMail’ except for some convincing by boutique firm Lexicon.

The Elk Group name

For those interested, here’s the story behind The Elk Group brand name.

When searching for a name for our company we looked at our values and our brand essence ‘nurturing excellence with style’. As a creative company we wanted a creative name, and something that came from a place of meaning. Our role as a company is to help our clients reach their goals, by providing branding and design solutions that will connect with their audience. We help our clients become who they were always meant to become. And the team at Elk have become those creative people that we were always meant to become. It therefore made sense, when looking for a name, that we looked at some of the creative things our director, Emma Scott, did as a child. Emma collected plastic animals, hundreds of the things (and still does). We lined up all the animals, pondering on their names. We came across the elk. It was strong and iconic, and when we looked into the characteristics of the elk, we discovered an animal that metaphorically represented us as a personality – powerful yet mystical. And everytime we hear the name, it reminds us to think freely, like we did as children.

References:
The Australian. What’s in a brand name?
Image via Travel Agent Central

Branding is quite simply your image; the message you communicate to your audience.

The key to creating a successful brand is first understanding what your message and values are, and secondly communicating that message consistently through every aspect of your brand – from the message in your marketing collateral, your website, your daily communications to the way you and your team answer the phone and interact with your clients. Your brand is a business tool; a process that requires constant attention and energy.

It’s those brands that have taken the time to invest in creating a strategic and consistent brand that become market leaders and profit financially. These companies will tell you that their brand is their most valuable asset, and their valuations prove it.

A recent report by Interbrand concluded:
• Coca Cola’s brand was measured at $67,000 million, making it the global leader at the time.
• Google’s brand value was reported at $12,376 million
• eBay an impressive $6,755 million.
• In Australia, National Australia Bank’s group of brands (including NAB, MLC, Bank of New Zealand & the Clydesdale Bank in the UK) were, reported to be worth a combined $6.4 billion, making it the most valuable brand portfolio owned by an Australian company.

How to calculate brand value

Brand value or brand valuation is an estimate of the total value of the brand expressed in monetary terms. There are a couple of different ways to estimate brand value.

1. Take brand value of the company as a whole, in terms of its market capitalisation, and subtract from this the value its physical and other assets except the brand. The remainder is then considered to be equal to the brand value.

2. Calculate the present value of all the expected future profits of the company as its brand value. For this purpose profit is taken as the net profit after providing for the nominal interest on the net worth of the company.

3. Brand value at product level may be calculated by comparing the market prices of the branded product with comparable product without significant brand value, and then using this price difference to calculate additional profits earned due to brand image of the product. Calculating the present value of the stream of additional profits expected in future gives the brand value.

At the Elk Group we believe that investing in your brand is a smart way to build a powerful asset.

References:
Jack Perlinski | DAIS
eNotes; Business. How is brand value calculated?
Image via Joshua Travels

Last month, The Elk Club jumped at the opportunity to visit the Picasso exhibition at the Art Gallery NSW. Hosted by a dear friend, the delightful Dorinda Sullivan, we met at the gallery at 6.30pm and were treated to a insightful guided tour.

Over 150 paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures of the iconic mastermind were on display. The temporary closure of Musée National Picasso in Paris made this exhibition possible. The display offered an exceptional perspective on the life and work of Pablo Picasso.

Upon entering the exhibition space, one was greeted with a grey wall with words from the artist “I paint the way some write their autobiography. The paintings, finished or not, are the pages from my diary…”

As we ventured through the exhibition, we were given an insight to the development of Picasso’s life – his career and his artistic inspirations. Friends, lovers and fellow artists who influenced Picasso played an influential role in this exhibition. Portraits of his mistresses portrayed Picasso in various emotional states ranging from complete contentment to total despair.

The exhibition completes with one of his final paintings – a portrait of a young boy, looking so innocent and vulnerable – that was Picasso himself.

This exhibition was without a doubt a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We are so glad The Elk Club was able to share this incredible experience with clients and family.

Click here to read more about The Elk Club

Ever wondered what a magic carpet would look like?

We Make Carpets is a creative collaboration of Dutch artist and designers, Bob Waardenburg, Stijn van der Vleuten and Marcia Nolte.

Inspired by the shapes, colours and possibilities of the chosen material, the carpets produced are not just a decorative piece of art, but rather a critical view of consumer society. In the earlier centuries, carpets were always associated with wealth, prestige and power as it was a labour-intensive product. We Make Carpets have juxtaposed this idea by using everyday items – band-aids, pegs, plastic forks and paperclips.

The carpets are temporary; all made on the spot with no thought out plans or sketches beforehand. After a material is chosen, they commence their exploration, slowly laying down each object one after another, creating intricate patterns.

We Make Carpets have made ordinary every day objects into very extraordinary pieces of art.

Click here to see more.

When artists draw or paint, they usually use different materials like paper or canvas, with ink, pencils or paints.

New York based illustrator, photographer and graphic designer, Jorge Colombo, takes a more unconventional approach – creating art using an iPhone or iPad.

Colombo captures the essence of city life using an application called Brushes. He illustrates without making sketches or referring to photographs, but from real life.

Colombo uses a companion application, Brushes Viewer, which makes a video that captures each step of how he composes his artwork. These videos tell a story, and at the same time build suspense through the layering of colours and shapes created.

What a portable and fun way to create art on-the-go!

Click here to see more.

With a shared love of merging design and technology, industrial designers, Yoo-Kyung Shin and Hanhsi Chen pondered over the ultimate question: What will happen if technology becomes invisible?

The result: these elegant, stylish and almost invisible USB sticks.

Better known as Empty Memory, these sticks come in two collections – Structure and Transparent. While Structure boasts an edgy and sleek stainless steel frame, Transparent features a lighter, ethereal block of acrylic. Each design contains a physical emptiness in its sculptural form – a metaphor for space waiting to be filled with data.

What a beautiful piece of technology!

Click here to see more.

Imagine going to a school where classes are not held in a four-walled classroom.

This is the newest Vittra school, Telefonplan, designed by Copenhagen-based studio Rosan Bosch. The “classrooms” are open plan, designed so children can work independently on the whimsical benches, or gather around a giant amphitheatre. There is also “the village” – a tiny house for collaborative work.

Every element that contributes to this spatial experience has been uniquely designed to foster the children’s curiosity and creativity. Even the furniture was custom made to help students to engage in conversations while working on projects.

This Swedish school is non-traditional in every sense. Students learn in groups at their level, not necessarily by age. Makes me wish I could become a kid again and go back to school.

Click here to see more.

A Madrid based group of creatives, Boa Mistura, recently completed a series of anamorphosis* walls in Vila Brâsilandia – one of São Paulo’s slums, or better known locally as a favela.

This was a Participative Urban Art Project that involved Boa Mistura and the locals – transforming the dull and depressing laneways of the slum into colourful, almost hallucinatory, paths filled with messages of hope and love. The winding streets, the heart of the community’s internal life, were the focus of the project. The final art resulted in almost three-dimensional optical illusions that seemed sculptural enough that one could pluck them from the air.

Boa Mistura’s body of works are truly inspiring – they celebrate art, colour and life.

*The term anamorphosis, as more recently recognised in the art world, is the technique of distorted perspective where an image is recreated when the viewer is at a specific vantage point.

Click here to see more.

German publisher, Taschen, is considered by many admirers to be the king of coffee table books. Their stylized art books are known to be the publishing equivalent of haute couture.

As you would imagine, their concept stores are just as stunning as the books they produce.

When you walk off the busy streets of Beverly Hills into the Taschen bookstore, you feel as though you have walked into a lavish private library. A place so contemporary, elegant and calm.

As you adventure further in the store, illuminated shelves are lined with sleek, large-scale volumes on artists, architects, photographers and designers. The floors are decked out with dark glossy wood panels and the ceiling and walls are covered by murals inspired by the books. This Philippe Starck designed interior creates the perfect setting for these works of art.

Special thanks to Theo Pettaras of Digitalpress for telling us about this exquisite place, and for the photos.

Click here to see more.

Hidden among the thousands of rooftops that make up Hong Kong’s iconic cityscape are dozens of beehives that are being cared for by a community of beekeepers, artists and designers.

Hong Kong based designer Michael Leung founded HK Honey as a way to bring nature back to the metropolis one box at a time. The aim of this non-profit organization is to harvest the honey for use in local café’s, to promote local eating. This socio-cultural project aspires to create a community that connects the local people and beekeepers while communicating the value of bees to the human food chain.

This is truly an inspirational project, we can only wish we were in Hong Kong to have our own little box of bees.

Click here to read more.

We are so excited to announce the launch of a new venture we have been working on, a collaboration with fashion/portrait photographer Julie Adams, An Affair with Italy.

Essentially it is an online magazine that captures people's intimate accounts of Italy and their secret travel tips, everything from restaurants to hotels to experiences. Subscribe for your chance to WIN 1 of 6 FREE SIGNED copies of Amanda Tabberer's book My Amalfi Coast.

Would love to hear what you think.

If you haven't already checked out The Design Kids, we highly recommend you do!

This Australian based online store has been supporting emerging talent since the summer of 2010. The Design Kids provide a platform for Australian design graduates, as well as those already in the industry, to design one off or limited edition pieces. From posters to jewellery to homewares, the products featured are always so chic and cool. Other than online, you can find them featured at the Finders Keepers markets.

We are so proud of Frankie and the team at The Design Kids, we wish them all the very best up in Byron Bay!

Click here to read more.

Happy 2012! It's been a big start to the new year for the Elks. We have moved our office into the city and gone live with a brand new website. And to celebrate we are offering one of our readers a free 2 hour strategy session with The Elk Group, designed to help you understand the essence of your brand, what it represents and how it should come to life.

Simply browse the new website and email Emma Scott with a response to the following question (you'll find the answer on our website) 'How do we judge a great idea?' The first 20 responses will receive a copy of The Love You Book, and each entry will go in the draw for a chance to win the strategy session. Winner will be announced Mon 6th February. Feel free to forward this to your friends.

It's spiderman. It's batman. It's superman. No wait it's all three of them!

This series of eye-catching artworks depicting popular culture figures are the works of London-based illustrator, Liam Brazier. Using a range of angular geometries, Brazier successfully creates dynamic scenes that really provoke feelings of action and movement. No doubt, his effective choice of colour palette also contributes to the overall effect.

We love the way simple polygons can combine to form such remarkable illustrations. Certainly comic lovers will adore these!

Click here to read more.

Gjon Mili is a photographer recognised for his inventive use of light and Picasso is one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. The meeting of these two brilliant minds was bound to result in something unusual, something beyond belief. And, it did … a remarkable series of light paintings. With a mind sparking with excitement, Picasso traced through the air one intriguing shape after another and whilst he drew with light, Mili captured the drawings.

His light paintings very much reflect the style of his works. They are so fluid and beautiful.

Click here to read more.

We’ve talked about paper art, pencil art, jelly art and now we bring you tape art!

Brooklyn based artist Rebecca Ward pushes the commonly held notions of adhesive tape and creates brightly coloured three-dimensional installations out of this sticky medium. Her intricate and thoughtful body of work explores the unique structures of her chosen sites. Ward’s work, often seen radiating up and down bare concrete walls uses overlaying simple shapes, patterns and lines. This juxtaposition of illusory and geometrical complexities has no doubt challenged the way people perceive and interact with the built environment.

We are in absolute awe of her work.

www.rebeccasward.com

Paris based Caroline Andrieu creates beautiful pen and ink illustrations for an extremely chic client list.

Andrieu has illustrated for Vogue, Diesel and Burberry in her distinctly delicate style. She has an amazing skill for recreating realistic fine details and also the ability to know when to leave something out.

Such a talented lady, have a peek at her online portfolio.

www.untitled-07.com

The MegaPhone amplifier by Italian design firm en&is is a gorgeous example of old mixed with new technology.

The handmade ceramic form is designed to hold an iPhone and then with natural acoustics amplify and optimise the sound for the best output. No batteries needed! The amplifier sits on a wooden frame that allows the object to float off the table and decrease the vibration of the object.

It’s perfect for listening to music without headphones and whilst not in use is an intriguing sculptural form. Not surprising the duo who created it, Enrico Bosa and Isabella Lovero, have a history in interior and jewellery design.

http://enandis.com/

New York based designer and musician Andy Gilmore creates work best described as hypnotic and almost kaleidoscopic. The master of colour and geometry is inspired by the physics of sound and acoustics, applying his understanding of harmony to form and colour. Gilmore’s thoughtful intertwining of simple geometry to form complex masterpieces feels almost surreal, futuristic and out of this world.

http://crowquills.com/

With articles like how to be loved by your friends’ folks and the power of secret crushes, Rookie is the ultimate teen girls survival guide. Created by Tavi Gevinson, a very youthful internet phenomenon, Rookie promises honest, funny and insightful takes on teen life, with monthly themed content, and millions of bad puns (as stated by Rookie itself). And people over the world have taken notice, including those at Vogue New York.

We may not be teens anymore but we love it for the memories and the insight! Pass this one on to the young ones you know.

http://rookiemag.com/