Designs on Demand

1998-3
3rd in a series of posts about our 25 years in business. How do you come up with a business name? And a logo?

We didn't want to go the acronym or initials or name route, "ABC Designs," "Scheperle Products." Nor was I clever enough to do a nonsense word, which is a recommended strategy, like Zazzle or even Amazon which is a real word but out of its normal context. So I started doodling with our names, and I realized we'd named our children M-A-N-D. Add Darrel and an offset MargarEt, and there was the word DEMAND. We wanted to make custom products as people wanted them, so Designs on Demand was a good fit in defining what we were about, but not too confining if we changed course through the years.

In hindsight, and especially later with registering a web address, we found Designs on Demand is a long name and an easily confused one (Design on Demand, Designs by Demand, etc.). Later when we started up ColorPatch, we avoided that mistake.

Here are the logos we've had over the years. I cringe at the first one. We were heavy into making mugs on the second one, and it was quite fun to dress that one up at different times of the year. The current one has a relaxed and eco-vibe.