How we landed at Paper
Choosing a company name has been exhausting, exciting and frustrating, nearly all in equal measures. From the outset we knew that we wanted help with getting our name and brand sorted, it wasn’t something we wanted to do by ourselves.
First things first, in case you can’t be bothered reading on - Why Paper?
We wanted a name which was just one word, something simple but memorable. It’s a nod to knowing that good things should be kept simple. A salute to starting, and continuing, any project with sketches and post-its.
The naming and brand process took around eight weeks and the man we have to thank for creating Paper is Kyle Wilkinson, a hugely talented designer. It’s been an absolute pleasure spending time with Kyle and getting to know him over the past couple of months.
Our first chat with Kyle was at the start of April and we just chatted. We chatted about work, about design, about chairs, about football and about how he’d approach our project. Mark and Kyle are part of a tight knit group of mates and have known each other since they were nippers, but it was the first time myself and Cam had met Kyle.
In the first proper session Kyle listened as the three of us talked through what we were drawn to, either aesthetically or inspirationally. We also gave a steer towards two routes; outdoorsy/earthy names and also something related to Sheffield’s steel industry.
Session number two was where we got really far into the rabbit hole. Ideas rapidly went from genius, to pretentious, to utter crap in minutes. But thanks to Kyle’s facilitation we did land on a few names that felt like they could be winners. Our homework from that was to think up some names that we’d latched onto and might consider.
A discounted name idea. It sounded like a sanitary product.
The following week was where the exhaustion and frustration came in - trying to agree on one name. At this point we were down to four; Bridge, Park, Seek and Trail. We’d done a quick round up with friends and family and Seek was topping the list.
But it wasn’t one that all three of had all agreed on. I was getting pretty frustrated at this point that we were ending up with a name that we all didn’t love. It just didn’t feel right.
At 7am the following morning - a few hours where we wanted to agree on the name - the three of us met for a coffee. We weren’t happy. So, we ditched all the names and felt instantly better. It was the right thing to do.
The night before I’d been up late fretting and so started a new Google Doc titled ‘Plan B’ and rattled out a few ideas, including ‘PaperCode’. The three of us talked a bit more about it whilst sipping overpriced coffee. We all liked it, a lot and didn’t feel the need to keep ‘Code’. We met Kyle later that evening who loved it and that that was it, Paper was born.
After that meeting, Kyle went away and started his work on the branding for Paper to life, and we’ll cover than in a separate article.
Massive shout out to Kyle for all his hard work, travelling to Sheffield to meet us each time and the crap hours which entailed. Thanks pal.
We’d love to hear any thoughts on the name (even if you think it’s terrible) and brand (even if you think it’s terrible).