Please use the Comments section below to do virtual brainstorming. Explanagraphics is the temporary name of my repurposed business. I don’t like it much, but it will become the permanent name, unless I can friend-source some creativity.
NOTE: don’t overlook the two pages of comments (if you’d like to see others’ thoughts)!
Please poke around this site to get an idea of the services on offer. The target market is both:
- Marketing/Comunications professionals
- Software development firms, especially start-ups
Criteria for Selection
Of course, I’m “the decider”… but I highly value input from my peeps.
The biggest limiting factor is that I must get the .com domain name. I won’t settle for something where another owns the obvious domain name, forcing me to settle for .biz, misspelling, or hyphenation. If you have a terrific idea where the domain name is “parked” I’m willing to try to buy it (if it’s available for a budget price).
Word and Phrase Ideas
- Marketers tend to talk of “visuals,” while geeks speak of “graphics.”
- I have often said my profession is “explaining.” It seems to cover informative graphics, interactive design, tech writing, classroom teaching and speaking engagements.
- I tend to like “mash-up” names like Explanagraphics, because they can define the business pretty well. But I think Explanagraphics sounds clunky.
Other Feedback Welcomed
This site is pretty much ready to launch. I’d be happy to get your thoughts — and especially reports of glitches anywhere in the site. Most of the text has not yet been copyedited! If you know my email address, please contact me directly. If not, please use the Contact page.
knowgraphics.com and graphicknowledge.com are both available…
Knowledge is a good synonym for information — and especially the comprehension of information!
Also, graphiclear.com and babelgraphics.com (although that may mean something more like translation than understanding)
Graphexplain?
Graphicvision? (.com is taken though. darn)
Graphandgetit?
BasicVisual? (maybe not such a good idea as Microsoft may object)
Visigrok (hee hee)
I agree that explanigraphics is clunky. Plus, it’s hard to spell. I had to look back to see whether there was an e or an i in the middle.
And just to prove that it’s hard to spell, it’s neither an e nor an i! It’s an a (see new content on home page).
I actually really like visigrok (perhaps as another domain name that points to the same site…)
Comments from various Facebook friends about the “temporary” name:
(1) I like ExplanaGraphic – Is it pronounced with a long a or a short a ?
(2) What does Explana mean?
(3) That’s a long name for people to remember or pronounce or type into a web address.
I’ve put an animation on the home page that may help answer (1) and (2)… although it’s likely people will arrive at the site from search or shares — and then they don’t land on the home page.
The “obvious” name to me is VisualExplanations. This is very similar to the name of Tufte’s book. The domain name seems to be “parked”. It’s a bit long to type, of course.
How about VizEx ? It’s short, and the domain name seems to be available.
Via another channel, Dorian S. offered:
Naming is fun.. not..
How about a play on visual, visualize, vivid…
• VisualFeast (taken)
• Vivigraphics (not taken.. but vividgraphics is)
• VisualClarity available
• Visualinfo (taken)
Infofeast
(available for $1395) (I seem to like the word feast)
Or is there an animal or other object that connotes what you want to say.. a clear, structured, visual animal… CobraGraphics
Eh.. fft.
Via another channel, Ann Marcus offered (names or seed ideas):
• TheBigPicture
• Worth a Thousand Words
• GraphicSynopsis
• InfoGraphica
visualclarity
bellegraphics
Canonicalgraphics
Crowngraphics
I’ve been liking the idea of Visual Clarity. But online I found “VISUALCLARITY.COM IS FOR SALE! – $3,388.” Kind of out of my price range. Of course, I could offer them less.
The domain-name sites that riff on the keywords looked at that and produced a bunch of suggestions relating to optometrists. Makes me realize that my naming process has been somewhat myopic (heh).
Via another channel, Rich Clem offered:
GraphUI (pronounced “graff – foo’ – ee”)
I think this one is meant as a humorous suggestion.
I like hand2mouse. Any particular reason you’re ditching it? Also, since the word “infographic” is so overused these days, I can’t help myself…I’ll submit the franken-abominations “defographic” (de-fog…eh? eh?) and “referographic.”
I also vote for Visigrok. Memorable, short, and sounds like either a Germanic tribe or a subterranean fantasy novel character. Nerd appeal all over the place.
I kinda talk about the word-overuse problem in another post. But really, the word had a real meaning prior to the deluge, and as recently as 3 years ago I spoke with marketers who didn’t know what it meant.
hand2mouse is going away because I’ve worked on two GUIs now that are touch screens. No mouses.
VinfoDesign (visual information design)
GraphicSense
InfoSense
InfoGraphix
GraphicLandia
InfoLandia
Nancy. I am very impressed by your work and business concept.
Here are a couple of ideas:
• seeandknow
• concept2visual
• visuals2know
• visualknowledge
• seeitknowit
• concept2comprehension
I thought of seeknow, but it could be see know or seek now. seeKnow?
My personal opinion is that it shouldn’t be anything obvious, because if it is, you’ll never get a trademark, or you’ll have some attorney hounding you, and domain names will cost too much. So you want something memorable and new. For example, one Y-Combinator company that did something with email came up with ‘Xobni’ – “Inbox” spelled backwards.
How about just ‘xplana’ – is that in existence in some form on the Internet?
Never mind … xplana.com exists and is huge.
Hmm, I responded earlier but don’t see my post. I’ll try to recap…
I like Visigrok. I had thought of Visigraphics before I saw that, but it’s taken. And Visigrok is super geeky cool and makes a lot of sense.
Another possibility: Clarigraphics
(can’t remember what else I had in previous post attempt…sorry!)
I’ve always used “grok” and I’ve always found someone in every crowd who has never heard of it. So it’s risky. And (thinking out loud, here) will marketers be attracted to a nerdy-sounding name? My friends are, but then my friends are… 😉
I like Graphic Knowledge even though a bit long. Easy to say and easy to write. For mashups, I also like GraphicSynopsis, InfoGraphica, and GraphicSense because they seem interesting and yet easy to write and say.
Nancy,
I really like your site. It’s clean and fast and I like the color choices. I actually really like several of the names mentioned above by Stanford (concept2visual) and Kristl (GraphicSense and InfoSense). Those names seem accessible and make sense and are reasonably memorable – and professional sounding.
Another way of thinking about information is that it wants to be KNOWN or…UNDERSTOOD. Then you don’t have to wade through the painful process of explaining. The best visuals just say it.
Fast? Wow. All them thar graphics are 24-bit PNGs, not known for being small!
Hmm. Maybe I should change my footer from “information just wants to be explained” to “information just wants to be understood”…. (sounds like the plea of a lonely soul!)
Seeitknowit
Useeituknowit
Useeuknow
Graphiche (capiche?)
See2know
Viewknow
Businesses
Graspicartist
Graspicart
Graspic
Via another channel, Mike Freiling offered:
Viewnique – but it appears to be linked to another domain, so I assume it’s already owned.
Graspix – play on “grasp” (as in understand), “pix” (as in visuals), and “graphics”. Does not appear to be owned.
[ed. note: He had not seen James’s suggestions, below. Apparently their brains are somewhat similar.]
expligrafix
expligrafik
vizwiz (domain parked tho)
expliviz
dynamaviz
LetsMakeThisClear.com is available