If you want to open a design agency, don’t choose boring names such as “Studio Durand” or “Dupont Architects”: they are definitely outdated! Nowadays, originality is a must, even if sometimes it leads to unusual results! Here is a list of some of the most interesting ones. Let’s find out what’s the story behind their choice!

Design, Bitches

In 2010, architects Catherine Johnson and Rebecca Rudolph took part in a competition where they were invited to define their profession completing this sentence: “Architecture is…”. The original sense of their quick reply, even if they didn’t pronounce exactly these words, was: “It’s Design, Bitches”. Now this popular gag is still used by the architects as a funny way to show their strong personality and, at the same time, it’s a good advertising, since a name like this is certainly unconventional! Well, maybe not so unconventional if you come from Los Angeles!

G /// bang

The name of this Spanish studio is simply composed by the first letter of the founder’s surname “G”, the sound “Bang” and three slashes between them. The “Bang” comes from the cartoons that the founder and “grown-up child” Gallardo Ortega still loves watching. It means that to be a good architect you have to preserve your childhood innocence, but never forget to be responsible.

5468796 Architecture

This Canadian studio chose the simplest possible name: their registration number at the local Chamber of Commerce. Then, they completed their logo typing the number in an online barcode generator. “At first many people strongly recommended us to change it”, said co-founders Johanna Hurme and Sasa Radulovic. But then one day one of their clients, who’s considered a branding expert, told them that the logo actually had a very strong impact. Now, some people proudly remember the whole name, others simply call them “barcode” or “546”. After all, if people talk about you or remember you, the toughest part of the job is already done!

!@#?

In 2003 architects Hilary Sample and Michael Meredith opened a studio called !@#?. However, they soon realized that not only this name was impossible to pronounce, they couldn’t even get a web address using it! Therefore, after thinking over it, they opted for a more traditional name: MOS Architects. Wise choice!

Atelier Bow-Wow

Momoyo Kaijima, co-founder of Japanese studio “Bow-Wow”, declared that they chose this name simply because they love dogs. Indeed, sounds like “bow-wow” represent dogs barking in many languages! So, it has nothing to do with the young American rapper of the 2000s!

FREAKS architecture

This name was chosen by the architects Cyril Gauthier, Guillaume Aubry and Yves Pasquet and since it means “odd and bizarre”, their clients thus started calling them  “the Freaks”, although their design actually is not so “bizarre”. Anyway, this name can successfully draw people’s curiosity, which is quite a good way to attract potential clients, after all.

Atelier YokYok

Located in Paris, Atelier YokYok was named after a children’s TV program and books series whose hero wears a large red triangular bouffant hat. YokYok is a little man with a big hat who lives in a world inhabited by strange creatures and explores the oddness of life. The architects claim that people love this name and that it helps them creating their universe and graphic identity. “People usually remember it, but sometimes an odd name can be easily forgotten, or wrongly pronounced. This is a risk we are willing to take!”.

P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S

Cofounder Marcelo Spina said that the name of his studio originally was not divided by dashes, they added them when they started creating their website: “The domain we wanted already existed, so we decided to add a dash between each letter and realized that the result was not bad at all!”.