This may be confusing to you because... doesn't my company already have a name? Well, yes. And no. I have been operating under a larger corporate umbrella as a dba "doing business as" name. My mother established MW Designs under her larger corporation back in the eighties. When I decided to turn my passion into a career and make a real go of "this design thing" last year, rather than setting up my own company from the start, I chose to use her dba, which she happily agreed to. Now that my clients are adding up and this business is starting to really take off, I was advised to sever from my parent corporation. "Okay," I thought "I will just buy the name from my mom and we can set it up as an LLC, no problem." Except there WAS a problem. When doing a name search for MW Designs, an already-established company with a VERY similar name came up and the State said "No go." So, I've been pondering names for my "new" company.
It would be so easy to just slap any old name on the company and be on my way, but that's not how I do things. Being thoughtful and intentional about my designs are a hallmark for me and for my company, so I wouldn't be being true to myself if I chose the easy way out.
A lot of people use their own names for their company: Mary McDonald, Inc., Tobi Fairley Interior Design, Kyle Knight Design, and Jones Design Company, to name a few. I like this because, chances are, you aren't going to tire of it. Others get really creative: Lindsay Dress chose her precious pups' names: Sadie & Stella. Cassandra Lavalle of Coco + Kelley obviously didn't choose her name outright.
Those two schools of thought got my wheels turning: I like the idea of a name that I won't tire of, but I want my name to be creative too! After all, a design firm is a pretty creative endeavor. When we named the company my husband runs (Armstrong-St. Clair), we went back into our ancestries and chose a name from each side of the family: Armstrong (mine) and St. Clair (his). I really like the idea of honoring family names, and since we didn't do so with our son's name, I think it's a great opportunity to still pay homage.
Here's a little factoid: my given maiden name is Melanie Katherine Wolf. My name isn't some special heirloom name. My husband is Ernest Henry Metting III. His name (obviously) is. I love the opposite-ness of that. My husband and I are opposites in many ways, but we are fused together by our marriage bond and try every day to get better at functioning as a single unit.
So, it is for that reason that I have chosen Henry Kate Design Co. as my new company name. It creates an heirloom to both of our names, and (like Armstrong-St. Clair) references our two persons coming together as one. It's really special to me and I hope you like it!
Of course, I realize that changing my company name means a new blogsite, a new twitter handle, a new Facebook page, new Instagram account... The list goes on. Please go over to our new Facebook page and like it! All-new profile pictures will be uploaded soon, as well as an all-new website for perusing hi-res images of our projects, services, and all of those goodies. Follow us on Twitter @henrykatedesign and Instagram @henrykatedesign!
We're developing all of our branding/identity and website with a great company, so following us on Twitter, instagram, and liking the new Facebook page are great ways to stay "in the loop" and up to date on all HKD news!
Thanks for all of your continued support!
Sincerely,
Melanie Wolf Metting
