Know-How Exchange : Taglines/Names

If your tagline is to be creative and catchy, it needs to connect first. You can be as creative and as witty as you like - and when your visitor clicks through, they'll think "oh".

Believe me, if they're only using the back button 19 out of 20 times - YOU'RE DOING WELL.

So: you have a business and you're known in the area - or an 'area' (or a niche as marketers term it). In other words you have customers. What is the one reason they choose you from all the other "Pixel Studios" that abound? There were three MILLION results for Pixel Studio . Not that this matters too much, just as long as you can stand out to your best customers.

Because the rest aren't buying anyway.

Now, if this is all a little tricky - just run through some of your customers' reviews. Look for the things that are being alluded to - not just the "they did fantastic work and met our deadline" stuff. It's the "Tanuja's brisk style" or somesuch. I'm not in this mindset just now. Anyway, I need a sheaf of reviews to be able to spot a unique pattern. Or at least one that is unique enough in your circumstances.

With that we can make a tagline that's really "catchy" - at least for customers who return time and time again. With a few of those, you really are in business.

You don't need a tag line that's "catchy" any more than you create work that's "pretty". After all, that's what graphic designers do, isn't it? Make things look "pretty"?

You need a tag line that's RELEVANT. So, who is your ideal client and what does this person look for?
One other thing to consider is that you ought to be known for the quality of your design work, not for the "catchiness" of your tag line.

@Moriarty: Actually, we haven't launched Pixel Studio quite yet. So, we don't have any customer reviews at this point of time. Right now, we are in the planning stage. We identified our business area (i.e., designing and development) and selected the name. Now what we need next is a tagline, to give the customer an idea about our services.

@Gary Bloomer: By saying 'catchy', what I meant was like what Moriarty said. That is, when someone read this title, they should say, "oh..wow"..! :D And yeah, at the same time, it should be relevant as you said. Of course, we will be concentrating on keeping the quality in our works. But still, we wish to spice up with an interesting and relevant tagline. :)

Our ideal client will be a person or a business organization that needs design services and websites. To begin with, we intend to take small to medium scale projects.

Firstly - your "business area" being designing and development - that's rather a broad brush. I worked as an industrial designer focusing on plastics. That is a broad brush, only this was a company that now stands in the top ten industrial design companies on the planet. They have the background and strength to stand out as the best. Plus they have the customer base that allows them to.

You don't. You need to refine your ideas and hone them to a razors' edge if you are to get anything close to a useful tagline. So what do you do in this vast area that makes you special? Because without that, your potential customers haven't a chance of ever seeing your tagline let alone it communicating anything to them.

Now: what did you do before you started this biz? I was an interior decorator - and I leverage those references for my present work. What did you do that got you references, even if they were part of working for another company. There has to be something that you do that makes you stand out.

Actually, the smaller it is the better. That way it is ultra-narrow and ultra-focused. Because when you have seven billion buyers on this planet, you can afford to focus on a very, very narrow group of people. Even ultra-narrow definitions run to the millions. Isn't that enough to start a business? It's the size pool that Teams design focuses on, after all.

Since "Pixel Studio" doesn't really articulate what you offer or for who, your tagline needs to make it clear. If your tagline is too clever, the casual web visitor won't have a better clue of what you can do for them. For example, "Specialists in Graphic Designing" or "Graphic Designs For YourSpecificNiche".

@Moriarty and Jay Hamilton-Roth: OK, let me be more precise. :) We will be designing logos, posters, brochures, business cards, flyers, websites, advertisement, magazine/book covers, book layout, infographics and movie title design. We will also be developing websites. But, more focus will be on designing rather than on development.

@Moriarty: I am a graphic/web designer and web developer. :)

You've listed what you can do. But who specifically are you wanting to work with? Where are they located? Why would they hire you specifically? Why wouldn't people use their in-house talent?

Ideally, your name and tagline will work together to communicate a solid positioning and/or benefit differentiation in the eyes of your target audience.

A quick google search of your name (search in quotes) as "Pixel Studio" will produce hundreds of results including those that are actually using "Pixel Studio" as their business name on their websites by whatever top level domain. Many more use a distinctive word, legal entity designation, geographic distinction and the like with the name Pixel Studio(s). The point is just using "Pixel Studio" is somewhat generic, potentially could be confused with a competitor(s) and may or may not be available as a trademark.

I suggest you take a step back, do some additional research as a basis for a name and tagline creative brief, and ultimately rework your business name and develop a tagline driven by the written brief. After all, don't you typically work from a creative brief to produce design solutions for your clients. Why treat yourself any differently.