What’s in a name?
As part of an experimental, first time, Transportation class at SJSU way back in the 80’s, we were tasked to design a large, 6 wheeled all terrain vehicle. The class pretty much learned transportation design from Car Styling and our teacher Dave Fleming who was an ex Detroit designer. Outside of that, no Trans prep classes whatsoever. Attending our final presentation was Jack Telnack, the head of Ford Design. Apparently, Dave was connected!
Image: Automotive Literature Europe
Fast forward 3 months and it was time to present. I looked around at the work, it was just OK. My project was not great as well. I worked hard, tried to figure out how to draw cars and render them with markers, vellum and Bestine. What the hell, Mr. Telnack was here and we were going to do this. During the presentations, I noticed that he had his notepad out but wasn’t taking any notes.
The 6 wheel platform was a given. I had to do the tape/ink drawing. Name, up to the designer!
Cybertruck, a pretty sticky name. Look at that crisp line! Ha ha! Don’t ask why there is wood grain in the background! It was supposed to be the side of a hill or something like that.
I was up. I kicked off by introducing my project the “Explorer”. Right there, he took a note. All I showed was a title page. Did he write that name down for something later? Was that the only note-worthy piece? We all got through the day relatively unscathed. I’ll say this, Mr. Telnack was a kind reviewer and we were relieved and happy we made it through another semester!
Product names have meaning.
A few years later, the Ford Explorer was released. Ha! If I had a penny for every Explorer sold…Who knows what he actually wrote down, it's just a fun story that reminds me, product naming is hard, a good name can allude to the experience, be memorable, and have lasting power. A name can instill a feeling of aspiration or support a practical need. Great names are a powerful part of the story.
As I recall, Jack probably wrote down every project name to keep his notes organized. Regardless, I don’t recall him using many pages! The work was so overwhelming, it left him speechless! Yeah right! So that Trans experiment ended that semester, it was one class, no harm done. I had fun.
