Brand Logo Design Evolution: What's In A Name?

When I was a young teenager, my brother had a college friend visit who gave me the impression he was very important and smart. After suffering through a long dinner where I had to listen to this guy spout off all kinds of theories (think pontification), I decided to change the direction of the conversation by slotting in a word I made up to see if it would throw him off (and possibly shut him up). My chosen word was ‘disintemperable’. It did the trick as the invited college student looked around confused when my siblings and parents acted like it was a real word and he was forced to pretend he knew what it meant. Of course, my mother, being the kind soul she was, put him out of his misery by telling him I had a penchant for inventing words. Grrr, I nearly got away with it but I was bitten by the bug of word invention.

Since those days my hubby, Walt and my daughter, have been subjected to many words I have made up, mostly in haste when my mouth wasn’t keeping up with what my brain was thinking. Some specials from the “it’s crazy inside my brain department” include the following: TJMarshalls (TJ Max and Marshalls combined) Michelle (when talking about my brother and sister in law, Mike and Shelly), the one that gets giggles from us every time, Big Dicks (Big 5 and Dick’s Sporting Goods) and last night the reason I am now writing this – bonefit (bonus and benefit) While all of these have entertained my family over the years it is CapaBunga, the word invented back in 2010, that is now considered a legitimate word used by lots of people and has been on every single cap we have produced. How did that come to be?

After we received our first prototype, Walt and I batted around some options for a name that left me, the creative wordsmith, grimacing with rejection. One I still remember was Reusacap (it sounded like a car part to me) so that was a definite NO! Running out of time for a product name, I leaned into where the inspiration for the product had come. Up to 1985 all bungs that were used to seal wine barrels were wood then switched over to silicone practically overnight. So, in my mind this new design, made of silicone, was a form of bung, but it worked like a cap – Bingo – I finally got to make up a word that didn’t make other people laugh - CapaBunga. 

Little did we know it would also become the name of a company that would house 10+ inventions. Despite not planning for it to be a company name, we’re nonetheless proud of the name CapaBunga® to this day. And yes, that is a trademark! USPTO Endorsed Legitimacy – does that mean I can keep up my creative wordsmithing or is that just my run on brain in overdrive? 

Original logo graphics from 2011 courtesy of Brandt Hoekenga of tiv Branding