Bread Line Design

Using the word Solution in a brand name has long been a pet hate of mine, annoying me to the point that in the past I used to post up the Private Eye’s weekly absurd solutions list on Breadline in an attempt to highlight the vulgar practice. Sadly it continues so I’ve felt the need to reiterate why using the term is as disgracefull as OAP tipping and global warming.

I first clocked the term ”solution” at the tail end of my uni years, and yeah I’ll admit, back then it was a useful word for fleshing out terrible proposals. My final project was titled ”An Integrated Dynamic Block Stacking Solution”, which I felt had a far better ring to it than “Tetris Reskin”

These days business’s both big and small use the term to over-describe whatever product or service their trying to push. This can be forgiven, but putting Solution in the actual business name is truly a crime, as not only does it tell us nothing about the product/service, but will consign the name to the ranks of the hundred thousand other small business’s that couldn’t be arsed to come up with an original name. My favourite example is Pasta Solutions “The Ultimate Solution To Your Pasta Needs!” What was wrong with simply ”Perfect Pasta” ?

Using “Solution” might sound vaguely professional, but have you ever actually thought, ”I have a cooking problem, I need a Cooking Solution” Of course not. We don’t think in management speak, so why name business’s this way?

If a client comes to you for an identity and they propose a name that includes the S word, it’s worth going out of your way to turn them round. Explain to them that thousands of business’s use the same word in their title, tell them that the word doesn’t actually mean anything, that they’ll have a search engine nightmare, and that it saps personality from a potentially vibrant brand. If they still insist use Helvetica for the typeface, add a corporate swoosh graphic and the strap-line “Thinking Outside the Box”. Then double your fee. They’ll love you for it.