We’ve got exciting news!
We’re changing our name from Carson Systems to Carsonified. It’s amazing how it happened and I think it demonstrates what I love about our company.
Let me give you a bit of back-story …
We’ve been contemplating changing our company name from Carson Systems for quite a while now – with ‘Carson Media’ being one of the main contenders. This was because the ‘Systems’ in Carson Systems just didn’t make sense any more. I chose that back when I was a developer, believing that all I’d be doing was building software.
Since then we’ve branched out into creating websites (Vitamin), a ton of blogging (BareNakedApp, Carsonified and more), building web apps (DropSend and Amigo), events (FOWA, FOM, FOOA and FOWD) and social meetups (FOWA Road Trip and BD4D). Rather than just doing web app development, we see ourselves as a web company, run by people by who are passionate about the web.
So, Gill and I were contemplating this name change, but we really hated ‘Carson Media’. It just sounded so corporate and souless – everything we despise. We’re excited about producing quality products, being friendly and kind, having integrity and connecting people.
Then one beautiful summer’s day a couple of weeks ago, we had a team meeting in the local beer garden, and I mentioned that Gill and I didn’t think we would be changing the company name after all, and that we’d stick with Carson Systems.
Instantly, the mood of the meeting dived. Everyone went quiet and seemed to hate the idea of keeping our existing name. Gill picked up on this and said “So, any ideas on what we can change it to?”.
Lisa had already been thinking about this and said, “I really think ‘Carsonified’ could work as a company name”: the reasoning was that it was already in place as the name of the company blog, and being part of the conversation about issues in the web industry is core to what we want to do, it’s something that can be easily applied to all of our projects (a lot of people get confused between our events, Vitamin and our blogs – having one logo and company identity that’s got a bit of zing will make that clearer) and it just sounds fun and energetic, sentiments we all share about the company, and hope that feeling emanates from the things that we do.
Suddenly everyone was bouncing around ideas. Elliot mentioned that he had been sketching logo ideas for the Carsonified blog on the train and I said “Go back to the office and get that sketchpad!” (See below)
It was amazing! There was a palpable buzz around the table (maybe the beer had something to do with it too?). I realized that I had been guilty of suppressing everyone’s excitement and innovation by trying to systematize everything as we grew the company. What we needed was room for everyone to breath and be creative again.
What’s even more surprising and rewarding for me, is that this was a democratic decision. This wasn’t something that Gill and I decided and then implemented, this was the team coming up with the idea and feeling enthused by it. And we can’t wait to get rockin.
I feel as if we’re returning to our roots again – focusing on what’s really important to us:
- Encouraging the web community
- Participating in the conversation about making the web a better place
- Commitment to integrity and quality
- Friendliness and kindness
So we’re going to be re-branding as Carsonified (without the exclamation mark :D) and we’ll be launching the new brand in a few weeks. Look out for more things to be Carsonified!
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