Comments on: Portfolio 101: Just Use Your Own Name, Dammit

By: Aaron

Aaron — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 02:13:36 +0000

I'm going to have to agree with some of you here that a simple first name last name dot com website is probably going to be timeless choice.

As designers however, i feel like it's up to us to make critical decisions about choosing a name as much as we make critical decisions related to our design work everyday.

So, for those of us who have ridiculously long or hard to pronounce names, it might be a good idea to find an alternative name and not just any alternative like going from matt.com to hellomat.com or mattdesign.com. There are too many "johndodesign.com" websites out there anyway.

An alias name could be equally effective and timeless if the designer invests enough time into the branding process just like any other brand identity project. All this being said, obviously a cheesy name like passions.com is just not going to fly. Ultimately, your work should be strong enough to hopefully carry itself but we should NOT overlook any part of the brand identity and that includes your website name.

If you can choose a strong name other than your own to represent who you are, your work, your ethics, style, mission, etc., than why not? Instead of your website name just being a descriptive element, it can be an excellent tool used to stand out among the 1000s of others.

The last thing you want is for a potential client or employer to be even mildly turned off, confused, irritated, or worse, indifferent to your brand identity as a whole because of an ineffective name choice.

There are definitely pros and cons to either option. There's no one right way to do it i think.

By: Karen

Karen — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:12:44 +0000

What if your last name is really hard to spell? Mine is Schwartztrauber and karenschwartz.com is already taken. Any suggestions? I don’t want to put karenschwartztrauber because i don’t want people to miss my site because they can’t spell my name

By: sandra

sandra — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:08:49 +0000

Me chamo Sandra Maria Maximiano Barreto tenho 35 anos. Meus pai se chamam;

Elpidio Sales barreto Maria estela maximino

Quando fiz minha primeira carteira de trabalho eu tinha 13 anos assinei como meu pais me falava. assinei COMO

Sandra Maria Sales Maximiano.

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:39:28 +0000

What if you hate your last name ? It may sound awkward, look not interesting or you just hate you father for leaving you when you were a kid and therefore you looking for a pseudonym.

By: Geert Nijs

Geert Nijs — Mon, 25 May 2009 11:11:48 +0000

I’m finding it a harsh task to find a good name. I do not want to go under my regular name because it is a real Flemish name(part of belgium). Maybe i’ll use the first two letters of my first and last name, so it would be Geni. My real name would be pronounced as gayrt. And this women in the Uk pronounced it as ‘jit’.

By: Janet Meas

Janet Meas — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:52:44 +0000

You are SO Khmer. I can tell by your fancy name.

Well, I've always used different aliases and names for my sites and graphics, etc.

But if you google me, they always usually point to one person :D!

By: Andrew Chang

Andrew Chang — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:56:54 +0000

oops, sorry for posting so quickly. I was also thinking of achangdesign.com

Just because it sounds like it could be used "this is a Chang design."

By: Andrew Chang

Andrew Chang — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:48:48 +0000

Hello.. I randomly ran into this page after 2 weeks of trying to figure out a domain name. Eventually I decided on the same thing of just using my real name. The problem is ofcourse.. there are ALOT of Andrew Changs out there. No designer that I know of and andrewchang.com is already taken. I'm wondering if maybe I should just go with drewchang.com - there aren't too many Drew Changs around, thats for sure.

Other possibilities are achang.com andrewchangcreative.com

Any other suggestions? Thanks in advance.

By: Adam

Adam — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 16:55:38 +0000

I've been struggling with this for months. I would love to have my domain name/portfolio be branded as my real name. However, there is another designer with the exact same name as me and has the .com. This other person is a designer that I definitely do not want people to confuse as me (horrible websites that look like they walked out on the 1994 catwalk.) So I think getting the name as a .net or .org would be a big mistake.

So what can I do?

Rename myself? Or come up with some sort of simple non-cliché brand identity and completely pose as that identity? (No mention of my real identity?)

I'm still struggling with a solution. Any thoughts?

By: Matt French

Matt French — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 02:21:08 +0000

Good point. I worked with a Brazilian guy on our last project and his website was his name. My advice to him was to choose a snappier website name as it was just too hard to remember and pronounce for non-Brazilians, which is a shame because he did great work.

Obviously it's a balance and would depend on your name.