I was listening to a song by Rob Zombie one day in the car while driving through hellacious traffic in Los Angeles when it occurred to me that one of his lyrics “21 to win” sounded like a cool name for a company. So if you’re wondering “Why the name?”, and if you’re thinking I’m a gambler or I have a penchant for Blackjack, you’re mistaken. It was as simple as “Oh, that sounds like a cool name for a company.” and that was that. While I don’t have anything against gambling or Blackjack, I’m just not much of a gambler myself.

I once thought of naming my company “Copperwire Scotsman”. “Why?” You ask. “Are you Scottish?” Nope. Not that I know of. My family comes from Russia on my father’s side, and Wales on my mother’s side, and I grew up in South Africa. So while that’s a cocktail of genes, there’s no ingredient of Scottish that I’m aware. No, it came from a joke I heard which intimated that the copper wire was invented by two Scots fighting over a penny.

Hold on. Before you crucify me for stereotypical bigotry, it was told by Billy Connolly, the Scottish comedian. I thought it was a fun name for a company. But cut to that fateful day in ridiculously congested traffic with Rob Zombie blaring on my radio and me looking for inspiration in unlikely places.

I like finding inspiration in unlikely or perhaps unconventional places. I based an entire packaging design on staring at my fence for a good half hour in my back yard. Inspecting the nuances and subtle beauty in the weathered wood.

But I digress. As Juliet once said, “What’s in a name?” Well, you can divine many things from the fact that I picked a company name from a hard rock / metal song. But the fact that I’m referencing Shakespeare at the tail end of this post, might give you pause before you label me a rocker / metal head. And while you consider that, I’ll be listening to some piano solos and designing something pretty.