-in 2005 my business manager asked me for a name of the new company he was helping me create...
jobs were getting bigger and scaling past freelance status — liability, workers comp, hiring, buying equipment… all the real grown-up stuff.
names are tough. they stick, they evolve, and i’ve always felt like the good ones are already taken.
a mentor once told me he regretted naming his company after himself. once he had a team, it felt too small, like the name didn’t reflect what it had become. and even after he sold, they kept the name — so i guess he did something right.
me? i’ve never been good at naming. my outside passions don’t translate. no one’s hiring “vespas, coffee, computers & associates.” and i didn’t want to be just another faceless three-letter firm.
the paperwork was ready, and the last missing piece was the name. and i was stuck. a few months went by then one night, walking out of the empty bottle [ a concert venue ] onto western ave, i spotted a one-inch pinback button on the ground — the kind with little slogans the cool kids collect.
it said simply: “so midwest.”
here is the original:
i thought — yeah, that’s it. i’m from here. i live here. i like it here. through all the challenges this place faces, i choose to stay here.
so i went for it.
years later, it still needs explaining. it’s not a slight at anywhere else. yes, we work worldwide. no, it doesn’t make sense outside the u.s. — “so midwest of… russia?” nope.
but people remember it. it’s a little weird, a little sticky, and it says something about us! things a name should be!
i guess when a west coast content firm is out surfing or beating traffic at 3pm, we’re buried in snow and inside working on your project still?
over time i realized it’s just a name, really — a billing identity. though i guess i didn’t escape the three-letter thing entirely, because people do sometimes abbreviate us as "smw".
but it’s also more than that. from our first real office (not in the house) in 2016, to our first full-time employee in 2017, the growth has been amazing, fun, and oh so challenging.
the best part? we get to make moments while collaborating with clients and artists we actually like!
so that rules, right?
so middle coast? so third coast? — it’s a big lake i guess.
so why not!
we are: so midwest.