Well, now that the site is up, I guess some back story would be appropriate. When Alan and I decided to go into business, we agreed that I would handle the creative issues. He's a phenomenal programmer but you might not want him to decorate your apartment.

Initially we were just going to use Alan's existing business name "Styled Content", but somehow we decided we needed a fresh identity. I wanted something that would be easily recognizable and simple, with as few letters as possible. It also needed to be something imaginative and interesting.

I had been playing with words like "vital" and "vivid" (vivd?) without much success, then one night, my wife and I went to Japanese restaurant. We stopped to look at the koi pond at the entrance.
That's when it hit me...

• 3 letters
• bold, solid letter forms
• horizontal symmetry (turned on it's side it resembles kanji which reinforces the theme)
• evocative

Researching koi, I learned about the cultural significance they have in Japan. Koi swim upstream and therefore represent strength and perseverance. There is a legend about them turning into dragons if they reach the mouth of the Yangtze river. Because of this, young boys are given koi as presents to remind them to persevere to become men.

We liked the idea of perseverance in the web industry and the fish is just plain cool.