PLAYING HARD, LOOKING GOOD, FEELING GREAT
GIRVIN’s Ideator® naming and brand development team was asked to create a naming strategy for an active women’s brand (now expanded to include men and girls) then in development by Nordstrom’s internal brand development group. The new product line retained Norsport’s utilitarian nature, but injected a greater focus on fashion, which liberated customers to go straight from the gym to brunch.
FITNESS, IN A NAME
The only constraints applied at the outset of this naming project, was that it reflect athleticism and be short enough to be easily applied to clothing. Our initial rounds of names explored diverse tacks, including totally abstract, created names. Zella appealed in a number of aspects. It is short, memorable and easy to say. Zella found its roots in “bella,” Italian for beautiful, but contemporizes it with a “z.” Zella represents beauty with zing! Additionally, the name recalls “gazelle,” and harbors the suffix “-ella” (typically used to make a noun feminine). The logotype evinces a lean physicality in the thick-thin character of the custom type forms.
