 |
|
|
|||||
When Mark Zuckerberg recently announced his grand plans to build enormous data centers in Ohio and Louisiana, two things stood out. First was the scale of the centers set to power Metas AI ambitions. Zuckerberg said that just one of these covers a significant part of the footprint of Manhattan. While both will cost hundreds of billions. The other was their names: Prometheus will soon pop up in New Albany, Ohio, and will be joined by Hyperion in Louisiana in 2030. Where do these weird names come from? Typically, the process is generally for most naming projects to go through a companys brand team, though that doesnt always happen, says Dalton Runberg, a naming expert who has previously worked for big tech companies. It could depend on the size of the companyat some smaller places, it might just be a function of other marketing people, but any big company is going to have a dedicated brand team, and may even have a dedicated naming person or team. Or they could work with a naming agency, especially for very high-profile brands. One of those agencies that big tech companies bring in to advise on this is Lexicon Branding, whose president and founder, David Placek, says: These are relatively nerdy names, or geek names that geeksand I dont mean that in a derogatory wayare very comfortable with. The question is whether they are for non-geeks. Theyre going to be, for the general public, hard to spell, and the awareness of them will be very, very low. Some nameslike Grok, the AI model developed by Elon Musks xAItap into sci-fi. (The reference is to Robert A. Heinleins 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land, where its used to describe deeply knowing something). Others, like Prometheus, rely on mythology. (Prometheus is the Greek god of fire, known for stealing the resource from the gods and giving it to humans.) I think Prometheus was a very deliberate decision on their part, says Placek. The metaphor of bringing the fire of AI to the world and to people, I think, was appropriate. The more inscrutable names are also chosen because they can feel a bit insider-y, says Runberg. Silicon Valley likes to think of itself as separate toand smarter thanthe average person, and so the names technology companies choose often reflect that perspective. If you know the deeper meaning of the word, or which Greek god was the god of whichever thing your product is related to, or whatever other fun fact might end up in a Jeopardy! clue someday, it can feel like it has an added layer of, If you know, you know exclusivity and inspeak, explains Runberg. They feel familiar yet a bit mysterious. But the danger is that those types of names can feel smart, though theyre not always as clever as they think they are. For instance, data centers wont want to catch on fire, particularly when they cost billions of dollars. Still, fire and storms are in vogue among tech. Just look at Anduril, Palmer Luckeys defense companyand also the name of the sword wielded by Lord of the Rings character Aragornor Palantir, the Peter Thiel-founded tech firm that takes its name from surveillance orbs popular in the same Tolkien lore. The naming starts to get meta when you look at Palantirs product names, like Gotham, its intelligence product designed for the Department of Defense, U.S. intelligence agencies and other allied military forces, which also happens to be the name of the city Batman inhabits. But the reason that those mythological figures appear more often is because they offer the products linked to them a credibility that theyd otherwise not get. Classical, mythological, or historical names tend to sound and feel powerfuloften being associated with mighty empires or omnipotent gods, says Runberg. Also importantly for a young, disruptive industry like tech, theyre old, adds Runberg. They have a feeling of legacy, which can give your brand a sense of authority or reliability, as if it has been around for a long time. Its sort of borrowing the credibility from a word or name that has existed for hundreds or thousands of years. However, just because theyre old doesnt mean theyre good for tech today. Theyre not great names, admits Placek. Good names help process fluency for the reader, the branding expert says, or has things in it that are familiar to you. One of Placeks best-known non-tech names is Febreze, a new coinage that evokes a little bit of fabric and the breeziness of hanging your laundry out to dry within it. Yet Placek also dabbles with tech names. One of his most recent jobs was to help come up with a new name for an AI product previously called Codeium. His solution? Windsurf, the firm initially due to be bought by OpenAI, whose CEO was then acquired by Google when that deal fell through, with the rest of the company heading to competitors Cognition.
Category:
E-Commerce
President Donald Trump’s modus operandi is to keep the news cycle moving, fast. For even avid consumers of news, that can make it hard to keep up. But one public art project is doing its best to slow things down by retelling stories in new ways, the latest shining light on the people behind the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Phil Buehlers Wall of Shame, 2025, is currently on view in Brooklyn. [Photo: courtesy of the artist] Wall of Shame is artist Phil Buehler’s 50-foot-long, 10-foot-tall mural put up in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn in partnership with Radio Free Brooklyn; it takes a data viz approach to very recent history. Subtitled Visualizing the J6 Insurrection, it’s made up of more than 1,500 color-coded waterproof vinyl panels that display a headshot, name, age, and hometown of rioters who invaded the Capitol on January 6, along with details of their actions on that day, including their charges and sentencingall information that is publicly available. Phil Buehler, Wall of Shame, 2025 [Photo: courtesy of the artist] The U.S. flag-inspired colors used for the mural are designed to turn right-wing positioning of rioters as patriots on its head. Red panels indicate violent rioters, while blue panels indicate those who damaged property. The rest are white, according to Radio Free Brooklyn, a local New York station. “A red hat, white skin, and blue jeans dont make you a patriot. But storming the Capitol makes you a traitor,” Buehler told the station. Phil Buehler, Wall of Shame, 2025 [Photo: courtesy of the artist] Buehler’s approach makes the attack more personal. This isn’t another photo or footage of the faceless mob of flag-waving rioters storming the Capitol in an attempt to overturn an election; it’s a look at individual people from the crowd. The artist fact-checked everything written on the panels with reporting from NPR. Phil Buehler collaborated with Radio Free Brooklyn on Wall of Lies back in 2020. It showed 20,000 false statements Donald Trump made during his first term as president. [Photo: courtesy of the artist] The artist has made two previous murals with Radio Free Brooklyn. Wall of Lies in 2020 was made up of 20,000 false statements Trump made during his first term as president. Wall of Liars and Deniers in 2022 showed Republican candidates running for office that year who denied the results of the 2020 election. Wall of Shame was unveiled on Independence Day. Phil Buehler, Wall of Shame, 2025 [Photo: courtesy of the artist] A February Washington Post/Ipsos poll found that 83% of Americans opposed Trump offering clemency for violent criminal offenders connected to the attack, and 55% opposed him offering clemency for nonviolent crimes. But in today’s fast-paced political news cycle, January 2021 can feel like ancient history. By turning the backstories of those who attaced the Capitol into public art, Buehler and Radio Free Brooklyn found a new way to visualize the story, and from hundreds of different points of view.
Category:
E-Commerce
In cities across the world, urban design is increasingly oriented around preventing people from resting. Details like seats with bisecting railings, ledges with embedded spikes, and railings instead of benches are just a few ways that hostile architectureor architecture that makes public spaces less accessible, especially to unhoused peopleshows up in city landscapes. Now, a design firm in San Francisco wants to flip that narrative on its head by doing the exact opposite: building a four-mile-long bench. The concept, created by the firm Sitelab Urban Studio, is one of six winners of Market Street Reimagined, an international call for design proposals to rejuvenate San Franciscos downtown Market Street. According to Laura Crescimano, cofounder and principal of Sitelab, the firm previously identified the shocking lack of seating downtown through a project called the Downtown San Francisco Public Realm Action Plan, an effort aimed at bringing urban activity back to the citys financial district post-pandemic. So, when the opportunity to rethink Market Streets design came up, her team realized that there might be a deceptively simple solution. In recent projects, we have seen the removal of fixed benches and an overall preference for movable seating over fixed seatingits less expensive, can be stored overnight, and moved around, Crescimano says. These trends reflect a broader pattern of designing out rest and permanence, which is why we believe bold interventionslike our 4-Mile Bench proposalare needed to reframe seating as essential civic infrastructure. [Image: Sitelab Urban Studio] A 10,000-seat bench The proposal is essentially what it sounds like: a 4-mile-long, bright yellow bench that would make one big loop around Market Street, offering a whopping 10,000 seats for residents and tourists. Given the scale of the project and the business of the street, Crescimano says, the idea is built with modularity in mind, using an off-the-shelf system offered by the company Landscape Forms that can easily be built and maintained segment-by-segment. Market Streets existing constraints actually made way for some of the benchs more interesting features. To avoid reworking infrastructure like signs, trees, and lightposts, the bench is imagined as a playfully curving line weaving through and around these obstacles. And, to make the seating as interactive as possible, Sitelab added custom components like swings, tables, and loops that periodically interrupt the benchs flow. It is a spectacle meant to draw in visitors from locals to touristsa recognizable, Instagrammable moment, Crescimano says. It is also at a scale to be a platform and backdrop for major events, from the Pride parade, to protests, to celebrating the Warriors or Giants wins. In contrast to past approaches that removed seating to discourage certain behaviors, this proposal invites everyone in and encourages more foot traffic. While the 4-Mile Bench is still at the proposal phase, Crescimano says Sitelab has already received interest on a potential pilot project. To make the bench a reality, she adds, the teams next steps would include meeting with city officials and property owners to refine the design and identifying several blocks along Market Street as a starting point. She sees the 4-Mile Bench as a concept that reimagines Market Street from a place of scarcity to one of abundance, choosing to lean into the positive rather than designing to mitigate risk. We want this bench to be a place for everyoneits not about restricting how people use it, Crescimano says. The reality of homelessness is complex and ever-present, and instead of designing from a place of exclusion, were hoping to expand the idea of who our streets can serve. We started our practice in San Francisco, and that spirit of openness is what weve always loved about the city.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||