This came up in discussion this week and it involves the idea of emerging professionals (i.e.: collegiate design students) taking the first step at creating a good first impression — or e-pression.
First impressions can mean a lot — and an email moniker (your email address or the name you go by in a chat room) is often someone's first impression of you. In the sentiment of the saying "dress for the job you want, not the job you have", a few small steps can go a long way in making your outward appearance as a young designer create a positive first impression and help to pave the road to your new career. While you might be in student-mode now and not take yourself too seriously, the potential harm an inappropriate email address might cause is far greater than someone thinking that you're a square if you were to have a more serious one.
In the past, I've had students with email handles such as "snugglybottom26" and "stonerguy_SFCA"... what is that saying about that person? You might really have an unusually soft backside or partake in recreational drugs, but is this something you want to advertise? Think of it as a slogan on a t-shirt — is that something you'd wear to a design lecture? To a job interview? Even to class? I'd hope not.
But where to start? Let's start at the top (best scenario) and work our way down.
There are several registry services you can use to try to secure your URL. I prefer Godaddy.com because it's what I know and the interface works for me, but there's NetworkSolutions.com, Domain.com and a good number of other folks that will sell you a domain name. A word of caution, though: once you lock-in with a provider, it's not easy to switch — so pick one that you don't mind returning to and who has a good reputation. Over 15 years after the websites became popular, many names have indeed been taken, but you'd be surprised how creative you can be — and through the registry interface, you can usually see what's available insofar as name options. Godaddy even gives you suggestions on alternate names. Jenny Pan, a recent graduate has a name you might assume is pretty common. Nonetheless, she was able to buy jqpan.com fairly easily ("q" being her middle initial). She even got a gmail account with her name separated by periods (I'll refrain from posting that here, but you can imagine what it might.look.like). Be creative with punctuation and how you construct your name and you'll likely find something.
If your name is taken, but there's not a site up yet at that address, you might also think to contact the owners of that name. The worse thing that they can say to you is "no" (or "that'll cost you $8,500"), but you never know. Some good tips at brokering this discussion also exist out there.
2: A URL with your name + something design related: If every derivation of your name is taken either as a full URL or a gmail account try something "design" related. BillyKing.com is taken, but BillyKingDesign.com is not... you can even have fun with the new "vanity" URL domains like .me or .is ... Jessica Hische has jessicahische.is and uses it for fun things when breaking up her site: jessicahische.is/heretohelp/ or jessicahische.is/thinkingthoughts/ will take you to a different part of her site (i.e.: she's using the "is" as a verb). If you're luck enough to have your name end with one of the domain markers, perhaps you can use that to your advantage. For instance, if your name is Robert Flores, could your domain be robflor.es?
In the case of either #1 or #2, consider buying .net and .org as well. Maybe .com is your portfolio website and .net is your blog and .org forwards to your etsy shop.
3: A studio name: While it's not the first suggestion, maybe you always wanted to have your own shop and have been sketching out designs for the sign since you were 15. Our friend Scott Hansen does this and calls himself ISO50 (he loves photography). When he set up shop just a few years ago it was as modest as he and an intern or two — he's grown since and the name has supported that growth in a way that something like "Scott Hansen Design" might not have. The same logic applies, though. Avoid goofy names and ones that are hard to spell or say. I often refer to the scene in the movie That Thing You Do when the band's name (The Oneders) is mispronounced by the talent show host. What was supposed to be a play on words (The Wonders) becomes confusing (The o-NEED-ers) .
4: A good email address: While having your own URL is best (as it gives you an email address, too), at the very least, start with a solid email address. Go with a reputable provider like gmail or .mac as other addresses like hotmail and rocketmail are often caught in spam filters. And if you still have a .tw, .hk, .in, or .cn address (from your home country), definitely get a .com address as the former are usually always caught by spam filters. The same logic above applies — something with your name or a derivation of your name is best. Again, you can be creative. If Robert Carlos Flores (above) wants a separate email address, he might look to rob_flores, robert.flores, rcflores, r.c.flores, robert.c.flores, etc... and follow that with a gmail or .mac domain. Also look into how you might either "group" these services or scoop them all up. If Rob was able to get rob-flores.com, then rob-flores@gmail.com would be a good alternate email address to have in addition to rob@rob-flores.com.
The good news is that the above isn't hard nor terribly expensive. Many domains cost less than $10/year, but none are more than $30/year. In the grand scheme of things, that's not much.
Happy domain shopping.
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