It’s official. A post-lunch stroll through the company parking lot confirmed my suspicions: Japanese CAD (Computer Assisted Drawing/Drafting/Design) companies have the funniest names.
I’ve written about this one a couple times before: ZERO PLANNING
With a name like that they pretty much have to be doing work for the government (or perhaps Sony’s been using them as of late…). They had a branch office near our apartment in Tamade, and seeing their logo everyday on my walk to the subway never failed to put a smile on my face.
As I walked among the parked cars today, one with a huge green logo on it stopped me in my tracks: Sodick
You might have to click on the “Global Sites” button to load the English page, but it’s worth it. My favorites:
- “Why Sodick technology attracts users?”
- “Sodick is to celebrate 30th ever growing anniversary…”
- “The Sodick Group”
- Would you not feel a little embarassed working here? Or driving around in a car painted with the company logo (like the one I saw today)? Does the company have a hard time giving away free t-shirts at trade shows in the US? (I just don’t understand it, we splurged for pockets and everything!)
The best, though, is the history behind their company name:
The name of “Sodick” is the abbreviation of 3 Japanese words. They are “Sozo” “Dikko” and “CuroKokufuku” which means “to create”, “to implement” and “to overcome hardship.”
Hearing that explanation opens a whole new level of horror: You mean by simply using the overwhelmingly popular romanization of the word (??), the company would have been named “Sojick”? They were so close to being merely nonsensical instead of self-deprecating!
I once saw a furniture-moving truck in Shinjuku that had the comapny’s name on the side. It was, and I kid you not:
MOVING MY STAFF
Don’t forget Dainippon Ink & Chemical, leader of the DIC group. And Plenus, which might want to consider a logo that doesn’t stylize the “L” quite so much.
I also like the newly-listed Something Holdings, also known as the Something Group.