The Jolly Teapot

For years I have been unsatisfied with this blog. Not because I don’t publish enough, not because of the CMS behind it, not even because of its design. My main frustration lied in its name.

There seems to be two ways for personal blogs: use your own name/domain and call it “blog,” or find a cute name, buy the domain, and embrace it.

“Nicolas Magand on the internet” was good enough, but it was long, centered on me, and the domain was just my name. This could have been great if I was trying to promote myself, as a freelancer perhaps, but I wanted to separate my publication from myself a little more.

Yesterday I’ve made the change. Meet The Jolly Teapot, a collection of freshly brewed links, served to you by me.

Where did I find such a great, creative, and unique name you ask? Well, my main inspiration came from an illustration from the brilliant Scottish cartoonist Tom Gauld: “The Iron Teapot” appealed to me in an inexplicable way. It sounded like a weird newspaper I wanted to read.

He tweeted it on the same weekend I decided to find a name, so I called it fate. I did not keep “Iron” as the adjective because iron teapots are, you know, real objects. Olga and I brainstormed together for a few minutes, and “jolly” came out. A good name today is better than a better name tomorrow I thought, so here we are.

Now the question is: What will be my next bit of frustration with this blog? I guess we will see in the coming wee… nope, it’s the logo, it’s definitely the logo.

I bought the current teapot drawing on the Noun Project. I am no expert on logos (despite my regular read of the excellent Brand New newsletter), so it may or may not look awful. I quite like it — for now — even if I am not happy of how it renders as a favicon.

Anyway, back to writing everyday.