As you might know, Monster Commute is a production of our company “Steam Crow.” It’s not like we’re corporate by any means (we’re not), as it’s just Dawna and me doing everything. However, I didn’t want to call the company “Daniel McDavis” since I wanted Dawna to be really involved.
Why “Steam Crow?”
Well, the company began quickly, after we attended the 2005 SDCC. I got right to work writing and drawing Caught Creatures, our monster haiku book, and eventually, this project needed a name.
I wanted a name that was unique, but also relevant to the monsters and creatures that I liked creating. After a few weeks of really working at it, I came up with our name:
Secret Creatures.
I loved the name. It was mysterious, and cool, and monstery and great. It did everything that I wanted it to do.
It was also trademarked by someone else.
Weeks before Caught Creatures went to press, I was contacted by the trademark holder to cease and disist using the Secret Creatures name. She then went on to offer it to me for a mere $10,000 which we simply didn’t have.
I was crushed.
We had to rush into a name selection, and it had to happen fast. I instantly thought of a character that I’d made up: Morrow Thatch, a steampunk powered scarecrow, who I always liked. He was a”Steam Crow.”
It was a very unique name, which was good as well. On the whole of the internet, I couldn’t find any other Steam Crow reference.
I did my due diligence, and did a trademark search. Clean, we moved ahead creating a new website, new logos, new cards… the works.
And, we’ve been Steam Crow ever since.
In fact, a lot of people think of ME personally as “SteamCrow” which is alright, but never my intention. I sorta think that fake artist tags are kinda lame, but on the other hand, there are millions of guys named “Daniel Davis” in the world.
- Daniel Steam Crow
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I hear ya on the name thing–there are bunches an’ bunches of Daniel Hogans out there (hence the “J” whenever my name is listed).
I briefly considered using some kind of pen name for all my writing stuff (a friend suggested, Hogan Daniels, which I kind of wish I had used).
I drew and re-designed a plan for my first tattoo for a very long time.
Branding goes deeper than a mere logo.
It is great to hear that others seek their ‘inner’ name and not just the one that was bestowed to them at birth.
Well yeah.
I’d given Steam Crow a lot of thought and considered hundreds of other names as well.
It’s just a name; doing what we do, and how we do it, gives it meaning.