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Apple Starbucks Nike Tg - Origin of 4 brand names


Apple. Starbucks. Nike. Tg. Three of these four brands are well known around the world and leaders in their respective industries. The fourth, Tg, is a startup brand hoping to disrupt the somewhat staid tea market. Where a brand name like Apple or Nike originated or what inspired their logo designs - usually in the early "startup" days when money is in short supply but not passion and creativity - later become part of the collection of stories that help forge an enduring bond with consumers.
Take for instance, Nike. The brand Nike was founded in 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports. One of its founders, Phil Knight originally wanted to call the company "Dimension 6" but it was the company’s first employee, Jeff Johnson, who came up with the name "Nike" which comes from the Greek word for "goddess of victory". The Nike’s “swoosh” logo was designed in 1971 by Carolyn Davidson, a graphics design student at a nearby university. 
Starbucks started life as a small coffee shop on theSeattle waterfront in early 1971, having been setup by three former students of the University of San Francisco. The name Starbucks was that of the chief mate on the Pequod, a whaling ship from Moby-Dick, a novel by American Herman Melville. Later that year, Starbucks hired a consultant named Terry Heckler to help design a logo that would reflect the seafaring history of its home city. The two-tailed mermaid icon was designed based on an old 16th-century Norse woodcut which survived a brand logo re-design in 2011. 
Apple was founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976. The origin of the company name was the subject of much speculation for years (e.g. inspired by the apple falling on Isaac Newton’s head) and it was only in 2011 when Jobs revealed the source of the inspiration i.e. while on one of his “fruitarian diets” he had just returned from a visit to an apple farm andit struck him that the word “apple” sounded “fun, spirited and not intimidating”. The Apple logo was later designed by Rob Janoff including a - now signature - bite to ensure people did not mistake it for another fruit. 

 So where did the “Tg” brand and logo originate and just what does it have in common with huge global brands like Nike? 
Hua He (my co-founder) and I started developing a range of hot and cold drinks that was based on green tea but further enhanced with other ingredients – some familiar (ginger, ginseng, mandarin) and some excitingly new (at least to folks in the West...like Jujube fruit or Chinese red date 红枣 and Osmanthus flowers or Gui hua 桂花) – all of which were known since ancient times in the Middle Kingdom (China) to promote wellness and vitality. The brand name for this new range was "born" one chilly November evening on the dining table in a tiny west London flat. 

 Tea drinking is a 4,000 year old tradition that started in China and is now part of the everyday culture of people all over the world. Hua and I were hoping to create a "Chinese" + "Western" fusion name for our new tea brand and we began looking closely at the Chinese character 人– pronounced “ren” and meaning "person, people, human-ness, community”. I discovered that when I turned this character 90 degrees clockwise you got something that looked like a "T” …….which when spoken out loud sounds of course like “tea”. 
Using my science/math background, I then placed a “g” - which stands for “good ingredients” like green tea, ginseng, osmanthus and jujube fruit - in a similar position relative to the “T” as you would a “2” in the mathematical equation “3 to the power of 2 = 9”. That the Tg brand name looks like a scientific formula is also a nod to the wonderful knowledge built up over thousands of years in the Middle Kingdom that Hua & I relied on in developing this tea brand.
Hua loved it! Still, we were not satisfied that this would be enough to ensure standout on pack and on other communication for the Tglogo. We turned to London-based independent graphics designer Peter Gibbons -www.petergibbons.com - who then suggested a green “kite” design device. Hua and I thought using a “kite” to help lift the Tg was simply brilliant as kites originated in China centuries ago and it also supported the naturally "uplifting" benefit of the product ranges. Several months later, after various consumer research and feedback, we settled on this brand name and logo. 
Tg. A unique mix of nature's wisdom, ancient Chinese culture, and British creativity that Hua and I hope will inspire tea lovers in the UK and elsewhere to drink more refreshingly delicious - and good for you - green tea.....because that after all is the mission of our little startup beverage brand. Read more on drinktg.com.

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