As Urban Oufitters prepares to launch their new bridal collection (more aligned with the Anthropologie brand than the Urban Outfitters brand, naturally), many 20-something ladies are oohing and ahhing with excitement. Me? I’m just confused.
The name of the label is BHLDN. At first glance, you might just want to pronounce the name as a string of letters, but think really hard and you’ll remember this naming trend from about 2004-2008: the case of the disappearing vowels. It was all the rage. Remember how cool the Motorola phones were? RAZR, KRZR, SLVR. Flickr was brand new, and that missing “e” was so hip. The vowel-free names generally signaled a tech brand, although there was some branching out from that pattern to target young [tech-savvy] consumers in non-tech categories, such as the bag company TRKFLD.
Yes, Flickr and TRKFLD are still around, and perhaps there are some Baby Boomers out there who are still clinging to their RAZRs, but this naming construct is just as much of a relic of the past as a flip phone is. Today’s names are fresh and authentic. “Beholden” is a beautiful, timeless name that would also be perfectly on-trend today. But BHLDN? That’s so 2000 and late. Of all the names that should aim for long-lasting relevance, a bridal line really ought to be up there. You’re so close, yet so far, Urban Outfitters. Please, buy a couple vowels and join us in 2011.
I’m quite confident that they intend the name to be pronounced “buildin”", as in “We’re buildin’ a relationship together”.
Genius.
At least those Motorola names (RAZR, KRZR, SLVR) were pronouncible. “Razr” is clear,” “Krzr” was only clear thanks to “Razr,” ditto for “Slvr.” Plus, “slvr” could only be “sliver” or “silver”—we can recognize such a word without vowels But “BHLDN”? I have no idea of what to do with that. I’m saying it as “bull-din.” But as I attempt to insert vowels, I’ve got nothing. Bihldin? Buhldan? Buhaldan? I don’t know what they’re going for here.
I was wondering if people were even catching onto it meaning “beholden” — none of the articles I’ve seen about the launch have said anything about it. If Urban Outfitters’ goal in choosing this name was to secure a pure URL, it was rather pointless if people won’t even be able to remember the name. Without being able to pronounce it, it would be a little tough to remember the 5-consonant string.
SLVR actually bugged me, by the way. I still don’t know if they intended it to be pronounced “sliver” or “silver.” The RAZR/KRZR predecessors made me want to say “slaver,” but we mustn’t call it that.
Just curious, but was the original Flickr/RAZR trend inspired by personalized license plates?
I believe Flickr was inspired by lack of URL availability + a little creative thinking, and I suspect the trend caught on with RAZR, etc because of the rise of text-speak, but that’s an interesting thought. We did see abbreviations like that on license plates way before texting made its debut.
Ah, yes, texting. I forgot about that. Guess I’m showing my age. “Why, when I was your age, we had to text on our license plates instead of our phones” (spoken in old-man voice).
Jay – As the kids would say, LOL.