LEXIS INVESTIGATION:

What’s in a name?

Jimmy Sweatpants Having the lexis choice of ‘sweatpants’ within the brand name connotes the exercise and effort that the brand represents, because of this being a skating brand, the borrowed blend word from america does symbolise the sport and stereotypically what people wear when performing the sport: sweatpants.

Scumco and Sons The brand name of ‘Scumco and Sons’ does make the brand seem to be like a builders name but however, it is a skating brand. This brand is American and semantically, the word ‘Scumco’ seems to be giving off the wrong impression as it seems to be a blend of the word ‘Scum’.

Welcome The word ‘welcome’ is often used to greet someone and has been used for a very long time in this way. This brand however is not for doormats but for skaters. The word welcome seems to be a composite of the two words ‘well’ and ‘come’ and represents a happy and warm greeting, as if the brand is smiling at you and inviting you to come inside. It’s almost as if the brand is speaking with its audience.

Studio Skateboards Although the alliteration in the brand name ‘Studio Skateboards’ is very nice and rolls off of the tongue, theres a reason for it. Although the lexis itself doesn’t make you feel like jumping on a skateboard and going flying towards the skate park, the use of the double s sound (assonance) makes the brand seem sleek and quick moving, almost as if the brand is trying to twll the customer that riding these boards will be a lot of fun. The word ‘studio’ also seems quite professional as every day people don’t own studios, do they?

Poler The lexis word ‘Poler’ sounds a lot like the word ‘Polar’ doesn’t it? It’s almost as if it was a homophone… I say that hyperbolically. The term ‘Poler’ itself sounds like a very smooth and wheely word, almost like the wheels on a skateboard in my opinion. Its actual definition is: ‘someone who moves a boat along’ which could mean that semantically, this brand is saying that they’re the ones who keep the skaters rolling.

Torro! Zorro! I mean ‘Torro!’ the skateboarding brand! The rolling r’s in this brand name seem to be very connotical towards the rolling of the wheels on a skateboard don’t they? Also, the fact that the brand always keeps the words ‘New York City’ close by also connotes the fact that they are quite popular, as sterotypically, New York is quite the skating state. American brands are here, once again.

Politic This is something nobody enjoys talking about… In all seriousness though, the lexis choice of the word ‘politic’ is quite intense as an adjective considering the effect that politics has on the whole world. That aside, once again, theres a one word brand name for a skating brand, keeping it simple and not too overeducated for those dumb witted skateboarders, that’s really kind of them, isn’t it.

Hella Cool Almost as if its promoting itself, this brand name uses the young and new creations that have come into the english language. The word ‘hella’ represents this skateboard companies target audience very well, wouldn’t you think? Who uses ‘hella’? That’s right, teenagers (and adults who think its okay to say hella because its ‘hip’). But aside to that, this beautiful creation of a word is clearly not very formal and has joined in on many social registers.

Magenta A colour! This colour is a deep red-ish colour and often connotes the season of autumn, where there are beautiful sunsets and leaves are falling off the trees and skaters come out from their caves. The brand logo also represents this leaf falling. Magenta is a soft word and seems quite formal, especially opposed with the word ‘hella’, maybe this skating brand is slightly more serious, expensive or for slightly older people?

Sml. Wheels Look at that shortening… well done small wheels, you removed a letter. Not only does this brand name have the word ‘wheels’ in it to represent the purpose of this brand, but it also has a slang shortening ‘sml.’. Yes skateboards do have quite small wheels but so do cars compared to tractors, but using the abbreviation of the word small appeals to the target audience of younger people and is slightly unformal because of this. Also, that logo looks like a wheel, now that’s smart.

Palace The word palace often gives off the halucinogenic impression of princessess and castles and living happily ever after, and this brand clearly wants us to be reminded of that. Stereotypically, boys seem to ride skateboards and not girls, and that’s why the lexis choice was ‘palace’ rather than ‘castle’ even though palace does seem quite feminine, also, the word palace is a lot smoother than the harsh t sound in the word castle. This represents the smooth ride of the skateboards they are clearly trying to sell, although this brand name could be used for a lot of things, not just skateboards.

Chocolate ‘Mmm… chocolate’ as humbly said by Homer J Simpson. The representation of chocolate is that it gets eaten by girls, less by boys. This is therefore an unconventional name for a skateboard brand because this one seems to be directed at girls but by choosing a word that had something to do with a really nice, sweet and smooth food represented the type of experience you could have on these skateboards.Imagine riding a piece of chocolate with wheels.

Vans Nope, not about large four wheeled Fords. Vans are a skate brand who often sell skating shoes rather than skateboards. However, the word vans represents a reletively fast moving vehicle which can withstand a lot doesn’t it? Well that’s exactly what Vans Skateboards do too, they’re sturdy and they can go fast! Nice.

enjoi Enjoi is a very similar word to enjoy, which is obviously done on purpose. This is because people who ride these skateboards enjoy the time they have on it, meaning that these skateboards are more for enjoiment purposes (see what I did there????) rather than serious skating. The creators of this brand also thought that creating this word would mean they could easily target their audience of young people as this lexis sounds quite slang. Also, enjoi like to use the WWF panda a lot, no idea why, but it’s pretty cool.