A New (End Middle) Beginning
I rebranded by accident.
Not entirely by accident, of course. But there was quite a bit of serendipity involved.
I’ve never used a slick stage name or a meaningful phrase to represent my personal brand. The right concept remained elusive, so my name has been my brand.
First it was Evan Brown. More bland than brand. Unmemorable and not unique. So I shortened it to a nickname I’d unintentionally christened myself in the age of AOL Instant Messenger and high school email addresses: EVBRO. Catchy. Zippy. Also childish and silly. And at some point the connotation for “bro” became less flattering than anyone could have predicted in the ‘90s.
So I ran in the opposite direction of brevity and started going by my full name professionally: Evan Michael Brown. When you take three unremarkable names and combine them, they sound oddly unique compared to just two.
So that was how it stayed for a while. Evan Michael Brown was my brand. I designed logos for myself. One was a lowercase “e” in a partial circle that became my primary mark. Later I developed a logo based on my initials, but I never found a use for it. So it sat in a folder on my computer, waiting for its time to shine.
Last year, I needed a name for a new music project. I had an idea: what if I came up with an artist name using my initials? That way, I could use the ready-made EMB logo for the project. So I did what any modern, technologically-savvy citizen would do: I consulted ChatGPT.
I asked our AI overlord to give me 20 three-word band names using the initials EMB. Of the sixteen examples that actually managed to use the letters I asked for (I’m not worried about AI enslaving humanity quite yet), there were a few intriguing words; a few mildly interesting phrases. But they all felt forced and, well, chatbotty. So I stewed on it for a bit. One day, a phrase spontaneously popped into my mind stew:
End, middle, beginning.
Huh. That’s interesting.
“Beginning, middle, end” is a simplified story structure, and the things I create are, at their core, forms of storytelling. But with many projects, I actually have to start at the end and work backwards.
When writing copy, I start with the client’s campaign goals and work my way back. When scoring a film or video, I start with the director’s artistic vision for the emotional core of the scene and work my way back. When drawing a comic, I start with an incredibly stupid pun that will anger the maximum number of people possible and work my way back. So flipping the phrase “beginning, middle, end” on its head made sense for my creative process.
I’ve long believed in internalizing the so-called rules of your creative trade so you’re equipped to bend, break, or rearrange them as desired. To be able to strategically challenge the status quo and “accepted” wisdom and do something unexpected. End Middle Beginning felt representative of that.
As it turned out, even the logo was a perfect fit. Each stylized letter is assembled from the same simple building blocks, interchangeable and reconfigurable forward, backward, upward, and downward. A visual representation of the spirit behind the name.
It seemed a shame to relegate this phrase to be but a humble a project name when it was unhumbly representative of everything I do creatively. And it had a direct connection to my name. I’d finally stumbled upon a cool phrase that had personal meaning. I could officially be a creative with mystique. I found my brand.
Most importantly, the domain name was available. I bought it on the spot.
And so I began the process of The Great Rebranding, launched half by accident. But really, this is only the beginning. Or is it also an end?
