HOME
Welcome to my site. Here’s a little about myself and my services.
NAMING EXPERIENCE
I am a writer, educator, and performer who started a freelance creative naming, tagline, and verbal branding service in October, 2007. Currently I contract to produce names and taglines for new products, businesses, and services, generally in lists with a broad range of choices. Since then I’ve been busy accruing a lot of happy clients. In just over five years of doing business, I’ve completed over four hundred fifty naming and verbal identity assignments for more than ninety different naming and branding groups.
So far I’ve produced language and ideas for a variety of agencies across the United States, including Bay Creative, Deskey, ID Entity, Interbrand, Ivelich Stone, La Visual, LPK Design, Matchstic, Matli Group, Mechanica, Messaging Lab, Reason LLC, Rieches Baird, Rivkin & Associates, The Growth Engine, The Naming Company, and Think Nocturnal. Internationally, I have worked, among others, with Sandbox Creative, Shikatani Lecroix, Taiji Brand Group, and Redbird Communications in Canada; Strategy Design in New Zealand; and Brand Architects, Firedog, and Wholegrain Digital in the U.K.
The work so far has included writing names for a variety of new products, product lines and features, master brands, corporate services, campaigns, programs, places, and architectural structures, over sixty corporate id’s, and numerous taglines. The industries have included, among others, food and drink, medical, tech, communications, energy, finance, travel, entertainment, and transportation. I’ve also helmed five jobs to date, overseeing the process, writing briefs for other namers, filtering and creating shortlists, writing rationales, and making presentations to clients.
BACKGROUND
Of course naming is not the first work that I’ve done with words. I have a great range of professional experience using language, from touring with Lollapalooza on the poetry stage to teaching creative writing at Rutgers University.
I enjoy words immensely. For the eight years prior to starting this consultancy, I’d been teaching college-level courses in composition, literature, creative writing, and critical thinking in schools around New York City, primarily Pratt Institute, Brooklyn College, and Rutgers. At Pratt I was also the director of Writing Across the Curriculum for three years. I have an MFA in Creative Writing from Brooklyn College and a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Michigan.
But I was never a typical academic – I began teaching only after spending almost twenty years as a working poet and performer around the United States. In the poetry world, I’m known for utilizing a very broad range of styles in my work, from formalist to wildly experimental. I’ve also done hundreds of readings and spoken performances, in venues ranging from cafés and libraries, to academic readings, to punk rock shows (I used to open for bands such as Fugazi and Big Black) – even a stint as a touring poet with Lollapalooza in 1994. I have two published books of poetry and nine chapbooks, and poetry and prose in over one hundred magazines, journals, and anthologies. To view a few pieces published online, check out my page in Esque #3 and exerpts from my book Poems for Teeth. You can also read a lot more about my creative work on my personal website, richardloranger.com.
I’ve also done a good deal of language work in business, including gigs as a creative consultant for AT&T, a marketing assistant for Microsoft, and a writer for McGraw-Hill/CTB. As well I’ve helped to set up several small businesses, and have worked with several small presses and publications, so I’m quite familiar with corporate protocol and deadlines.
For a condensed list of naming-related experience, click on Resume, and for a complete list of language experience, click on C.V.
LET’S TALK
I can bring a fresh perspective and deliver some interesting and valuable ideas for your next verbal challenge, whether it be a brand name, tagline, corporate id, or other identity construction. I’m also available to help with other verbal branding challenges, as well as messaging, copywriting, editing, and proofreading. Please keep me in mind – I’m sure that you’ll be pleased with the results. Feel free to call or write with questions of any sort.
Enjoy those words!
Cheers,
Richard Loranger
P.S. – I am currently located in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I am available to meet or work on site with Bay Area firms and agencies.