Wordcraft

“Enlightening, engaging, and entertaining.” —Newsweek

“A thoughtful and engaging exploration of how companies and products get their names nowadays, as well as the function of brands in a global culture … Hilarious and revealing.” —Wall Street Journal

“Words always matter, but they really matter to a corporation trying to make its brand the one we remember out of the thousands we see daily. That’s why the stories behind the creation of names like Viagra or Accenture are so surprisingly rich. With the outsider perspective of a journalist, plus insider perspective gained by crossing over into the ‘synthetic language’ business himself, Alex Frankel knows the name game like nobody else.” —Rob Walker, “Consumed” columnist, The New York Times Magazine

“Informative, overdue … fascinating.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Wordcraft is a rare peek inside organizations making enormous decisions about their identities and futures—struggling to develop a brand name that captures what they want to be when they grow up. Journalist Frankel talks his way into situations most of us never see. The book is both vivid and lively.” —Chip Heath, professor of organizational behavior, Stanford Graduate School of Business

Alex Frankel has written the “On Language” column for The New York Times Magazine and reported on business culture for Wired, Fast Company, and Outside. His interest in synthetic language led him to launch his own naming firm and spend twelve months hunting down the origins of leading brand names. He lives in San Francisco.

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