About eKodoKi's Name

What’s in a [Brand] Name? | Why "eKodoKi®"? We get a lot of questions regarding our brand name which sounds playful and offbeat.

Once we decided late in our working lives to start our own business, it became clear to us that what we were about to create had to be done with as much environmental responsibility as a small business can take. The designer's motivation is to create with a view to a certain level of mass production. Today, the creation of a new company must go hand in hand with limiting the environmental impact of such activities as much as possible. For us, it starts with the selection of material resources, fair production and the sustainability of the goods produced. How to replace petroleum-based materials and avoid the use of harmful chemicals? With our collections, we want to show the beauty of responsible alternative solutions.

When we first started thinking about a brand name to express our vision, we used different naming techniques. We played with the famous scrabble letters, we looked at the names of our future competitors to avoid duplicates, and we checked the availability of URLs. We quickly realized that the most attractive names were either already taken or in a prohibitive price range for a small start-up company. So, we ended up coming up with a more unusual name that was really made and owned by us, and that we could be proud of. The important thing for us was not only that it was meaningful and evokes the values ​​we sincerely believe in, but also that it was both memorable and easy to pronounce in different languages.
 
Simplicity
In our previous jobs, we did quite a bit of research into simplicity and its cultural differences. Japan, in particular, adheres to the design principles that for centuries have required the use of natural materials, clean lines, and simple construction, in a simple, delicate, no-frills aesthetic that we admire. So, honouring and drawing inspiration from this long tradition, we liked our name to sound like it was Japanese; when it comes to spelling, we use Ks instead of Cs as they are generally used when writing Japanese words with Roman characters.
 
"eco"?
The prefix "eco", used with or without hyphen, indicates that there is a connection with the natural environment or that something is executed, produced or processed in an environmentally friendly manner. Although used by many, it is still the best and shortest way to say what we stand for.
 
"okidoki"!
"Okey Dokey", or "Okidoki" as we write it here in the Netherlands, simply means okay, good, approved. As integral part of our brand name, it refers to all the positive qualities that we want to associate with, and that we would like to achieve in both our products and operational activities.
 
eco + okidoki = eKodoKi
Our brand name therefore became a portmanteau word that combines eco with okidoki – and that luckily was not yet registered as a trademark.
 
Double tick
Our registered trademark consists of the eKodoKi brand name enhanced by two ticks (or check marks) that are forming its two ­K’s. A tick symbol means yes, approved, correct, completed; sometimes it is used to indicate one's choice. On our logo, one tick mark stands for the aforementioned "simplicity" in style and the other for "environmental-friendly".