Spiral Foods - what's in a name?
"In mathematics, a spiral is a curve which emanates from a point, moving farther away as it revolves around the point." Wikipedia
This is a white van inspired post. The white van was parked at the back of the local shops, presumably delivering to the delicatessen - if it had been delivering to the supermarket it would have been in their parking bay after all. The van was attractively covered with overlapping, semi-transparent pictures with the Spiral in big lettering and 'this earth, this food' in smaller. But really I had not much idea of who or what Spiral was as the pictures were blurry and pale - in an artistic way. It was indeed eye-catching - after all here I am writing a post about this. I must have noticed the words earth and food because this is how I searched for it on Google - 'spiral food earth'. Anyway I found it pretty easily and a very pretty website it is. Maybe it's a Wix website?
And yes there are spirals very prettily arranged and they do dominate the home page picture and the logo, but why? I have to confess that my first thought was of spiralizers but this is totally irrelevant and really it only popped into my mind because of having done a post on this gadget.
Spiral Foods seems to be a distribution company - a wholesaler if you will, although it is a little unclear - but I'm pretty sure they do not make anything themselves. They do refer to themselves as suppliers. When you look at their web page and the section on who they are you find, that they started in the 70s:
"with a group of alternates' desire to follow the Macrobiotic way of life. Since then we have seen many changes in eating patterns and fads but Spiral has maintained its roots. ... We believe good safe wholesome food is a basic human right. this earth, this food . . ."
There is no mention of spirals anywhere.
They claim to be:
"Australia’s leading supplier of quality Traditional Foods with an emphasis on Organics. We are now in our 4th decade and our products are found nationally in Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia, Japan and US. Our range includes the finest Organic Oils & Vinegars, Traditional foods of Japan, Canadian Maple syrup, Mexican Agave, Organic Fruit Juices & Purees from the US, readymade organic sauces & drizzles and a large range of local Australian quality groceries."
I have no idea whether the claim of being 'Australia's leading supplier of quality Traditional Foods', whatever that means, is true or not. Prior to seeing this van I had never heard of them, but then I am not in the food business. And there is not a lot more information on their website - or their Facebook page. Though you can subscribe to a newsletter. But they do seem to be into what could loosely be described as Health Foods - maybe they were supplying the Health Food Shop not the Delicatessen.
Originally I had thought I might find an interesting company story as I have sometimes done, but in this instance I did not - there is really so little information about them on their site - or anywhere else for that matter. So I'm not attempting to publicise them. The lack of information and the disconnect between their name and what they do actually got me to thinking about two other things - the importance of company names, and spirals in general.
Here are two quotes from websites giving advice about company names:
"Your company name goes before you, needs to be memorable and also needs to work on the internet for SEO marketing." Smarta.com
"should define who you are, identify what you sell and help to impress investors." Chron.com
They are slightly different - the first quote emphasises the need for something distinctive and memorable and I guess SpIral Foods meets that criteria. I did notice it after all and it was easily found on the net. However the second piece of advice is rather more problematical.
'Should define who you are' - well the 'Foods' bit at least indicates that you are in the food industry although I suspect that most of us might presume somebody making something. 'Spiral' adds nothing to our understanding of who they are.
'Identify what you sell' - well they sell food - but that's gives you a huge range to choose from.
'impress investors' - who knows?
Actually the secondary part of their logo is more informative - this food, this earth - somehow or other, in this context, 'this' has a healthy feel to it and 'earth' is really what puts the seal on it all. Ah - health food.
So what can I conclude from this? Is it a good name? Well it gives the opportunity for artistic design of logos and things - and I guess if you look at the design of the logo it is almost more yin and yang than spiral and I guess the yin and yang definitely emphasises the health food aspect of it all. And the spiral is used creatively on the website design, but not on every page. However, I personally think that if they are going to use the word 'spiral' as their main focus then they need to explain it either pictorially or in words. You can't just choose a name like 'Spiral' and then do not very much about it.
The spiral is a very ancient symbol - it goes back at least 10,000 years - and it is also a fundamental mathematical thing. I do not understand mathematics, but even I know that there is something fundamentally mathematical about it and that it is found absolutely everywhere in nature - down to the very DNA of which we are made. The Fibonacci sequence is something I vaguely know has something to do with spirals. I think it's a particular sequence of numbers that somehow forms a spiral. Interestingly it seems that even scientists do not really know why the spiral is such a ubiquitous presence in nature. But it certainly is.
"The spiral in a snail's shell is the same mathematically as the spiral in the Milky Way galaxy, and it's also the same mathematically as the spirals in our DNA. It's the same ratio that you'll find in very basic music that transcends cultures all over the world."
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
And just to demonstrate - here are some examples:
Maybe that's what the Spiral Foods was attempting to latch on to - fundamental, ubiquitous, universal, ancient ... But I do think they should have spelt that out a little more. It's not that obvious to most people.
And just because I like quotes. Here are two to finish with.
"Like a circle in a spiral Like a wheel within a wheel Never ending or beginning On an ever-spinning reel As the images unwind Like the circles that you find In the windmills of your mind."
Michel Legrand
"The spiral is a spiritualized circle. In the spiral form, the circle, uncoiled, has ceased to be vicious; it has been set free." Vladimir Nabokov
