Why Pinwheel?
Friday, November 3rd, 2006 | Rants & Raves
After a week at the party, Pinwheel is still raging. I know, I know, enough already, but I’m finicky. When I woke up this morning one of the words just didn’t sit right anymore, so it’s back to the war room. Since I can’t ruminate on the words chosen, I’m going to take a step back to the first step in this branding process, the name.
“Why Pinwheel?” is the one universal question everyone asks of the project, and it brings out pretty strong reactions either for or against. Each person in the project has a slightly different answer to this question, so today you get mine.
Our fallback response is that the url was available, but the truth is that was just a perk since we picked the name before we realized how quickly we would be making this project a reality. The journey to Pinwheel began at Our Roundhouse, the original working name. In addition to the karate kick fiercely executed by Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Chuck Norris, a roundhouse, normally located adjacent to or surrounding a turntable, is used by train companies to redirect steam engines in any direction. While Our Roundhouse was a good name in theory as it provided an apt metaphor for what we wanted to do- redirect students’ interests in a new direction to benefit them and the community- it was both antiquated and, courtesy of Thomas the Tank Engine, childish.
Knowing that we needed a new name, the process was much less formulaic than our current branding exercise. It began with our group sitting around Sam’s room throwing out ideas. I don’t remember any of them, but I know that none of them were inspiring. We were quickly distracted, agreeing that we’d all keep thinking on our own. At our next meeting, it turned out that Sam had kept thinking, and while doodling in class, had come up with Pinwheel.
Without any articulated at the logic, we were all slightly drawn to it. It wasn’t love for everyone, but we all agreed it was better than Our Roundhouse. At its debut, our midterm presentation, Pinwheel received a warm response. Since then, responses have generally been polarized. People like it, or they don’t. While I’d rather have people love it than hate it, I see both as a good thing. Either way, there is an emotional response. To me, the real danger zone is ambivalence, and for the most part, we seem to have steered clear of that.
Over time, I’ve grown quite attached to Pinwheel. It works for me because it’s easy to remember and fun. I also like that playing with a pinwheel, a simple, fun activity, generates energy that, if channeled, can affect change. And that’s what we’re trying to do at Pinwheel, channel the energy created by simple, fun activities high schoolers enjoy into a force for change.
