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A Tall Tale – or is it a Tall Tail?

by | Tom's Take

When you create a business it’s important to choose a name that tells your prospective customers what you do. And in today’s world, that name has to be available as an Internet domain. Elaine and I began making lists of possible names for a safari company – checking each one to see if a .com domain was available. After checking dozens of possible names, and finding that someone already owned the related domain, I happened to see a reference to a movie with the title of “The Professionals.” I quickly searched and found that SafariProfessionals.com was available and we bought it. We had a name that perfectly reflected our expertise in helping travelers create their dream safari!

Now we needed to find the perfect visual identity for Safari Professionals – a logo. I had a friend who had started his own safari business a couple of years earlier and I liked his logo. He kindly gave me the name of the graphic designer who created his logo. The only instruction we gave the designer was that the logo should include an African animal. I told him my personal preference was a lion or a cheetah – I am a big cat fan – but that he shouldn’t limit his choices to the big cats. He came back with several designs, including several with the cats, but one of them really stood out above all the others:

The designer explained that most of our potential travelers would recognize the giraffe as a uniquely African animal. And the visual balance of the capital S and the giraffe struck us as a simple, yet elegant, design.

As we discussed having the giraffe represent Safari Professionals, Elaine said she loved the fact that giraffes have the largest heart of any land mammal on earth. She went on to say that having a big heart would be a great inspiration for our commitment to Africa, her communities and her wildlife.

My view was a bit different. At 6’4” I told her I can easily relate to tall animals – and now we had a logo!

Tom LaRock

P.S. Kenya remains my favorite safari destination. Its unique geographic diversity gives us an incredible variety of wildlife species, including many not found elsewhere. And, Kenya is the only country where you are able to see three species of giraffe: the reticulated giraffe, the Rothchild’s giraffe and the Maasai giraffe!

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