Where technologies are changing… make that changing into each other, Portfolio Center alum Robin Fuller, now a Naming and Writing Specialist at worldwide global branding firm Landor/NYC, comes up big. Robin named the new rival to Apple’s iPhone, the Verizon Voyager, which launched last month.

A journalism major in college, Robin concentrated her energies in design at PC but always took courses in writing and poetry. Today she combines both of her interests and talents at Landor to appreciate the verbal aspect of naming, called verbal branding.

She loves what she does and is now a cultural contributor in the process. As she said to me not long ago, when she tells people what she does for a living, the most common reaction is, “That’s a job?!”

Not only is it a job; names and tag lines for products, services, and companies are at the front end of the game, for a name has to define itself verbally in everyday conversation, on websites, on point-of-purchase displays in the stores, on business cards, in advertisements, on signage—it’s endless. It has to be unbelievably strategic and compelling, must resonate with today’s prosumers, and should work globally.

Right after the launch, Robin sent me an email, some of which I share with you here:

Ok, we all know how kick-ass the iPhone is, but where’s the competition? Now it’s here! The Verizon Voyager is the first phone in the industry to challenge the iPhone’s stranglehold on revolutionary all-in-one devices that use touch screen technology. It’s way cheaper, of course - and, unlike the iPhone, the Voyager has a built in QWERTY keyboard inside (the iPhone has an on-screen keyboard, which I understand can be a pain for those who don’t have tiny fingertips!)

I’m told that the Voyager is generating quite a bit of buzz in the online tech-savvy community. This is a big deal for my first naming cred as a professional namer, of course.

We’re so proud of Robin—and happy that she loves her job and gets to use her varied talents.

Cross-platforming: That’s what it’s all about.

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