You have to consider who are your main customers and cater a name to them. If your are widely known by your current name, changing it may screw up your business.
Hey Tony. Try this on a sign in your Rest Room......THE GL*** STATION............"We Work On Any TURD"
If you are set on changing the name, I haven't seen "Perfectly Clear" yet - Get it!?! Perfectly Clear. -Dave
Ahhhh.....Gl***Hopper! (OK, I know I'm just grabbin' at straws here. I need to get some shuteye so I can get up for work in the morning.)
"TG Specialties"......a play on letters....Tony Gomes and Total Gl***.... or another possiblity...."Clear Perfection"
Ok I will give it a shot! no pun intended, Gl*** from the past see thru customs clear memories nu-view customs gl*** shop one bad gl*** shop Rodsville custom gl*** works If these should work I only need 1 side for my 47 ford split windshield panel and the rest to HAMB!
Well said Alteredpilot! Tri-Valley Auto Gl*** already has client recognition and sounds professional while encomp***ing OEM, rods and customs. Look in the yellow pages from afar, not locally. Find a logo (doesn't have to be from a gl*** company) that's similar to what you like or want and modify it to suit your needs. If you change your name now customers or potential customers will wonder why it was necessary? Your company name or logo won't be key to your success unless you can afford to heavily advertise (emphasis on heavily). What will promote your business is you, your quality of workmanship, customer service and word of mouth. Also, when you decide on a logo keep it simple......something that can be easily enlarged and put on a tee shirt or banner while at the same time reduced to imprint on something as small as a business card or ball-point pen if you choose. And, one or two colors will look great if done properly. If you get into 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 different colors you're gonna spend a fortune to reproduce your logo on anything. My profile says "retired." Now you know what I'm retired from. Actually I'm back running my business now as I have staggering health insurance premiums to pay for myself and my wife. Tri Valley Auto Gl*** couldn't sound better. You might take the TVAG and m***age it into a recognizable logo with the full name under it as a "tagline.' Good Luck.
I know you want a name change but how about just a good logo. Here is my idea (didnt spend much time on it which may show but)... There is room at the top for your lettering around the arc and at the bottom around the arc.
Killin time at work for ya: Kickin Gl*** Gl*** Kickers By the gl*** Gl***ful Gl***tic Last Gl*** Beer Gl*** *****in Gl*** Gl***holes
Altered Gl***, With the pic of a fuel altered, gets you up near the top in the phone book, gets you a hot rod link and would look cool. Oh, and I couldn't get ***dumpster to work no matter how hard l tried. Doc.
How about CAL VALLEY CUSTOM auto gl***...C-V-C SEE-V-SEE maybe use a chopped '40 ford with a nice v-**** windshield...or an over the cowl shot of a bonneville style roadster with on of those aircraft style laid back V shaped windshields...parked under the palm trees at the p-town fairgrounds.....whaddyatink eh?
Trival Auto Gl*** (most nostalgic sounding) Trival Gl*** & Upholstery (saw upholstery on your website) Reflections (also could be a strip club) Kustom Lense Quality Car Crystal Looking Gl***y Gl***y Garage Broken Dreams Shattered Dreams TripVal Gl*** P&G Gl*** (Pollish and Gleam) If someone else mentioned one from above already sorry.
FAT Gl*** (tag line - "Guys LOVE a FAT Gl*** on their car!") Custom Car Gl*** Gl*** Gl*** Gl*** Cl***y Gl*** Crystal Clear Gl*** Crystal Clear Auto Gl***works 3-D Gl*** Clear As Gl*** Smooth As Gl*** Cl***y Custom Gl*** Diamond Gl*** Nice Gl*** Whata Gl***! Just a few. You want more, just holler!
I would suggest something that pops up when someone searches for you (I.e. internet). I live in Pleasanton, but to be honest up to this point I had not heard of you, and your abilities to cut custom gl*** were not obvious to me when I did my search. The word custom/rod/vintage/pleasanton would help in the ***le.
Everybody's coming up with names with the word "Gl***" in them, and none with a play on words like "See" or "clear" or "View". Something like "SEE-KLEAR" Gl*** Shop or "KLEER-VUE" are great ways to go, and project a more vintage feel, plus they don't exclusively convey rod-only, in case you want to do some boats or something along the way. Names like that also take to vintage-style logos very well.
My 2 cents... (well, this got longer than I thought, so it's a nickel's worth of free advice) I kinda agree with the others who say "if it ain't broke don't fix it" because the OTHER version of that saying is "if it ain't broke, keep screwing with it until it IS". If you change the name altogether people's perception will be that you have gone out of business, gone bankrupt, have gotten bought out by another company, etc. and all of the advertising and insisting that you're the SAME GUY will be a waste of time and money. I like the idea of a logo change (the 3 "V's" together like the old Ford logo is a GREAT idea). Add a "ribbon" under the logo or bullet points to say "Hot Rod and Custom Car gl*** our specialty" or something like that. Advertise more heavily in the hot rod / custom magazines to lure the hot rodders, but (again, just my $0.02) I WOULDN'T change the style of your ad in the yellow pages because hot rodders generally find out about good companies to do business with through your advertising at car shows, sponsoring car show trophies, putting fliers & cards in goody bags, the internet, etc. and the people like my Mom & Pop will find your place through the yellow pages "just like we've ALWAYS done". Give away T-shirts with the new (old school style) logo for car show door prizes and you'll be surprised at the reaction. When I ran my little restoration parts store a few years back, people came in to buy our shirts as often as they came in to buy parts. (Especially the wives looking for something cool for the husbands for Christmas.) There's a muffler shop near here that does almost zero advertising other than the yellow pages because the yellow pages gets him the "daily driver" and "work / shop /delivery truck" work. The people that use him for the COOL stuff: custom metal fabrication, motorcycle frames, hot rod exhaust work, etc. p*** his name to their friends at car shows and cruise nights. If you want - there's a local gal that does some REALLY nice artwork & paintings that would probably love to help you. She's REALLY into the hot rod / pinup scene and would probably be able to help you design something new for not a lot of money. Look for "Ellie Retrophilia" on Facebook or send me your contact information in a PM and I'll have her get in touch with you?
We also picked up an old POS 68 Dodge Monaco 4 door that someone gave us and painted it up to look like an old cop car and parked it outside of our store to attract attention. (The city had p***ed some BS "city beautification" law that said that you couldn't have any more than X square feet of signage for the Y feet of frontage that your shop had. The other business that the building owner ran had been there for about 20 years, and you know damn well that HE wasn't giving up an inch of HIS sign, so... The city said that it was legal as long as we had license plates & inspection stickers on the car, so we did that and put real cop car lights on it, got star decals for the door that said "Musclecar Patrol" and lettered the quarter panels to say "Restoration Emergency? Dial 757-**x-****", and put an empty box of Dunkin Donuts on the dash. The local cops loved it, the muscle car guys loved it, and it was a LOT cheaper than getting a bigger sign for the shop, even IF we'd have been able to do that... Get yourself an old rolling body and letter it up and park itout front. It'll attract a LOT of attention.
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