BRAND STORY · · 2 min read
Art Plus Ascend, Minus Two Letters
Artasce is two words with the end of one cut off. The work started in 1999. The name came in 2006.
Artasce is two words with the end of one cut off. Art, plus ascend. Drop the last two letters of the second word and you have the name the studio has used since 2006.
The name came late. The work started before there was a brand to put on it.
- 1999: the work started, with HTML in Dallas.
- June 2000: the studio took out its first licence, under another name, Turbo Gold.
- 2006: it was renamed Artasce.
The first website we sold cost $100.
If you have seen one of our demos, you have already met the art half. This post is about the rest: where the name came from, and what it is meant to hold.
Two halves in one word
Art
The half a visitor sees first. The layout, the type, the photographs. How a page holds together on a laptop, or on a phone in someone’s hand on the way to somewhere else.
Ascend
The half a client cares about after launch. A site is there to lift something: a business, a product, a name people remember. That half is harder to show in a screenshot, so we show the work instead.
A good-looking site that sells nothing misses the second half. A site that sells but looks careless misses the first.
The name keeps both in front of us on every job.
It is also seven letters, and easy to type on a phone.
Where the name shows up now
The studio runs on one business licence under two names, Artasce and Artasce Creative.
This site is the Artasce side: who the studio is, the history since 1999, and the portfolio. There are no prices here and no forms.
The portfolio under the name runs from a lawn care app to a video game site. The studio also runs Mademoiselle, Modolla and Voya side by side with the client work.
Turbo Gold in 2000. Artasce in 2006. Still shipping.
Here is the work. Most of it is still live.