DANIEL MARKEL

DANIEL MARKEL is another bare personal-name company, and that tells you more about its style of branding than about its work. By our assessment, the main strength of this kind of naming is clarity at the door: it feels direct, local, and usually tied to one person or a small practice rather than a faceless chain. The downside is equally plain, because the name itself gives no clue about service, specialty, or scale. In use, that means you have to look elsewhere for substance; the label is simple, but the business behind it may still need explaining. It sits with the many companies that lead with a founder’s name instead of a category name.