ROBERTS, JAMES

ROBERTS, JAMES has the blunt, personal sound of an owner’s name used as a business name, which usually means a small firm, a solo practice, or some other service where the person matters more than a logo. By our assessment, that directness is the good part: it feels accountable and human, not packaged into marketing language. The downside is just as clear, because the name gives away almost nothing about the field, the offer, or the size of the operation. In practice it is the sort of name that works best once you already know the person, and less well when you are trying to figure out what the business does from scratch. It sits in the long tradition of professional names that identify the proprietor first and the service second. The card is thin on clues, and the name itself makes that limitation obvious.