What’s In A Dogsname?

What’s in a name?

For Dogsname — the quirky, funky, fun and supremely successful website and app design/marketing/branding/social media company — it all began with a Girl Scout.

She was selling cookies, and knocked on a door. “What’s your name?” she asked the 5-year-old who answered.

“Luke,” he said.

“That’s a dog’s name!” she said.

It became a Scott family joke.

Two decades later, when Luke’s father John opened an agency in Westport — and hired Luke, who was ready to leave New York City after working there for 5 years — Dogsname was perfect.

But, Luke worried, no one would know what the company did.

“Trust me,” John said. “You want a name that shows you can have fun, and make money.”

A screenshot of the Dogsname website — which features a moving swing and clouds — shows off the company’s fun, engaging vibe.

Dogsname opened on March 1, 1999 on Post Road East, in a small office building between what was then the Brook Café and Carvel. Their first client was a bee sting analgesic company.

“We had a Netscape browser, a 128 modem, and an AOL email,” Luke recalls.

They built websites and created digital platforms. More prosaically, they designed logos and business cards.

On March 29, 2000, John died of a heart attack while jogging at Compo Beach. He was 51 years old.

Luke took over the business. He was 27 years old, recently married and the father of a 3-month-old boy.

He and Kristen Hanly — another co-founder, also in her 20s — picked up the torch.

Luke Scott

Over the years the company has moved, to another Post Road site above the Tack Room, then the South Norwalk Lock Building near the Maritime Center, and back to Westport on Ketchum Street behind Viva Zapata. Since 2016, Dogsname has called Bridgeport home.

But no matter where the firm is, Luke — who graduated from Staples in 1991 — has always felt anchored in Westport. Their national roster of clients includes many local businesses.

Dogsname today is “wildly different” from 25 years ago, Luke says. Up to 90% of their work now is digital — double what it was then.

Web design now begins with mobile; the phone experience has become the top priority.

But “everything has meaning,” Luke says, “from I-95 billboard headlines, to website meta tags, business card details and email subject lines. Words matter, every time.”

Social media is the starting point for most marketing efforts. That ecosystem influences how clients market themselves, and how Dogsname advocates for them.

Dogname’s clients range from healthcare and consumer packaging to transit-oriented projects. They’ve sold millions of dollars worth of merchandise for clients via Shopify and WooCommerce, and helped lease over 5,000 apartment units in Connecticut, South Carolina and beyond.

Bill Stankey, founder and CEO of Westport Entertainment (based in Fairfield) calls the Dogsname team “a merry band of creative rock stars who love a challenge. They helped me build several tremendously successful businesses for my clients. My clients think I’m a genius. But I really know I’m a genius for getting Dogsname on board.”

Dogsname has done branding and signage for train stations in Fairfield County, and the new Anthem Square 10 apartments in New Haven.

Branding for The Lloyd, a boutique hotel in Stamford.

Bridgeport also holds a special place in his heart.

“I’m incredibly proud we’re based here,” he says. “It’s time for this city to shine. The location is great.  It’s got a nice cultural nucleus. There are lots of impactful small businesses, artists, activists, entrepreneurs — wonderful human beings. There’s so much energy everywhere.”

He and his wife Marcella’s 6-year-old son Zion is a kindergartner at nearby Adam J. Lewis Academy, the innovative, life-changing school founded by Patty Lewis and Westporter Julie Mombello.

(Adam J. Lewis’ branding is done by The Bananaland — Marcella’s own marketing and design group. They share space with Dogsname, on the top floor of a renovated YMCA overlooking downtown. “Same studio, different shop,” Luke says happily.)

For 25 years, Luke’s company has stayed on top of trends. That’s not easy. He spends an hour a day finding out what’s new. Staff meetings are often devoted to the latest developments in technology, search and more.

Those meetings never take place on Friday. Dogsname is committed to work/life balance, with a 4-day, Monday through Thursday week. Most of the staff is now hybrid. “It works well for us,” Luke says.

The Dogsname crew, in the elevator at their Bridgeport office. From left: Abelardo Pulido, Scott Andersen, Luke Scott, Katy Wood, Jessica Forster.

That balance has come with time. When Luke took over the company at 27, it was “a huge responsibility to keep the doors open, the lights on, and our people and my family fed.”

Now, he realizes, his business is “all about relationships. That’s what makes it fun. Technology is okay, but people are the jam.”

So what will the next 25 years mean for Dogsname?

“We’ll continue to be innovative, in an industry that’s rapidly changing,” Luke says.

“We’ll stay small, nimble and impactful. We’ll tell the right stories, for the right clients.

“We will creatively help clients build their businesses, and have fun along the way.

Of its Wag Central project, Dogsname says: “New England’s finest 4-legged canine cultural hub came to us to define and design a full-scale marketing effort to fetch local clients. We jumped right in.”

Here’s one example of that fun: Luke’s email is warden@dogsname.com. Other employee emails include RescueDog, SpaceDog, Dog Tracker and SnoopDogg.

And this: Occasionally, Dogsname hears from people who request a name for their dog.

“They actually think that’s what we do,” Luke says. “But that’s cool.”

He always replies with a suggestion.

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