Think Big July 7, 2011

Where did the name come from?

The question we get asked most often about our company is, “What does Pound & Grain mean?” Great question.

As creatives, we brainstormed a variety of names (read: A LOT), and finally when we found something that stuck, it wasn’t something we could actually use. Apparently, and this was news to us, you can’t have the word detective in your incorporated name in British Columbia without the RCMP’s consent. That sounded complicated, especially as we were just starting out.

So no detective agency for us. If you want us to do some part-time investigating for you, we can talk, but we are mostly a digital creative agency. When we went back to the drawing table we wanted something that spoke to a few unique things about us. Wanted a name that told people our work would be bespoke, handcrafted, original, and told a story about how we wanted to be precise and pixel perfect in our work.

So how did we land on Pound & Grain? Well, back in the day apothecaries, the mixologists of all things good, had unique recipes based on very precise weights and measures. Turns out, a pound was 12 ounces, and every ounce had 8 drachms, and of course everyone knows that each drachm has 3 scruples right? Well, who knew that 3 scruples was also 60 grains. So a pound was equal to about 5,760 grains. Of course it varied from here to the there – the South of France naturally enjoyed jacking up the ounces to pounds ratio as they needed.

But if anyone asks, sometimes we just say, “he’s Grain, and I’m Pound”. And that’s the little story behind the name, Pound & Grain.

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