The businesses that almost were

Here’s a pattern that shows up over and over in the archive: I’d get an idea for a business, name it, design a logo, maybe build a splash page — and then my attention would move on to the next thing. A trail of shingles I hung out and mostly never took down. This is the honest record of them.

The one that stuck

The exception proves the rule. Fun Sun Studio → 131 Digital is the one that became a real, going concern — partly because it wasn’t only mine (I had a partner, Brewster, in it). It earned its own exhibit, and 131 Digital still trades under the name today.

The rest are mine alone, and tell on me.

WeBe Studios

A web-design studio I hung a shingle for — “WeBe” — complete with a coming-soon splash and a fuller Grand Opening site selling templates, hosting, and custom design. The site was further along than the business ever was.

Waccamaw Web Works

Its own thing — a solo spin I started on the side and never really followed through on. It still picked up the odd job (it’s the design credit on the Lowcountry Jewelers build), but it never became a company so much as a name and a logo.

Coastal Bits

The most telling one, recovered from an old backup: Coastal Bits, a web/tech venture that got a real, finished logo — colorful “bits” stacked into a mark — and even some site-slider mockups. Everything except a business.

Why this is here

The museum’s whole premise is “preserve the essence” — and the essence here is honest: I’m a serial starter. The follow-through came later, with the brands the rest of my career was built on. But the instinct to name a thing, give it a mark, and imagine the company around it? That started early, and — per the guy who keeps finding these — it’ll keep growing.