Hello again, let me re-introduce myself!

I want to start this month by re-introducing myself to you all. I’ve written a number of things over the last 6 months but nothing close to an intro. And specifically, I want to tell you about where the name hatefulcrawdad comes from and why I choose to sign all of my work with it.

The year is 1997 and you are spending the night with one of your friends. Unlike you, they have a computer with internet access in their bedroom. It’s the middle of the night and everyone else is asleep in the house. What are two budding teenagers to do with the night?...

You shut the door to make sure nobody would interrupt and pull up an extra chair at the computer next to your friend. As the machine powers on, your friend says, “I have something cool to show you”. The next thing you know, a strange sound chimes from a small box. You learn that this is a modem and your friend is connecting to the internet.

You stare at the screen wide-eyed, awaiting the wonders your friend is about to reveal. A website slowly loads on screen and you make out what it says…

“Welcome to Yahoo! Games”

You spend the rest of the night playing Yahoo pool with other people online, chatting about random things with strangers while playing.

What?

Did you think you were going to do something else? Get your mind out of the gutter 💀😂

The next day, you go to create your very own Yahoo account but the name you want is taken!

This is the context where the name was born.

I was hooked, playing Yahoo pool online and chatting with strangers was new and exciting. I had to keep playing and needed a username of my very own. I wanted it to be something kinda funny and easy to remember.

I headed over to Yahoo and began setting up my very first email account so that I could play Yahoo games.

The name I tried to register was LameDuck. No, not the political phrase.

Remember, I was 12. There’s this little motel in the town next to Kingsburg called “Lame Duck Motel”. My family drove past it all the time. And one time I asked my dad who stays at a place like that. He jokingly told me that this was where all the prostitutes were. I’m not even sure if I understood what he meant at the time. But it stuck with me as a funny moment during an ordinary family drive.

Well, that name was taken. But at the time Yahoo would suggest other names that were somehow related to what you were trying to register.

One of the suggestions in that list was HatefulCrawdad. That was it!

Hatefulcrawdad resonated with me for another, not quite as immature, reason.

Kingsburg had an annual Crayfish and Jazz Festival that I enjoyed attending at the time. Everyone in town comes down to main street and enjoys good food and music together. Crawdad is another name for crayfish.

The other half of the name was funny to me because I don’t have a hateful bone in my body.

I started registering with this username every time I needed to create an account somewhere. It was never taken. I never had to add a random chain of numbers after it. So clean and perfect.

As a Professional

Fast forward to professional life. I graduated college with a BA in Art & Design from CSU Fresno and was entering the job market. When it came time to make my first corporate email address I was faced with a dilemma!

Do I continue to use hatefulcrawdad or did that seem unprofessional?

Professionalism won for my first two jobs. And what I learned during those jobs is that corporate email addresses are too boring. We lose all sense of personality.

It was when I moved onto my 3rd job as a UX Designer that I decided to make the shift. I was hired at Treehouse, an online school, and they were outwardly fun with all of their marketing. I felt like using hatefulcrawdad would make people remember me and act as a nice conversation starter if they asked why.

I’m glad I went for it. I haven’t stopped using it professionally since. And it has been a great conversation starter!

Then, when I decided to start taking my art business more seriously, I figured I’d use it there too. Although I did the same thing at first. I signed all of my earlier works with my legal name.

But after a year I decided to start signing as hatefulcrawdad and continue to push for having fun with things.

And, like any good graphic design would do, I designed my signature with some specific ideas in mind. H8 is millennial internet speak for “hate” and it reminds me of the origin story I shared earlier. And “Crawdad” is implied with a small C means to loosely resemble a pincer.

What does it mean to me now?

The reason I continue to use this name is because it's fun. It’s really that simple. It reminds me of being a kid, worry-free, living life to its fullest. It reminds me to not grow up too much. It reminds me that being a professional doesn’t mean you have to be stiff as a board all the time.

It reminds me to have fun and to share that fun with others.

This is what I love most about creating art. I can share my world with you all and hopefully create a little bit of happiness and joy in your life.

If you aren't part of the Crawdad Crew and want to get content like this right in your inbox, sign up at the top of this page. Or you can follow me on Instagram. I’d love to learn a little more about you. Send me and email and tell me a bit about yourself.

Cheers,
Chris