[HN Gopher] How we renamed our Design Converter to Magical Ass
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How we renamed our Design Converter to Magical Ass
So here we go, our rebranding is done. New logo, new domain, what
could go wrong. We provide a tool to convert design files between
Figma, XD, Sketch, Figma, PDF and more and have recently rebranded
it from "XD2Sketch" to "Magicul". We started out as a simple tool
to allow users to import XD files in Sketch hence the name
XD2Sketch but soon added more features. The name just didn't make
sense anymore. Magicul initially seemed to be a great name, but
turned out to be a bit of an interesting pick when translated to
French. We've sent out a newsletter to our customers to let them
know about the changes and here's what one of our users replied:
_Hey folks, While I understand that you guys probably hope to
operate primarily in English, I think it needs to be mentioned that
your brand name "Magicul" in french, literally means "Magical
ass"... but the real kicker is the .io of the domain, which
literally means input & output... So here goes the bad news... The
entire french community is reading your brand name - literally -
as: Magical ass (dot) in & out. And then there's the logo
itself... which is a hole with a hat. Christ. You can't make this
stuff up. This is ugh, umm, a brutally unfortunate brand?...lol
I'm in Quebec, Canada, where french is dominant and so I'm keenly
aware of this - and so are my partners, colleagues and friends. We
all had a good laugh. Don't know what else to say...? Bonne
chance mes amis! Have a good one, - A fan of your work in
Montreal._ You can checkout our website here: https://magicul.io
I just thought this was too hilarious to not share.
Author : kgoedecke
Score : 133 points
Date : 2022-07-29 12:39 UTC (10 hours ago)
| msk-lywenn wrote:
| My colleague and I are laughing so much right now, thank you very
| much. I'm in tears. "Tant que ca fait pas de la merde" he just
| replied, meaning "as long as it's not outputting shit". This is
| amazing.
| tpoacher wrote:
| well they did say it can transform to _any_ format.
| elite1percenter wrote:
| Honestly I think you should keep the new brand/name. It's
| memorable and elicits a laugh, even if unfortunate. That's a
| bigger marketing win than you think
| aaroninsf wrote:
| Slightly disappointed it was not Aesop's donkey. But only
| slightly.
|
| Bon chance mes amis!
| rayiner wrote:
| It's a real testament to how far French as fallen as the default
| language of international business and commerce that it didn't
| occur to anybody to check on this.
| sjburt wrote:
| That happened something like 100 years ago.
| Fiahil wrote:
| > We've sent out a newsletter to our customers to let them know
| about the changes and here's what one of our users replied
|
| Thank you, I can't help but laugh at the idea that they received
| what looked like a out-of-season april fool's :D
|
| Most important question are you keeping the brand ? As the French
| person, I can assure you that everyone will read "magic ass"
| before anything else.
| ensignavenger wrote:
| >> .io of the domain, which literally means input & output...
|
| Umm, actually, .io is literally the TLD for the British Indian
| Ocean territory (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.io).
|
| (Still a perfectly funny rebranding!)
| theandrewbailey wrote:
| You could add a magical donkey somewhere.
| Scarblac wrote:
| It doesn't mean that type of ass.
| dylan604 wrote:
| no, but it'd be a funny nod anyways.
| michelpp wrote:
| _double entendre_ : "A phrase that has two meanings,
| especially where one is innocent and literal, the other
| risque, bawdy, or ironic; an innuendo."
| mageofpanthera wrote:
| wazoox wrote:
| You're not alone; Audi proudly sells the E-tron, which in French
| means "turd", plain and simple.
| mmmpop wrote:
| My father-in-law has an E-tron, he's gonna get a kick out of
| that.
| qalmakka wrote:
| This is indeed hilarious. Even for an Italian ear it kinda sounds
| like that.
|
| I hope that in Spanish or Portuguese it doesn't evoke that kind
| of feeling too, but I am afraid it probably does.
|
| You probably made your product very hilarious (and probably hard
| to sell) for the entirety of the Romance-speaking market...
| alexaholic wrote:
| > You probably made your product very hilarious (and probably
| hard to sell) for the entirety of the Romance-speaking
| market...
|
| Not quite the entirety of it: "magicul" means "magical" in
| Romanian.
| dimatura wrote:
| Yeah, it does. "Culio" could be seen as the past tense of the
| verb "culear" - derived from the word for ass - and which, as
| far as I know, is a naughty word in most of latin america.
| KaiserPro wrote:
| Oculus is mostly arse. Culus[1]
|
| [1]https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/culus
| GuB-42 wrote:
| Oculus is a legitimate French word though. Same meaning as in
| English.
| GrinningFool wrote:
| Also, https://www.myvmc.com/drugs/magicul/
| [deleted]
| jimmy2times wrote:
| Does it support plug-ins?
| jrm4 wrote:
| Ha, I'm an American who's reasonably proficient in Spanish and my
| brain did quickly see "Magic Culo."
| eurasiantiger wrote:
| The term _cul-de-sac_ is not that uncommon in American English,
| given the amount of suburbs having them.
| MonkeyMalarky wrote:
| Really wondering about the origin of that phrase. The literal
| translation is "ass of bag"?
| C4stor wrote:
| Since a bag ("sac") has no exit hole ("cul"), and so a
| "cul-de-sac" is a (I guess 2nd degree ?) way of saying "way
| with no exit".
| pessimizer wrote:
| Or "way with one exit, and it's behind you."
| jaclaz wrote:
| If you translate (instead of ass) cul as "bottom", it is
| more like the "bottom of a sack" (i.e. no-exit), if your
| interpretation was correct, it would be a no-cul-de-sac.
| bombcar wrote:
| Fun fact: Tolkien _hated_ English "borrowing" words from
| other languages that we had already - so he named his hero
| Bilbo _Baggins_ (bag ends) of Bag End - where Bag End
| literally is the English for cul-de-sac (end of bag).
| smegsicle wrote:
| must be latin
| mauvehaus wrote:
| It's fine. Everybody made jokes that Apple named a product the
| i-sanitary-napkin for about a week and then got over it. They're
| still selling iPads after all these years and seem to be doing
| quite well at it.
| legerdemain wrote:
| Most of Europe drives cars named "Defect" or "Unfortunate Event,"
| and everything is fine.
| tpoacher wrote:
| proposed FAQ addition:
|
| > Q: Does the name mean anything?
|
| > A: No. Nothing. Shuddup. Why, what have you heard?
| supernes wrote:
| Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10117297
|
| Running "Magicul" through it does indeed give a warning for the
| french meaning.
| willcipriano wrote:
| The French are probably the best people to do this to, they have
| a sense of humor about this sort of thing. I'd add a note in
| French in your FAQ and leave it as is. It may even net you
| customers.
| gnarbarian wrote:
| see coq
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coq
| jarek83 wrote:
| And we have these guys around too
| https://www.lecoqsportif.com
| mauvehaus wrote:
| It also means cock in the sense of what's more commonly
| (though less accurately) called a rooster (hens roost too).
| Coq au vin is a tough old male chicken cooked in wine, not a
| sausage dish.
| smegsicle wrote:
| or alcohol induced erectile dysfunction
| aliqot wrote:
| dammit i can't believe im saying this on HN, but it's
| friday....
|
| ...username checks out.
| eastbound wrote:
| Don't worry, Audi made the same mistake. Do you know how to
| call a turd in French?
|
| e-tron.
|
| And yes, Audi kept the same name in France.
| chrisandchris wrote:
| Some people nearly tried to sell the new Coca-Cola brand
| "Fuze tea" in Switzerland where "Fuze" spoken in swiss german
| is very close to a womens sexual organ (in a disrespectful
| way). So they changed the name to "fuse tea". Close shot.
| LisaDziuba wrote:
| spaetzleesser wrote:
| Reminds me of the Mitsubishi Pajero which translates to "wanker"
| in Spanish. Or a long time ago we named projects after mountains
| in the alps. Once we got to "Wank" luckily our born in England
| intern told us that maybe this wasn't a good idea.
| psonic wrote:
| Heya, in italian sounds a lot like "magic ass" too.
| karmakaze wrote:
| I worked as an intern at a Montreal company that had products
| with initials ES and EJ There were test programs for them named
| 'testej' and 'testes'. Being more of an English speaker I
| suggested they might not want to use that naming pattern.
| messutied wrote:
| Oh man, that's a classic, always check what your name idea means
| in different languages ^^ it's actually close to "ass" in Spanish
| too (culo).
|
| Do you plan to keep the new name? Personally I don't think is so
| bad.
| kgoedecke wrote:
| I think we're already too invested. The SEO took a big hit and
| I think changing it again would be even worse for our organic
| traffic. On top of that I think its hilarious and I you know
| what they say "There's no such thing as bad publicity".
| luispauloml wrote:
| Now imagine being a Brazilian living in South Korea where on of
| the major chains of convenience stores is called "CU", which
| means "asshole" in Portuguese.
| cozzyd wrote:
| I wonder how many study abroad in Boulder...
| Asmod4n wrote:
| In Germany Ford sold a sports Coupe named cougar
| PlatinumHarp wrote:
| In north america it was sold as the Mercury Cougar.
| catskul2 wrote:
| Why is that bad?
| tokinonagare wrote:
| It's the equivalent of MILF in French.
| EZ-Cheeze wrote:
| Legally you can't call a company Magical Ass otherwise it would
| be common like novelty plates
|
| But a company CREATING Magical Ass, this would obviously be one
| doing perfect CGI humans.
|
| Michelangelo-level perfection and pathos at 60fps+ = direct
| hijack into the divine experience centers of your brain
|
| Big Thiel truth here, yeah I'm already working on it
|
| https://medium.com/@auren/why-the-famous-peter-thiel-intervi...
| forgingahead wrote:
| Kind of like that story about the car, the Chevy Nova. Apparently
| "No Va" means no go in Spanish, which obviously did not bode well
| for sales in those language markets....
|
| *Edit, there was also the "Lee Kee Boat Company" based out of
| Hong Kong.
| pen2l wrote:
| Your site is quite nice and responsive, made me think of Stripe's
| interface. May I ask what frontend you've built this on? Or
| really any details of your process of frontend rebuild you'd like
| to share?
|
| The French-speaking populace can take jokes like this, so you're
| safe. :)
| kgoedecke wrote:
| Heya, we've build the site in NextJS using FelaJS and xState. I
| really can't recommend xState, but we're really happy with
| NextJS and Vercel in general. Our designer works in Figma and
| thats were we build the designs first.
| davidkpiano wrote:
| Hey, XState creator here. What did you not like about XState?
| Hopefully there are areas we can improve on or questions we
| can answer. Or maybe it wasn't appropriate for the project?
| bambax wrote:
| When the Australian government decided to cancel the order of a
| dozen of French submarines, they announced that they had made a
| new special alliance with the US and the UK. The name of the
| alliance is "AUKUS" (Australia-UK-US).
|
| But "au cul" in French of course means "(fuck) in the ass". "Vous
| l'avez dans le cul" means "you've been fucked in the ass".
|
| As the cancelling of the order was received by France as a giant
| betrayal from Australia, it's believed the name of the alliance
| was an intentional insult from people who knew what they were
| doing.
|
| I don't know if that's true but I tend to believe it is.
| jonny_eh wrote:
| Who can forget the briefly named Canadian Conservative Reform
| Alliance Party (CCRAP)?
|
| https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-party-changes-embarrassin...
| permo-w wrote:
| I'm gonna be quite pedantic, nitpicking and killjoy-y here, so
| don't read on if you'll be annoyed by that
|
| >"The entire french community"
|
| seems like a huge exaggeration. input/output is i/o, not io.
| while that's a relatively small difference, it's enough that
| without context I'd never read io as input output. also I'd
| question how much of the French [presumably design?] community at
| large has even heard of or seen i/o as a symbol for input/output
| failrate wrote:
| The VIC-20 sez "Hi!"
| wonderbore wrote:
| So what? Italian automobile giant Fiat recently turned "FCA",
| which is the Italian equivalent of "PSSY"
|
| It's fine, people joke and then move onto the next TikTok video.
| dimatura wrote:
| You know this SUV, the Pajero? IIRC they changed its name for
| the chilean market, because there "pajero" is well established
| slang that translates roughly to "wanker", but with extra
| connotations of laziness and weakness.
| robocat wrote:
| I presume pajero is slang because "hacer la paja" or "hacer
| paja" is slang for masterbate. The FCA example is "fica" in
| Italian? Similar to "figa" in Spanish?
|
| As a foreigner in Spain I really enjoyed learning slang and
| then speaking inappropriate double entendres[1] - acting
| innocently as though I had made an honest mistake -
| entertaining whoever I was talking to.
|
| Or honest mistakes too: I remember being laughed at for
| saying I was being followed around by a bunch of little
| penises when I meant to say little chickens.
|
| [1] https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/double_entendre "The
| phrase has not been used in French for centuries and would be
| ungrammatical in modern French"
| LinAGKar wrote:
| Same with Honda Fitta, with fitta being Swedish for pussy. And
| kiss, famously the name of a band, is Swedish for pee. Stadler
| also named one of their trains KISS, though in Sweden they
| marketed it by the working name Dosto.
| jaclaz wrote:
| I find it hilarious (as an italian) how the Swedish word for
| "coffee pause" sounds, and the way it is often used or
| described:
|
| https://www.swedishfood.com/fika
| olyjohn wrote:
| I'm skeptical about the truth of the Honda Fitta ever being
| considered for the name. And I'm calling full BS on it.
|
| Doing a little research on this... There's only a few
| articles, mostly quoting random people on the Internet. No
| good verified sources on it. Wikipedia mentions it too, but
| only links to those same articles.
|
| Long before the Fit was ever a car, Honda already made a Jazz
| in Europe (which was called the Honda City in other markets).
| And it would make sense for the current Jazz to succeed that
| car. It would make less sense for them to rename it to the
| Fit for Europe, as the Jazz was already a recognized model.
| nbzso wrote:
| Magical ass or not, you offer no trial and $94/file -1 file with
| up to 50 artboards. $124/file - 1 file with unlimited artboards.
| Hard no from me and my team.
| GuB-42 wrote:
| That why it may be a problem. French people are probably going
| to be amused, you may even get extra publicity.
|
| But with prices like these you are probably targeting
| companies, not person
| Angostura wrote:
| Indeed.
| qiller wrote:
| Hard agree. I like the converter idea, but having used similar
| tools in the past (Avocode and others), there are always some
| kind of minor but annoying issues. Having a preview or a trial
| would be good to have to avoid surprises later.
| nbzso wrote:
| I have a gripe with all the design tools that don't offer
| interoperability. You can import Sketch file in Figma, but
| you cannot export to Sketch.
|
| I understand the reasons behind this decision-making process,
| but all of this "silo" mentality is pushing me to use more
| code and less design tools for my clients DS.
| kgoedecke wrote:
| Appreciate the honest feedback. We get that a lot actually,
| if you reach out to our customer support team we can convert
| a small file for free for you. Our converter literally almost
| everything, prototyping, components and what not. Maybe we
| should add a free trial tho.
| latexr wrote:
| > We get that a lot actually
|
| Now think of all the people who never tell you and just
| move on. They don't get to use a useful tool and you don't
| get the customer. Lose-lose.
|
| > if you reach out to our customer support team we can
| convert a small file for free for you.
|
| Which costs you money via the time spent on support.
|
| > Maybe we should add a free trial tho.
|
| From your grandparent comment, it seems you offer different
| prices based on the number of artboards. Maybe the trial is
| instead a free tier which only works on files up to X MB in
| size with at most Y artboards.
| justsomehnguy wrote:
| > Now think of all the people who never tell you and just
| move on.
|
| This.
|
| > Which costs you money via the time spent on support
|
| And this.
|
| But the most important thing is what for any (we based)
| service I expect a zero amount of friction.
|
| Contacting support is way too much for my 21sr century
| _ass_.
|
| Edit: I leave the typos as a reminder not to drink and
| comment.
| eurasiantiger wrote:
| But then you can't test the conversion on realistic
| "production" files, and you may miss something. Better
| not limit features, only amount of files and speed of
| conversion (the queue / progress bar is a good place to
| remind free users of the fact.)
|
| This also nets the company lots of good karma by letting
| many others out of one-off binds where they are stuck
| with a file they cannot open.
|
| Getting the company name out there as a dependable savior
| will make your brand stand out in casual conversations.
|
| Then it will be an easy sell to agencies that actually
| use these kinds of products and are willing to pay for
| them.
|
| However, don't try to upsell from the free tier, and
| don't make it annoying to use. It will make people avoid
| the free service. You want users to tell others of the
| great service that saved their bum just before the
| looming deadline.
|
| And with that particular name, the company could even
| base its marketing on literally that.
| MonkeyMalarky wrote:
| On a tangent, my favourite French expression for nitpicking is
| "enculer les mouche".
| BiteCode_dev wrote:
| Oh don't worry about that. As a Frenchman, I will definitely be
| delighted if I get my boss to pay for a Cul Magique.
|
| If the product is good, it will not matter.
|
| Better, we will make jokes about it and say stuff in the scrum
| meeting like: "today I will work on magically fucking myself.
| Someones has to do it."
|
| Plus you get plausible deniability :)
| tokinonagare wrote:
| In my company we have a turn for the BAL (boite aux lettres)
| support. I promptly renamed being on duty for the week being
| the "trou de BAL", but it haven't caught yet.
| [deleted]
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