MThree (M3) - Beginning The Search
In Search of Meaning, Message, and Mystery the origins of M3. through preliminary research, a fanatic who wants to uncover the mystery of the name may find themselves in an expedition more mysterious than the series of universal sequences that formulated the name M3 (MThree). Although many inquiries speculated I was a BMW vehicle fan, or a copy cat of Mach 3 razors I will state for the record the M3 BMW series did come out prior to the name, yet had no influence whatsoever. However , the Mach 3 blades in a bizarre state of sequences may have been influenced by my work to formulate or evolve their name.
Pre - Origin History:
While in college earning my degree in design I started a company to sell and design T-shirts to various organizations for their yearly debauchery celebrations the name was called dm design Lab. I simply used my initials and I love the uniqueness of calling a design studio a design Lab - brings a weight of knowledge to the name.
OMR - The Next Step
In 1996, I started my second company o’miley|ryan advertising design (OMR) the name was created from a rebelious point of view to advertising agencies naming themselves after the principals - an old school, corporate structure that stimulated us fellow artists to a calling of dening that status quo by pure mockery. To this day I laugh at all the calls we had asking for a o’Miley or Ryan, - they simply didn’t exist in our studio so this allowed us to play with creative sensationalised ideas of explaining where they were or why they were not in the office as if they were real people. We flat out lied and had a blast with it. OMR lasted 4 years before closing its doors, in the second / third year of OMR expansive growth, I sold my partnership to OMR to gain creative control and design freedom once more. Upon deciding to sell my partnership our third partner asked what I was going to do? “Start up dm design Lab again?” - I never thought about it and that remark angered me because the decision to sell my partnership wasn’t easy and the partnership dissolving was due to emotional trauma and lack of relationship growth by the partnership. “What would I call myself?” I graduated college in 1992, did my tour of duty with other design firms until 1996, launched my business to financial success and it was time to grow once more into a new entity a new mature design firm. “What should I call myself? “
How It Came to be - MThree
I find it amusing how God enlightens artists, the mind puts the question out to the universe and if open enough one can find the answer in the most amazing of ways. I was valet parking my Toyota 4runner at a Las Vegas hotel when the valet asked me for my last name, I stated boldly “McElhattan the third” the valet stared at me as if i were speaking a foriegn language. (A normal response when I ’m prompted my last name,) so I just stated it and he said “no worries, M3” and put on the ticket M3! and thats how its the name came to be. the beautiful irony is clients loved the name but wanted to know what it meant - which became a filter in understanding most of my clients thought patterns. So I developed a simple message to those that didn’t quite get it at first: Meaning (understand what you do and how you do it) Message (develop the voice to communicate through design and words your message) and Mystery (allow the art of design to define and develop your corporate communications).
The Mysterious connections / meanings
As time passed more layers of the onion was revealed how special the name M3 is, various movies would use the letter “M” (Bond, Golden Compass) and the number “3’ (Mission Impossible 3, Will Smith’s son is named Tre, The Island -room number, etc..) I recently discovered M3 as a star in the part of the Canes Venatici Constellation. The letter M was named after Charles Messier, a French astronomer, a Messier object means Nebulae and Star Clusters. M3 is the third object he recorded and was later named as part of a constellation Canes Venatici the first galaxy recognized as having a spiral structure. The photo attached with this blog M3 is located on the bottom paw of the dog. The Canes Venatici is one of three constellations that represents dogs , along with Canis Major and Minor. Digging deeper into the symbolism and mystery was the year of my birth was known as the Year of the Dog, which ties in nicely to the constellation. Within this galaxy M3 is a Whirlpool Galaxywhich was discovered by Charles Messier on October 13, 1773. ( Ironically my daughters birthday is October 13 she shares her Birthday with Marie Osmund, Kelly Preston, Jerry Rice, and even Borat creator - Sacha Baron Cohen.)
Every day is a new discovery in the development and meaning of MThree, I welcome anyone to send any pictures of Threes or Letter M’s or combinations that show M3 to add to our Chronos series of calendars. After a three - year break they have been brought back to fruition to be received in 2009.
