What’s in a name?

Why did I choose “Primal” for the name of my company? What’s primitive about tissue paper and hot glue?

When it came time to choose a name, my partner encouraged me to emphasize the quality of my work, something that indicated “top-tier" or “first and best.” I initially landed on “prime” because, as a singular word, it encapsulates all I was trying to express. But, competing with mega-corporation Amazon isn’t a part of my business plan.

This conversation about names happened the same day that I had returned from a weekend at the beach with my family. While relaxing together, we spent hours making the most elaborate city made of sand - complete with shell cemetery, moat, fields of seaweed, and a traditional sandcastle - and left the structure intact when we turned in for the day. We watched, from the porch of the beach house, while other families stopped and took pictures or climbed around what we’d built. It was exciting to see so many other people enjoy what we had assembled, despite knowing that structures made of sand are, ultimately, made to crumble.

It was this memory, of such intense joy being built into an object that would not - could not - last, that led me from “prime” to “primal.”

“There’s a celebration in the act of creating and there’s a totally different celebration in decimating something without any negative consequences. That’s what I wanted to embody with my piñatas: the primal joy of creation and the primal catharsis of destruction.”

Thus, Primal Piñatas was born.