OVNI Labs

Let me just say up front that I am not a UFO “believer”.  The name came about because I wanted to start making and selling effects pedals, and I wanted a brand name; it had to be fairly short, sort of futuristic or technological, with an international flavor, and where the web domain name was not already taken.  So I came up with “OVNIFX”.  “OVNI” means “UFO” in Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Italian; it stands for Objecto Volante (or Volador) No Identificado.  And it seems like “FX” is understood in most of these places as well.

Since the market is already flooded with small-time pedal builders, I decided to put the effects business on hold until I complete a degree in electronic engineering–I have about two to three more years left. In the meantime, I wanted to give my existing compressor-reviews page more of a professional identity, so I figured that the “testing laboratory” of OVNIFX would naturally be called OVNI Lab (or Labs).

Only after going ahead with that, and spreading the links around, did it occur to me to Google “OVNI Labs”; I discovered that there is a person already using that name for their prolific message-board posts on the subject of UFO’s.  *forehead smack* Should have known.  Oh well–I got the domain and they didn’t.  Kind of the same thing with my old website about bongo drums, bongomania.com–Googling it turns up mostly posts about a headshop in Germany called Bongomania (they sell bongs).