When Squarespace founder Anthony Casalena first engineered his design platform with a $30,000 investment from his father in 2003, all he had was a small dorm room “office” at the University of Maryland, a computer and some serious willpower. Squarespace was one of the first of its kind: a one-stop design solution that made it simple to create a beautiful site with ease. However, from the moment Squarespace first came onto the scene, people have been comparing it to its main competitor: WordPress. Make a quick Google search about the benefits of Squarespace and you will instantly find a number of results like “Squarespace vs. WordPress” or “Why I Cheated on WordPress with Squarespace,” etc. etc. As the younger competitor, it’s easy to see Squarespace as the amateur newbie. But is it?Squarespace’s mission is to “provide creative tools that help anyone give a voice to their ideas,” and it seems to be just that: the holy grail for anyone looking for a simple but beautiful way to frame what they have to say online. From designers and engineers to artists and musicians, small business owners, large business owners…anyone can find their place at Squarespace. In fact, they were so convinced that the Squarespace platform was ideal, the company built its own website using Squarespace – continually designing products they would want to use themselves. Their philosophy? Simple, beautiful and full of excellence.
Why is it called Squarespace?
Unfortunately, we haven’t be able to discover the inspiration behind the brand name. We’ve scoured Google, Bing, Wikipedia, Quora and pushed out some tweets, but still can’t find out how Anthony landed on the brand name Squarespace. Although we could easily make a few assumption, we’d prefer the story to be accurate. That being said, we’d like to open up the question to our readers – How did Squarespace get its name? Please comment below if you have some intel.
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There is no doubt that Squarespace has made its mark – and a powerful one at that. Over the course of its existence, Squarespace has received a number of awards including one of Time Magazine’s 50 Best Websites of 2012, one of Forbes’ Most Promising Companies in 2013, 4 Webby Awards and the #3 Best Small-Medium Company to Work For in Fortune Magazine’s September 2014 issue. The company has raised over $78.5 million and with positive word of mouth on its side, the company has burst with life and growth, so much so that Casalena estimates that Squarespace registers more than 1,000 new customers each day, all seeking to “Create Their Own Space.” Here is an example of a chalk artist who uses Squarespace for her website, Tanamachi Studio:
For Tanamachi, Squarespace is “a dream come true.” In a recent interview with Squarespace, this is how she described her experience: “I have tried a few different website-building services but always felt extremely limited in terms of design and usability. It works for me because I’m not someone who has the time or interest to spend hours upon hours online when there’s work to be done and art to be made…it’s built for visual people like myself. I have no background in coding or the technical side of websites, so features like the column width slider are lifesavers. Being able to preview what your changes will look like in real time is genius!”
What do you think of the Squarespace platform? Does it live up to the hype? Comment below! #WhyIsitcalledSquarespace
Lauren Cosgrove is a freelance writer passionate about branding, global issues, and the world’s little mysteries. A Pacific Northwest native, Lauren can be found hiking the great outdoors, practicing her dance steps, or illustrating children’s books.
I don’t know why they called it “Squarespace.” I clicked this article to find out……..