phö q. The name that wasn’t afraid to get in trouble.

When we first came up with phö q, it wasn’t a joke.

It was a statement.

A middle finger wrapped in a bowl of soup.

We were tired of brands pretending to be brave while running every idea through a focus group. So we created something that couldn’t be sanitized. A name that made people flinch before they smiled. Because if you didn’t get it, you weren’t the audience anyway.

The film we made for it was a mash-up of movie clips, moments of rebellion, chaos, love, loss, beauty, absurdity. A cinematic mixtape for misfits and makers. No voiceover, no logo reveal. Just a visual manifesto that said, This is what it feels like to give a phö q.

It was the kind of thing you play loud on a projector in a bar, not present politely in a boardroom. And for a while, it felt right, the perfect flag to plant in a creative world allergic to risk.

But as the work grew, something shifted.

People stopped reacting to the spirit and started reacting to the name. The joke became the story, and the conversation we wanted, about boldness, honesty, and work that moves people, got buried under the laugh.

We realized we didn’t want to be defined by provocation. We wanted to be defined by belief.

So we let the name go.

phö q was never about saying “fuck you.”

It was about saying “fuck it”, let’s make something real.

And that idea didn’t die with the name. It evolved into VAKA, still irreverent, still fearless, just stripped of the smirk.

Because sometimes, growing up as a creative brand doesn’t mean calming down.

It just means aiming higher.