What Does Atto Mean?

Derek Mah Attoboy Logo
Yep, logo and website, attoboy.com

atto – (ǎ’•tōh) one quintillionth or 10-18 of a unit; a metric division, as in micro or nano; very very small

Back when I held the belief that it was necessary (fashionable?) to maintain a studio name for myself, atto came to the fore. The term combines the precision of math and science with a looser feel, which is how people might describe me.

Options such as Blue Cheese Design, Loco•Motive, and Cornerstone had preceded it. Yes, the initial forays began with cheese, and ended with a brick.

Part of the appeal of the term, especially when it was the smallest metric division1, is the implication of working to the finest detail or of digging deeper to reveal the finest detail. It fit my approach. Thus was born attoboy.com, which begat atto-site-o-matic, attotales, attotunes, attostream, atto-anime-o-matic, the fortress of attotude… you get the idea. atto was a prefix for pretty much every personal project and initiative in those early days.

The attothoughts tag carries forward as a reminder and continuation of that legacy. It was goofy, but I am proud of it. Detail, math, science, and fun remain integral considerations in everything. It seems appropriate to tag these thought meanderings accordingly.

Derek Mah Atto boy moon cats flame