What are some good workplace-friendly collections of 8 things?
June 20, 2016 10:04 AM Subscribe
So my department of 8 people has decided to give everyone an icon to represent us on our planning board. We can choose the theme. Other teams have chosen things like Star Wars Lego characters or Marvel superheroes.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves has been suggested as a group of 8. But there must be something better!
The Brady Bunch (without Alice)?
posted by mefireader at 10:08 AM on June 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by mefireader at 10:08 AM on June 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
Planets.
posted by kevinbelt at 10:11 AM on June 20, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by kevinbelt at 10:11 AM on June 20, 2016 [5 favorites]
The Stark family (Ned, Catelyn, Robb, Sansa, Bran, Arya, Rickon, Jon) from Game of Thrones.
posted by erst at 10:13 AM on June 20, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by erst at 10:13 AM on June 20, 2016 [4 favorites]
do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do'
The G8. Could be fun because you could all have flags.
posted by sparklemotion at 10:13 AM on June 20, 2016 [7 favorites]
The G8. Could be fun because you could all have flags.
posted by sparklemotion at 10:13 AM on June 20, 2016 [7 favorites]
I would go with either the Ogdoad of Hermopolis or the kids from Eight Is Enough
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:15 AM on June 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:15 AM on June 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
Eight star trek characters (Kirk, Data, Janeway, pick your spin off).
posted by Kalmya at 10:16 AM on June 20, 2016
posted by Kalmya at 10:16 AM on June 20, 2016
Does it have to be cleverly 8 things, or just 8 recognizable things? Animals, vegetables or fruit, easily-iconized food (taco, pizza, hamburger, hoagie, ice cream, cake/cupcake, pie, stack of pancakes, french fries, hot dog, turkey leg, giant pickle, bacon, fried or in-shell egg, cup of coffee, etc etc), types of transportation (car, bus, train, airplane, boat, bicycle, motorcycle, skateboard).
I'd be super irritated if I was required to know comic book characters or whatever to participate in office culture. In icon form I'd be hard-pressed to tell dwarves or planets apart. If these are just little avatars that sit next to names, it would be less of a big deal.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:28 AM on June 20, 2016 [10 favorites]
I'd be super irritated if I was required to know comic book characters or whatever to participate in office culture. In icon form I'd be hard-pressed to tell dwarves or planets apart. If these are just little avatars that sit next to names, it would be less of a big deal.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:28 AM on June 20, 2016 [10 favorites]
Does it have to be exact? Let each one choose an astrological symbol. Or Tarot. or bird. Or Toy Story toy.
posted by sammyo at 10:29 AM on June 20, 2016
posted by sammyo at 10:29 AM on June 20, 2016
Monopoly tokens
posted by maggieb at 10:29 AM on June 20, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by maggieb at 10:29 AM on June 20, 2016 [3 favorites]
The colors of the spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, octarine.
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:31 AM on June 20, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:31 AM on June 20, 2016 [5 favorites]
Classic Pogues lineup: Shane MacGowan, Spider Stacey, Jem Finer, James Feamley, Darryl Hunt, Andrew Ranking, Philp Chevron, Dave Coulter
Or 70s era Chicago: Robert Lamm, Peter Cetera, Terry Keith, Lee Loughnane, James Pankow, Walter Parazaider, Danny Seraphine, Laudir de Oliveira
Proof in both cases that you can be in a really popular band, but if there are eight people in it there's a good chance nobody will know who the hell you are.
posted by layceepee at 10:33 AM on June 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
Or 70s era Chicago: Robert Lamm, Peter Cetera, Terry Keith, Lee Loughnane, James Pankow, Walter Parazaider, Danny Seraphine, Laudir de Oliveira
Proof in both cases that you can be in a really popular band, but if there are eight people in it there's a good chance nobody will know who the hell you are.
posted by layceepee at 10:33 AM on June 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
posted by dywypi at 10:35 AM on June 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by dywypi at 10:35 AM on June 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
Shapes, colors, letters/numbers/initials, musical instruments, vehicles/transportation, plants, hazard symbols, playing card/zener card/tarot suits, or any of the gestures from Rock-Paper-Scissors 15.
posted by sambosambo at 10:45 AM on June 20, 2016
posted by sambosambo at 10:45 AM on June 20, 2016
Oh, I bet it would be fun for everyone to choose their favorite movie alien, robot, or monster. I'm sure there's lots of options there too.
posted by sambosambo at 10:47 AM on June 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by sambosambo at 10:47 AM on June 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
King, Queen, Rook, Bishop, Knight, Pawn, Iron, Top Hat.
posted by bondcliff at 10:54 AM on June 20, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by bondcliff at 10:54 AM on June 20, 2016 [4 favorites]
Pokemon gym badges come in groups of 8.
posted by specialagentwebb at 10:57 AM on June 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by specialagentwebb at 10:57 AM on June 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
Houses of Westeros
Stark, Arryn, Frey, Greyjoy, Lannister, Tyrell, Baratheon, Targaryen (you could swap in Martell or Tully if no one wants to be the Freys)
posted by Rock Steady at 11:01 AM on June 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
Stark, Arryn, Frey, Greyjoy, Lannister, Tyrell, Baratheon, Targaryen (you could swap in Martell or Tully if no one wants to be the Freys)
posted by Rock Steady at 11:01 AM on June 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
leg 1, leg 2, leg 3, leg 4, leg 5, leg 6, leg 7, leg 8 of a (really bitchin') spider
posted by bologna on wry at 11:01 AM on June 20, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by bologna on wry at 11:01 AM on June 20, 2016 [7 favorites]
kids from Eight Is Enough
never mind I vote for this one
posted by bologna on wry at 11:01 AM on June 20, 2016
never mind I vote for this one
posted by bologna on wry at 11:01 AM on June 20, 2016
is fixing a exactly 8 going to cause problems if your group employs more people?
at an old job of mine we used beer names (spitfire, old peculiar, etc etc) - not sure if that is workplace-friendly in the usa though. arabic star names are also pretty cool (h/t old coworker who wanted to use them for computer names).
posted by andrewcooke at 11:10 AM on June 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
at an old job of mine we used beer names (spitfire, old peculiar, etc etc) - not sure if that is workplace-friendly in the usa though. arabic star names are also pretty cool (h/t old coworker who wanted to use them for computer names).
posted by andrewcooke at 11:10 AM on June 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
The constellation of Orion. Your team members can have cool code names like Rigel, Bellatrix, Mintaka, Alnilam, Alnitak, Saiph and Betelgeuse. Now I know some astronomy purists will contend that there are only seven major stars in the group, but you need one of the minor stars-- Meissa-- to complete the head, and another-- Hatsya-- to form the tip of Orion's sword. This is useful in case you get another team member! You can keep the logo and expand or contract with changes in the size of your workgroup. Also, Orion is one of the most recognizable of the constellations.
posted by seasparrow at 11:11 AM on June 20, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by seasparrow at 11:11 AM on June 20, 2016 [3 favorites]
Cars? Matchbox cars (do they still have those?) or the characters from the Disney movie.
posted by BoscosMom at 11:15 AM on June 20, 2016
posted by BoscosMom at 11:15 AM on June 20, 2016
The Von Trapp family?
posted by yes I said yes I will Yes at 11:19 AM on June 20, 2016
posted by yes I said yes I will Yes at 11:19 AM on June 20, 2016
Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, and a sesame seed bun. (Do you have to be a certain age to get this?)
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 11:25 AM on June 20, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 11:25 AM on June 20, 2016 [3 favorites]
card suits: red heart, club, diamond, spade; black heart, club, diamond, spade
posted by current resident at 11:28 AM on June 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by current resident at 11:28 AM on June 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
Maybe this is too appropriative, but I thought of the Eight Auspicious Symbols from Buddhism.
posted by AFABulous at 11:28 AM on June 20, 2016
posted by AFABulous at 11:28 AM on June 20, 2016
eight parts of speech in English: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection.
I found this by seeing what auto-complete gave for "8 types of"
posted by amtho at 11:36 AM on June 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
I found this by seeing what auto-complete gave for "8 types of"
posted by amtho at 11:36 AM on June 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
Eight position players (I.e. not pitchers) in baseball.
posted by SemiSalt at 11:47 AM on June 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by SemiSalt at 11:47 AM on June 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
Maybe it's too much like the other teams, but Skylanders (toys/games) have eight "elements" and there are a range of different characters from each element to pick from, with lots of art/graphics/symbols/toys.
(Well, the first three Skylanders games have 8 elements, the fourth game had a couple of secret extra ones)
posted by anonymisc at 11:56 AM on June 20, 2016
(Well, the first three Skylanders games have 8 elements, the fourth game had a couple of secret extra ones)
posted by anonymisc at 11:56 AM on June 20, 2016
Characters from The Office?
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 12:12 PM on June 20, 2016
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 12:12 PM on June 20, 2016
Wine grape varietals. (Chardonnay, Syrah, Petit Verdot, Malbec, Merlot, Grenache, Sangiovese, Riesling, etc.)
posted by DuckGirl at 12:12 PM on June 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by DuckGirl at 12:12 PM on June 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
How about the eight Led Zeppelin albums (not counting Coda, because why would you). Each has a pretty distinctive cover, although you may have to blur out kid butts on Houses of the Holy I guess...
posted by saladin at 12:32 PM on June 20, 2016
posted by saladin at 12:32 PM on June 20, 2016
Best answer: Characters from the board game Clue.
posted by yesster at 1:14 PM on June 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by yesster at 1:14 PM on June 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
The Fellowship of The Ring was 9, but noone wants to be the Ringbearer right?
posted by quinndexter at 3:51 PM on June 20, 2016
posted by quinndexter at 3:51 PM on June 20, 2016
We had to do this for a particularly twee icebreaker once and because the suggestions of "use star trek characters" annoyed us as scientists who are not actually at all into nerd culture or icebreakers we chose the seven deadly sins for our group plus we made up an eight which was replying all. Another group chose their favourite diseases, from House mostly, and another chose their favourite poisonous plants because they are botanists. This is about when the facilitator realised it was going to be a long day. Still I think the slightly subversive names did give it groups a sense of cohesion and we bonded over choosing them so he won in the end. I'd make it a fun group activity to choose your theme if I were you.
posted by fshgrl at 4:16 PM on June 20, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by fshgrl at 4:16 PM on June 20, 2016 [5 favorites]
There are 13 major gods in the Greek Pantheon, half of them are women, and they all have bad-ass names.
posted by ejs at 4:19 PM on June 20, 2016
posted by ejs at 4:19 PM on June 20, 2016
I agree with the other commenters who expressed that they would not like to need to 'get' a pop culture reference to fit in. For that reason, I would not suggest Game of Thrones, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, video games, comic books, or bands.
posted by thewestinggame at 4:23 PM on June 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by thewestinggame at 4:23 PM on June 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
The Eight Immortals of Chinese mythology.
There are currently 8 justices on the Supreme Court.
posted by MexicanYenta at 7:50 PM on June 20, 2016
There are currently 8 justices on the Supreme Court.
posted by MexicanYenta at 7:50 PM on June 20, 2016
This list allows for considerable growth in the department: Wendy, Sandy, Madame Marie, Candy, Power Thirteen, Little Angel, Young Scott, Little Early Pearly, Diamond Jackie, Crazey Janey, Hazy Davey, Bad Scooter, Big Man, etc....
posted by she's not there at 4:22 AM on June 21, 2016
posted by she's not there at 4:22 AM on June 21, 2016
Muppets, ice-cream flavours, Simpsons characters, chess pieces, fruits, words for wind (like zephyr, mistral, etc).
posted by harriet vane at 4:28 AM on June 21, 2016
posted by harriet vane at 4:28 AM on June 21, 2016
Little paper cut-outs in plain black suits with different coloured sticky dots for heads. Then you can have Blonde (yellow), Blue, Brown, Orange, Pink, and White. Team leader gets a beige circle and gets to be Joe. Second in command gets a blue and purple suit and can be Nice Guy Eddie.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 11:05 PM on June 21, 2016
posted by obiwanwasabi at 11:05 PM on June 21, 2016
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:08 AM on June 20, 2016 [2 favorites]