Self Branding Reflection - 1

Self branding over the years

Over the past years, I think I’ve rebranded myself at least five times, I find Branding yourself a particularly difficult task as it means identifying yourself as a designer, as when you have clients or your trying to get the attention off someone in the industry the first thing they will see is your brand, so it’s important you show your personality and work you do.

The Past few years my work has been based round being a traditional print enthusiast, so I’d create more traditional typography (image 1.) using, serif instead of sans – serif for example. But unfortunately, I never really had a concept behind the logo that I was creating, I think the main reason for this was due to not understanding who I am as a designer, however I don’t think there’s a solid description as inspiration is consistently changing.

Who was I then, to who I am now?

From the beginning, I was a stubborn designer, I had very little confidents it what I’d create, I didn’t enjoy digital design, print, print, print all the way! I’d create branding for myself which was very narrow, where there wasn’t much room for adaptability, this resulted in really out of date branding, and it went from being personal to ‘this isn’t me’. (Image 1.) 

Image 1.

Reattempting to re – brand myself I took influences from the first logo, using the concept of lines to keep it, edgy and traditional but used more of a contemporary font shape, using serif which is more rounded and friendly to the eye. From research into branding and talks from, people of print, and colours may vary, a common factor was mentioned, branding should be kept simple and eye catching.  So this logo creation was designed to be used on multiplatform medias. However, a main lack in this logo was my personality and how it reflected on me as a person, it was very square and boring, so for this reason I decided to rebrand myself. ( Image 2.) 

Image 2. 

During the last few years things have changed, I’ve come to the realisation that digital is needed in this day and age and needed to stay up to date with the industry, it’s essential to get skills in the digital market. So, I’ve become, open minded, spontaneous, experimental as a designer and confident in my work. Looking back through my work, the more experimental work created is the far more successful.

Through the past three years, I’ve reflected a lot on my practice and the work I enjoy the most, and in the past, I have gone for more traditional logo designs rather than contemporary, but this year I really wanted to tackle, traditional with contemporary. I think it’s important to have a concept behind your brand, you can change the look of your brand as many times as you want, but personally I feel the concept should always be the same or even just adapted to be more in depth.