Personal Branding: David Wheeler
With the Future in Mind
Project Date: Summer 2023
Project Role: For this task, I held the full responsibility for every aspect of design, decision-making, and vision. This was a solo assignment so I didn’t need to share the process with a colleague.
Project Overview: I was tasked to create a one page personal style guide. This would become a showcase of who I am as a designer as well as what I bring to the table to potential clients, employers, and teams.
The Challenge: You must see good designs from a designer to know that they are a good one. Not only did I need to consciously think about typography, color usage, font weights, etc; I need a guide to use to ensure the personal brand surrounding David Wheeler is purposeful, aesthetically pleasing, and most importantly, cohesive.
The Solution: I’ve always heard “dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” My resume, my portfolio, and all work I put forward to showcase myself as a designer will be dressed for the job I want. If my personal branding is worth a grain of salt then you can already tell I’d like to be working in the music industry.
With that being said, I couldn’t just think of the end goal. I had to consider my starting point and where I’m at now. I took color inspiration from UGA’s logo and chose to use a similar red for it’s ferocity. Aside from intensity being a selling point, I wanted it to feel clean and trustworthy.
Tag lines were tossing around in my mind. Once again I saw the finish line. If every dream of mine would come true, I’d have my own record label and that what this is my beginning branding for. I settled on: Your Music, My Passion. And I believe that would properly convey exactly what it is that I do.
Results: I was very pleased with the results of this project. I started with a lettermark logo and decided to use my full name. The Record was originally going to be in the shape of a D. I played around with the idea but ultimately it was just a bit too unprofessional. The symbol gave me the perfect solution. I could use the record similar to Target and it’s red logo. I’ll be able to use my style guide to make my webpages seem cohesive in forthcoming projects, particularly the EM Dossier.
