Personal Branding Product Designer Patryk Kopeć.
Wait… What is the purpose of it and why I need this?
Before we start talking about what I have done, feel free to take a look at my live website or presentation with brand rules so it will be easier to understand what I am trying to convey.
It is so great feeling that I can finally share with you guys my newest project!
Personal Branding
How they see you, that’s how they perceive you.
It’s undoubtedly as old as humanity itself. People have been thinking for hundreds of years about how they are perceived by others, what others say about them. Therefore, the idea of caring for your own image is nothing new. However, the idea to treat your own image in marketing terms as a product is something completely new.
Designing a brand for a one-man business Product Designer Patryk Kopeć I focused on creating a unique brand that is based on authenticity and sincerity. At the very beginning, we should set the goal we want to achieve. The first goal was to take up the challenge and try to face the most difficult client I had so far - myself. I had to realize what kind of person I am, what are my character traits and why I want to do this. I set my goal clearly. Thanks to graphic design I did and individual approach to the things, I want to stand out from the crowd. I can gain greater confidence and expand my contacts with ambitious people who will bring something more to my life.
The Personality of the Brand
You can set a personality to any brand. An important factor characterizing my brand will be authenticity. I want my brand to be based on my true history, be honest and faithful to my values. The quality of my products has always been important to me. From the very beginning of my business, I have been striving to ensure that my graphic designs were the best and that the customer was always satisfied and finally received the product he expected.
A Product Designer Obsessed Over Each F***ing Detail.
Target Group
Target group means a collection of specific people and companies to which we intend to direct our branding activities. When choosing a target group, you can be guided by various criteria e.g. age, sex, education, profession, place of residence, earnings, expenses, etc. Thanks to this, it is easier to determine the profile of the potential client to whom the branding will be directed. Identifying your target audience should be an integral part of your Personal Branding strategy. In my case, the target group will be (independently of age) mainly graphic designers, as well as heads of companies or recruiters on LinkedIn portals.
The Way of Communication
On the other hand, it’s nice to determine how a brand should talk to people and about yourself. Using valuable and appropriate words with which the brand identifies is important because the way we communicate translates into how we are perceived. These words should express ourselves and be consistent with the whole brand image. The language we use should be consistent, understandable and adapted to the recipient as well.
Visual Brand Identity
Nowadays, it is difficult to imagine a company that does not have a logo, which is the main identifier of almost all brands. Other elements such as colors, typography, slogans, tone of voice, “look and feel” are also very important. All of these creates a visual system together. In my project, I decided to use mainly simplicity.
Identity Sign
I decided to design my Identity Sign in two language versions: Polish 🇵🇱 and English 🇺🇸. The logo which is main and most important is a sign with a Polish name. By creating a logo in two language versions, I wanted to show my activity on the Polish and American market. I divided a logo into two parts, which were distinguished by two colors, i.e. black and gray, and a vertical line placed in the middle. The first black part is constant. The second gray part is changing. To illustrate this well, I designed a short and simple animation combining both signs.
Website
Thanks to my Personal Branding, I want to let you know who I am, what I do, what is my professional experience, skills, and set of my projects, which I had the opportunity and pleasure to work on. The whole website has been divided into subpages such as Projects, About, Case Study of each project and Articles (redirecting to my Medium profile). I designed the website in Sketch and built it in Webflow.
- Homepage - Looking at the page from the beginning, you can see constant elements that appear on each subpage to make it feel consistent. These are elements such as logo, navigation, header with a big headline with two short descriptions that change their content in relation to the subpage. This is the page where I decided to highlight my favorites projects that I designed. Thanks to this, the user can get to know about the graphic style I represent and notice my individual approach to each project. Below, I decided to put the footer, which is also a permanent element and appears in the same form on every subpage.
- About - This is a subpage that is designed to convey information regarding my professional experience in the easiest possible way. I decided to mention where I worked and where I gained knowledge about what I do. Below, I placed a gallery with a few photos of me as well. In the past, I got several awards on the global Behance portal, which is a big achievement for me. Therefore I decided to show it. Just above the footer, you can see a section with my articles. Probably the content of each article is not anything special, but I decided to try and write something to upgrade my skills and English as well - I hate writing 💔
- Case Study - This is a subpage that required a lot of time and concentration from me. I had to gather all the information about the project and put it in an attractive way presenting this project in detail. At the very top of the subpage, you can see the Cover Photo, which is a photo that is designed to give the right atmosphere to the designated project. The essence of each subpage of the Case Study is the branding section, which shows all designed graphic elements, i.e. logo, typography, colors, buttons, spaces, headers and rules for their use. Feel free to check how it looks for my Personal Branding.
Webflow
Thanks to the Webflow tool, I was able to implement previously prepared graphic designs into life, without any programming skills.
Colors
After many attempts, I decided to limit the colors to a minimum, thus not aiming to deprive the personality of my own brand. I decided to use mainly colors such as white, gray and black. The main purpose of this decision was to keep the design as transparent as possible, along with minimalism and simplicity. By creating a “transparent” background, each project stands out individually in its own way, e.g. making the thumbnails on the homepage more visible and expressive.
Typography
I decided to combine classic and minimalism here as well. Big headlines and small notes were built using a sans serif font called Eina02, while the rest of the text is based on the serif font which is called Droid Serif. Searching for the appropriate two fonts, I was mainly guided by criteria such as simplicity, readability, minimalism, classic, elegance, and professionalism of design. Both typefaces have many variations of thickness, which is undoubtedly one of their many advantages. Due to the fact that the website I create and the rest of the brand materials were created in both Polish and English, it was also important for me that both fonts should have Polish characters.
Brand Assets
Having already designed the logo and the rest of things like colors, typography, etc. , I could go a step further and design advertising stuff, including business cards. I know from personal experience that it’s really worth having designed & printed this kind of things. A good example would be an interview for a new job, where we try to present our person in the best way. It is really worth to share, e.g. business cards, to make an even greater impression on the client, recipient.
- Business Cards - In their case, the graphic design, as well as the weight and texture of the paper, is very important. I used a consistent style in accordance with the principles of my brand rules. I used standard dimension in the vertical version - 90mm x 55mm. I also included bleeds that are 3mm on each side. I used a white and black paper called Keaykolour Original (600g in total). I also decided on colored edges using Pantone 877u. The project was created in Adobe Illustrator CC 2019 and realized in one of Polish printing house.
Social Media
In recent years, many great tools and social networking sites have been created that give us many opportunities to promote ourselves. By analyzing them in terms of the possibility of using them to build your own brand, I divided these sites into four categories. The first group is dedicated to build a business image. LinkedIn belongs to this group. It’s a place where you can find information about employers, professional duties, skills, and education. The second group is dedicated to websites like Facebook, Twitter, which are used to make contacts and search for thematic profiles and discussion groups. The third group is dedicated to posting your designs, videos or just things you want to share and interact with others. To this group belongs Dribbble, Behance, Instagram, Youtube. The last group is dedicated to mobile applications e.g. Snapchat, which is used to send text and graphic information about yourself. All of these websites have their own specifics, their own goals of functioning and their own communication method acceptable to their users. In my case, I decided to publish content on Dribbble, Behance, LinkedIn, Instagram (YouTube very soon).
Mentors
Having a mentor, i.e. a person who is able to help, advise and direct you on the right path, is undoubtedly very necessary and even advisable, especially at the very beginning of your professional career. It should be remembered that everyone learns throughout their lives, but it is always the hardest at the beginning. Sometimes we are not able to appreciate our skills ourselves or we just can’t even see them. It is good to have a person who is ready to help you in learning, making decisions and has an impact on how your future career will go. From the beginning of my adventure with design, I was so lucky that I find honest people who wanted to help me selflessly. Thanks to them I learned a lot of new things in recent years, met amazing and incredibly talented people I had opportunity to work with and what is the most important thing, I am very happy and proud of what I achieved so far. I am waiting for new challenges as well!
Summary
My main goal, which I set up at the very beginning, was to create a Personal Branding for my company which is called the Product Designer Patryk Kopeć. Nowadays, more and more people are deciding to develop themselves, or their business activities on the Internet. They care about how they will be perceived by other people. Creating a unique style, visual identity sign and the rest of the brand & advertising materials is crucial here. In my case, creating a Personal Branding can have many positive effects e.g. I am able to increase my chances of getting my dream job in a company where I would like to work. It can increase my reach on the Internet, expand my circle of friends by new people, as well as build my greater self-confidence and strengthen my market position. I realized how much time and knowledge is needed to create a unique and consistent style. The project was a huge challenge for me, thanks to which I was able to learn a lot of new things about design and about myself as well.
Don’t forget to take a look at my live website 👈
As the last step, I want to say that thanks to this project I got a Master Degree in Design & Creating Media field at University in Poland. Woohooooooo!! Thank you for your time! I really appreciate it 👏
Got a question?
If yes, feel free to send me a message on hello@patrykkopec.com 💪
