Crafting Your Personal Brand
It’s safe to say that most people don’t think about their personal brand until they are on the job market or about to go in for an interview. As a former technical recruiter, I reviewed hundreds of resumes and portfolios. There were very few that stood out. Why is creating a personal brand so difficult? It turns out that distilling down the essence of who you are and where you want to go is incredibly challenging! Our brand studio class is currently going through this process, here are a few tips to get started:
Choose an Archetype
Archetypes were created by psychologist Carl Jung to symbolize basic human motivations. There many resources to review the 12 main archetypes and to start to think though the personality of your brand. I felt that the explorer was most representative of my brand-someone who is seeking out new experiences around the world. Now that I’ve identified the explorer, I can start to work on personalization.
Mood Boards
A mood board is a great tool to explore things like the color, typography and the general feel for your personal brand. I looked to the iconic designer, Massimo Vignelli, for inspiration. I used Pinterest to organize my ideas and to develop several different options that I will eventually use on my website.
Mission Statement
I’ve spent many hours in boardrooms working on mission statements and it’s never fun. I’m still working through this part of the process, this video describes the main components of a mission statement:
Crafting a personal brand is a lot of work, but helpful in the long-run. Students in this program will continue to work on this project throughout the year. Next summer we will have a solid portfolio as well as a clear vision of the designers we aspire to be.
