OUGD603 - Personal Branding Development

To begin developing the concept, it was necessary to first consider the formats in which the personal branding could be applied. This meant thinking about how my practice will develop after the course and what promotional material may be needed for the chance to gain employment. Using Behance as a source of inspiration to the materials, I found that many existing designers would create their own business card. Therefore, I decided to start by applying the concept to a business card of my own.

In order for this idea to work in an online portfolio context, I decided to add the design to a mock up that could potentially be used for online promotion. In addition to this, I had 100 physical copies of the card printed using a off-white coloured recycled paper. This would reflect some of my sustainability awareness within my practice. Using Gill Sans MT Bold for the front of the card, the viewer is shown I am a graphic designer. On the back, using Avenir Black, the card states what it is I specialise in. At the bottom, using Avenir Light, the card shows potential clients or contacts how to see work posted online and how to get in touch.

In order to design content that would work to promote my portfolio both to studios and clients, I decided to design 3 documents that could be used to handle business transactions in the near future.

Applying the personal branding identity to these documents, allows clients or potential commissioners to see the professional potential of this identity and the many ways it is applied throughout my work.

Having previously studied online examples of these documents, it became clear what I would need to include in order for contacts to understand who I am as a designer and what I would be proposing.

I started by creating an introduction letter, titled 'Who I am'. This gave viewers a brief summary of my practice, experience and references.

The next document was a proposal letter, which would be used to inform the client or commissioner of the financial information and payments, based on my hourly rate. I used the navy blue colour for the header and the light blue for the body text boxes. In the background there is a subtle pattern of the shape of the logo.

The tax invoice document contains the name of the project, the date in which it was set, reference numbers and descriptions of the service. This document was designed in the same way that the proposal letter had been, so that the two would correspond in relevance to one another and show clients they are both needed.

At this stage, I feel that these documents could be developed further so that the information included is clear and the audience are aware of the intentions of these documents.

Creating mock ups of the personal branding items, made it easier to understand how these features would look as real documents. It also provided the online promotion with more sophisticated imagery to use when trying to appeal to contacts.