Why Personal Branding Is So Important As A Graphic Designer
What comes to your mind when you think of a brand? Is it a clothing line, or maybe a phone manufacturer? What about a website or even a local restaurant? I’ll bet you can think of several brands just as you read this article. How do those brands make you feel? Do you feel loyalty to one brand over another brand? Now think of personal branding? What does that mean to you? For most people, it doesn’t have much of a meaning. The average person thinks of branding in terms of large companies and celebrities, but branding goes far beyond big enterprises and wealthy individuals.
Personal branding works the same way that corporate branding works. The only difference is that personal branding represents an individual, and corporate branding represents an entire company. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept branding; branding is the presentation of a company or individual. Some people confuse branding with a logo. A logo is related to branding in that it is a visual representation of a company or individual, but these terms are not interchangeable. When you think of Nike, you might immediately think of their swoosh logo. True, their logo is an iconic representation of the company, but that swoosh doesn’t encompass everything Nike stands for and believes in. The commercials they produce, the website layout and color choices, the design of their products, their social media presence, and their charitable contributions are all a part of Nike’s branding.
As technology continues to grow and advance, personal branding is becoming more important than ever. The increase in importance is caused mainly by the ease of access to information. You can learn a lot about a person just by looking them up online. There was a time where people could remain anonymous, but that isn’t the case anymore. Most of us understand the importance of not sharing inappropriate content online because it may be found by future employers. Successful careers have been cut short because of a social media scandal.
It’s been drilled into our heads over and over again, we need to present the best versions of ourselves online. What hasn’t been articulated well is what is considered to be the best version of ourselves. While there is no complete answer to that question, focusing on personal branding is a step in the right direction.
If you’re a professional designer, or you aim to be a professional designer, you need to spend some time working on your personal brand. Many designers don’t see the value of perfecting their brand because they don’t see themselves as a business. If you have at least one client, you’re a business. As a designer, you need to establish who you are, what you do, and what you believe in. Think about your buying habits and the companies you choose to support. When you’re asking people to spend their money, they have to believe in what they’re paying for. The more expensive something is, the more emotionally connected a customer has to feel before making that purchase.
Graphic design is a service based industry. This means you’ll work directly with clients to produce a product. Clients who feel comfortable with you will be the easiest to work with, and often they’ll come to you for all of their design needs. An added benefit of clear branding is that you’ll attract the customers who align with your beliefs. As a novice designer, this may not sound important. You might be thinking to yourself, “I don’t care what they believe in. I just care about getting paid.” If you’re not making a lot of money, getting paid will outweigh pretty much everything else. As you gain more clients and more financial freedom, having the right clients will become crucial. The more clients you work with, the less time you have to spend with each client and still live a well-rounded life. If you find yourself with clients that don’t match your belief system, your work will be miserable and unproductive.
Taking the necessary steps to improve your personal brand will lead to success in your industry and a better relationship with your clients. Establishing your brand can be as simple as providing a mission statement on your portfolio or website. You can add content pertaining to your hobbies and interests outside of the design work that you do. Be care of the content that you share online. As a professional, you want to make sure that any information that can be found about you directly represents your brand. Remember, most people that find you online have no knowledge of who you are. They will have to make an assessment of who you are based on the information they’ve found. If that information is negative, it can deter future clients from contacting you for services.
