PPP - Studio Brief 02 - Self Branding - Idea Generation

In order to create a successful identity for myself I knew I had to look closely at what my beliefs were as a designer and the sort of mood I want to give off to people who interact with my identity. I decided the best way to do this would be to make a simple brainstorm of my hobbies and interests, and what I am interested in in terms of design specifically. With this in mind, I would be able to make an identity related to this that would convey my personality quickly to an employer or client.

I knew I wanted to convey my fascination with modernist design especially, so that was going to be my starting point for the design aspect of the identity.

I first drafted a brainstorm with information about me, to try and work out what elements I should portray to employers about myself, such as hobbies and my design ethos. I have always been a strong believer that communication is the main element in graphic design for a client. Without communication, it's extremely difficult to find a common ground in a final piece of work. I believe in creating a strong relationship with a client, by doing that you are able to create work that really is appreciated. To achieve this, I had to brand myself quite informally. I had to create a business card I could hand an employer after a conversation and get them to remember me from my business card alone.

PPP - Studio Brief 02 - Self Branding - Research

My initial research involved trying to create a persona for myself. I needed to establish clearly my design principles, my clear style and my personal interests. In doing this I would be able to create an identity that clearly represents me and I would be able to produce informed content that is tailored to me specifically enough that I can create something original and lasting. I decided to have a look at some personal branding on sites such as Behance and Pinterest to jump-start my research, as I find that looking at the trends in branding can usually inspire me and speed up my idea generation process.

I personally never liked self-branding that doesn't have a strong link to the designers ethos and beliefs. Looking through many of the branding identities that I found on behance left me wondering how strong the relation between the person and their branding persona was, some examples I will talk about below.

BROX GRAPHIC DESIGN

This was a project I saw on Behance that had no clear reason behind it to me. It looks effective aesthetically but had no justification for the design choices made which is something I want to avoid doing.

RUTA GRAPHIC DESIGN

This was a project I saw again on Behance that had more of a relation to the designer themselves, with the symbol of a pencil matching their design style.

This concept is far stronger than the concept above, with clear relation to the designer themselves, and presents itself with a sense of personality and playfulness which I think would appeal to a client or employer far more than a good-looking but bland in personality identity such as BROX.

ABBAS MUSHTAQ

This is another example of an identity I like as it incorporates the designers beliefs and what they want to give off to clients/employers.

A quote from Abbas' Behance project: 

"I wanted to step away from the common trend when it comes to branding - the use of initials to create a logo or badge, instead I took my first initial and added a + sign after it, which commonly is a mark for excellent. While branding myself as excellent is a clear marker in itself, the + sign has many connotations including...

+Positivity
+Health
+Progression*
+Collaboration*
The bottom two in the list are the two most important to me as an emerging Graphic Designer. Progression is close to me as I'm a designer constantly seeking to learn, improve and progress my knowledge and expertise. Collaboration is an increasingly important and vital part of my design practice, so it's now an important part of my branding. Abbas+ also creates an immediate relationship and feeling of collaboration, across my portfolio and website, so for example if I am commissioned by Nike, the project will be titled Abbas+Nike, creating much more of a relationship and essence of collaboration, even in the name. This is essential to me and my practice."

You can tell that Abbas has thought thoroughly about this project with many elements being covered. This is something I will definitely take inspiration from as it has clear connotations and will give a sense of originality when he is pitching an idea to a client or trying to secure a job position at a studio.

Design Principles - Studio Brief 2 - Initial Research

I decided to undertake initial research into existing blog/magazine hybrids in order to ascertain some knowledge on what makes magazines successful, and the characteristics of a successful magazine speaking in terms of specifically layout and guiding the reader.

DWELL