01 | Self-branding
WEEK 1 - 3rd Jan 2022
In this fast-moving era, we need to be unique and different as a designer. Not another face standing in the crowd. The pressure of standing out is always there surely but truly it is not always about standing out. It is how you reflect yourself to the viewer.
Additionally, developing your online presence as a designer is as important. These means will allow people in the industry to connect with you professionally. When employers are looking for a candidate to hire, your portfolio, CV and your personality can help them evaluate if are suitable for the job.
From what I have understood, it is important to stand out, but it is also important to be authentic to yourself. Even when you aren’t showing your personal branding to people, they will still perceive you for your personality when they first see you. Likewise, I feel it is important for you to reflect your self-branding with the unique characteristics, capabilities, style in order to stand out. Figuring out your passionate path and aligning your personal brand with your likes and interests will help you anchor your dream job (Simplified, 2021).
You are the visualizer of your own story. You have the power to visualize what is to be. The first thing when we think of self-branding is yourself. I like to think self-branding is a
1.1 Who do I see myself as in the future?
Sometimes thinking of the future can bring uncertainties because nobody really can predict anything. Who would have thought we would be living in an era where there’s a pandemic happening and the digital world is thriving, whether it be through online classes, working from home or creating passive income through NFTs. We are readily becoming adaptive to changes happening.
Nobody could have really foreseen any of these events truly and it is happening so fast. however, one thing I know for sure is my passions. Though most of us have been feeling a little lost and lonely through these past few years due to the pandemic, I’ve honestly never felt as good as I did these past few years. True, there are days that I doubt what I am capable of or my motivations but these questions rising has been the reason for the daily grind. Sometimes reflecting on the things I have done gives me a little push.
One of my dreams is creating a collection of children’s books with colorful illustrations. Though this dream of mine may take place more like a hobby rather than a fulltime job. On the other hand, I also see myself thriving in a design studio with a great team. I also plan to do my master’s in creative art directing & advertising. I have a strong feeling it will benefit me in the future with my creative career path as a designer.
In short, I see myself in the future as a visual designer fully indulged in the creative path. Visualizing different projects and doing the things I love. As a visual designer I will be responsible for creating a unified image for brands across digital communication platforms whether it be through illustrations, typography, or images (University of the people, 2021).
1.2 My vision for my self- branding
For my self-branding, I really like the direction I have currently. The play with the colors and organic feels reflects my personality. The idea is there. From what I have observed from the way I displayed my work before; I tend to overuse color when I make things. I guess that is my personality blurting out before my visual senses. It’s true I’m very colorful.
For that observation, this time’s self-branding, I intend to keep the colorfulness a bit under the covers but still reflect my playfulness. The colorfulness makes me look like a fresh graduate but this time I want my portfolio and CV to reflect a more professional vibe when people see it. This would be the challenge for me. To keep things minimal.
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WEEK 2 - 10th Jan 2022
During this pandemic shifting our whole career online has been common for most of us as physical contact must be minimized. With these changes keeping up with clients and having an online presence can help you meet your customers demands and not only that but connect with many other people in the industry. Most people are looking for freelancers especially now as they get work done quick and it’s low cost.
When creating your online presence, I found through research there are some things to take not of. These points will help you expand and connect with various types of people for long and short projects.
1. Professional website
2. Networking with people
3. Building social media presence.
2.1 Professional website
Even for a freelancer to be discovered they must have an online presence. Having a strong personal brand is one thing but to gain credibility you have to pair it with high quality work. Additionally, this allows for your customers or employers to have easy access to your services and find more information about you in the comfort of their homes (Midnet Media, 2020).
2.2 Networking
Simply out, networking really means connecting with other people that have similar interests. People in the creative industry usually hate networking because most of their personality types are introverted. They enjoy sitting behind a screen unleashing their creative works rather than face forward having a conversation with strangers.
Though that we may sometimes feel that there can be a satisfying sense of connecting when people with similar interest share things. We humans are not made to live this life alone. A community and connecting is essential to move forward. You may even find yourself learning something new through these conversations (Heft-Kniffin, 2017).
More than that, networking can help you build professional friendships which can bring you work that one of us needs an extra hand in or just having a buddy that can relate to your struggles as a designer in the industry. In short, networking is about sharing your skills and criticism in your knowledge with people. This is the sense of community designers thrive in.
2.3 Building social media presence
Social media is one of the most beneficial ways to create awareness to you designs and brand identity. Through social media you can also find your niche. People follow you for the type of content you post. Not for your cooking skills or daily life. But establishing that unique values through social media will help leave an impression on the audiences.
LinkedIn, Behance or dribble are social media platforms that designers can use to connect, seek new clients, and spread the word about your work (Anchal, 2021). Being true to your work is what builds trust when people approach you and this eventually opens new doors for you.
My career path is to be visual designer of course. I am drawn to this path as a creative because I can visualize ideas for different types of projects whether it be print or digital. I am flexible. I believe a visual designers title holds more value to it than calling myself a graphic designer. Though the term is quite similar for both types of designers visual design is born out of a mixture of graphic design and digital design (Chapman, 2019).
I feel when you label yourself a graphic designer you are only limited to the title of print-based work. Or at least I think that’s what people usually assume when you tell them you’re a graphic designer. However, when I say I am a visual designer I feel it has more value to it with the skillsets I propose.
As a visual designer i will have more responsibilities than a graphic designer. I will have the responsibilities of using Photoshop, Illustrator but on top of that I should have the knowledge of using software’s such as Sketch, Adobe XD and creating animations.
However, if I were a graphic designer, I should be thorough with InDesign on top of the basic skillsets of adobe software’s. As a visual designer I am responsible to create a polished visual language with the content to harmonize the look and feel. Visual designers are also sometimes known as Brand Designers, Visual communicators, Web Designer and digital designers (Chapman, 2019).
For my personal identity, I planned to stick with the logo I evolved from an illustration from my first portfolio design. I believe this approach still reflects my personality with the playfulness on type but also show how much I have evolved from my first idea.
The logo is my name’s initial. I paired it with the lines in my illustrations which I used as a metaphor for my blooming process. I also want this to reflect how organic and adaptive I am with myself and the work that I do. Below is my first portfolio logo and the typographic logo that Intend to use in my personal branding this time.
Although I stick with the same personal identity logo, I tend to bring changes to the website, resume, cover letter and name cards by minimalizing my design but also which allows the info to be enhanced and reflected in a more professional manner.
Before
Developing
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WEEK 3 - 17th Jan 2022
This week I focused on how I can make my personal branding look more mature without going far away from the original idea the ‘blooming process’. I felt like I used shapes and everything to make it more ‘designer’ as to what I believed. That those shapes represent how I work with shapes on the computer but also represent flowers. But truly those shapes had little to no meaning. This time when I present the concept blooming process, I want the audience to understand the elements I used have a lot of meaning apart from just existing as shapes.
So, I thought hard and deep why I named it the blooming process in the first place. Of course, I wanted it to represent how I have grown as a designer but why is it called the blooming process? Well, a flower is first a bud. It wasn’t always a bud. When the flower blooms you truly see how much the flower has grown. The vibrancy of the colors. How many petals they’ve grown.
I felt like this process was a metaphor for my creative process as well. Not everything is a flower when you first see it. The sketching/ ideating process is the bud. The bud develops into the flower that blooms. Meaning those ideas turn in the final artwork that is executed.
The next thing I wondered was why did I used the colors red, blue and yellow in the first execution of the blooming process concept. That was because I wanted my process to represent the birth of all other colors. Those are the primary colors that make up everything else. Even if that was the case why does it have to be my colors? It doesn’t. That time when I first created it, I felt as a designer there has to be a deeper meaning to the colors that you use. But in all honesty, the more authentic you are in the way you represent your work, the more your true personality pops up.
This time I used the floral elements representing as my creative elements. Not only that I changed the way I used the colours. I used gradients and all these simple shapes to create the flowers. I felt this concept represented the designer I am now than I was before. Of course, I am proud of the first design because that me 2 years ago didn’t have any idea to play with the computer or anything about design before joining the course at Raffles. The whole journey is my blooming process to become the designer I am today. Now executing things on the computer is no problem because I have the skill to do it.
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WEEK 4 - 24th Jan 2022
This week I presented my concept to my lecturer. How I plan to design the portfolio website with the idea I have developed in the previous weeks.
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This week I finished up on the resume and cover letter. I included the most up to date and important references as my experiences in the industry. I am happy to say that during my first internship I got to work with some great brands that add up in good way. Afterall an excellent resume captures employers to hop you on to their team (Craig M Ross, 2005).
Resume content should be customized to the preferences of the employers reviewing the resumes and making the hiring decisions, regardless of the setting. This wat it is easier and more potent for us to get hired by our dream jobs.
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REFERENCES
Simplified, 2021. 4 Steps to Building Your Personal Brand. [Online]
Available at: https://simplified.co/blog/us/4-steps-to-building-your-personal-brand/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=14346787607&utm_content=124805921183&utm_term=&matchtype=&network=g&device=c&gclid=CjwKCAiA5t-OBhByEiwAhR-hm1Hy1masAJddZ2D0BSXWFs7cxvPh16J
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University of the people, 2021. Visual Designer vs Graphic Designer — Differences You Should Know. [Online] Available at: https://www.uopeople.edu/blog/visual-designer-vs-graphic-designer-differences-you-should-know/ [Accessed 8 January 2022].
Midnet Media, 2020. Why an Online Presence Is So Important Now More Than Ever. [Online]
Available at: https://www.midnetmedia.com/why-an-online-presence-is-so-important-now-more-than-ever [Accessed 12 January 2022].
Heft-Kniffin, B. S., 2017. The Importance of Networking for Creatives. [Online]
Available at: https://brandisea.medium.com/creatives-the-importance-of-networking-c17f61d32993 [Accessed 11 January 2022].
Anchal, 2021. How can designers build an effective Social Media presence?. [Online] Available at: https://www.infurnia.com/blog/effective-social-media-presence-for-designers [Accessed 11 January 2022].
Chapman, C., 2019. Visual Designers vs. Graphic Designers – Who Does What and Why (with Infographic). [Online] Available at: https://www.toptal.com/designers/visual/visual-designer-vs-graphic-designer [Accessed 13 January 2022].
Jobstreet, 2022. 5 Great Reasons JobStreet Is The Top Choice of Malaysian Hirers. [Online]
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AIT Admissions, 2017. How important are portfolios in the creative industries?. [Online]
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