​A.Q.Creative

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When you work for an organisation you (ideally) become a brand ambassador for that company. When everyone around you is one too, you’d be forgiven if you lost sight of your self-identity and viewed yourself as a brand asset.

 

That’s how I was beginning to feel when an invite to a session on personal branding popped into my LinkedIn feed, so I went along. It was an excellent session and the above statement had such an impact it caused me to immediately change tack.

 

You see the problem was that, almost imperceptibly, jobs and employers were defining my career rather than my actual skills and identity. Posts on LinkedIn had become a representation of my role, rather than anything meaningful by me. And that’s great for the brand – exactly what you want from your employees. But not so great for me.

 

In challenging myself to think about a personal brand I reflected on what it is that makes me – a designer, artist, writer, mother, sister, daughter, wife? None of us are any one thing, but for me creativity runs through everthing.

 

So, what do I hope to get from my personal brand?

 

• At a time when I’m taking a risk, closing the door on a commercial career and exploring new paths, a strong personal brand can help me regain confidence in my personal value, amplify my voice, and lead to new connections and opportunities

• Help guide my audience along that journey with me, so they can distinguish between the ‘whole self’ - the ‘bigger’ part of that statement - and stand-alone works

• The visual framework will provide the glue to connect various facets and enable the grouping together of thoughts in a way previously not possible

• A design that aims for a mix of modern and classic to portray the right balance between creativity and gravitas, to reflect both my voice and values