Brand Building

Even in the days of old on the internet, building a brand is something fundamentally important to getting yourself noticed. Having a brand for yourself can spell the difference between working with clients and being noticed in the workforce. And even if you’re not looking for a place to work, it’s still important to have a dedicated brand for people to at least recognize you on other social media platforms and even other areas in real life so to not confuse you with someone else in case they want to see what work you’ve done. The only thing to gets in the way of that is identifying your audience and identifying what career path your on and how you want to articulate it in the best way possible.

The first thing that needs to be done is making a logo. A logo is the main factor that separates you from someone else, since it’s the primary identity you’ll have outside of a real life picture of you. It also reflects who you are as a person and how you want yourself to come across to other people. Something simple can signify that you’re more laid back and have a simple way of going about designing products while something more complex can reflect on the attention to detail you have and how meticulous you are for making a product look good. One thing that helps is identifying the audience you want to appeal to and who your work is tailored to as that could be the defining factor that makes your work stand out from your logo. This is all brought up through research, experimentation, and even observation as to who gravitates to your work the most.

While researching your audience can be monotonous and time-consuming, it’s extremely important as to not show your work to the wrong people. One strategy that helps with it is through social media, putting your work out there and observing the reactions and engagement it gets and who that is coming from definitely helps in understanding where your brand lies and what your content should be moving forward. This is especially true when it comes to stylizing your website around your brand, something that only helps much more in making an identity for yourself. Part of this involves your use of social media and how you decide to promote your work on social media. One article, “Brand Building Meaning, Importance & Process” describes this aspect in the best way possible, “Advertising & promoting the brand using TVCs, social media, print ads, online advertising etc. is one of the most important pillars of brand building as it helps in creating brand awareness. Correct communication and effective media channels can help build a strong brand and helps increase brand recall.”

One aspect that helps in designing your brand is deciding on a color palette, whether it’s something vibrant and appealing or gloomy and avant-garde, colors are the defining trait of just about anything in media. This color palette can either be a combination of some of your favorite colors that you’ve gravitated towards or a mix of colors from your most recent/popular work as that’s what people will associate your brand with. Even with the randomness of the colors, it still helps in identifying who you are and what type of creator you are as it can tell your audience that you have more freedom with whatever you create.

A helper with the color palette is a mood board, a composition that gives your audience a better idea of what to expect from you and how you will appear on social media. Mood boards can vary in range when it comes to colors, though it’s usually held together by images that have similar aesthetics that indicate similar appearances to what you want. Something more avant-garde, for example, would have more darker colors and a darker atmosphere, usually indicating to the audience that it’s either more mature in aesthetic or it’s something involving vulnerability and personal experience, a big inspiration in design. One article, “Brand Identity: The Importance Of Color“, puts it in a couple of words that describes it in the best way possible, “Usually, it is advantageous for a brand to consistently “own” certain colors, which provide an additional recognition cue.”

Overall, color and design are the most important aspects when it comes to building a brand outside of a social media following. Not having a brand can hinder you when it comes to growing an audience and putting yourself out there for the workforce or even for other pastors in life.