Creating a Personal Brand - Part 2
A personal brand needs to showcase your skills, style & your personality.
In my previous blog post, I talked about a decision on what brand assets I would like to create for my brand and walked you through my creative process of designing my brand symbol. In this one, I am going to talk about my process of creating my logotype.
As a lettering artist, having a logotype is important, but not mandatory.
I always found logotypes intimidating because they have to be technically well-executed, legible while artistically interested. They also need to be well balanced in decorative elements (if any) and relatively simple unless you are shooting for victorian style logotypes; those can be massively decorative.
My first step was to use my handwriting to write my logo and analyze the letterform. My name is not the most friendly to design due to its complicated nature; short first name and long last name. “V” is a very straight and simple letter, while “D” is curvy and decorative, giving me the challenge to make them balanced. There are no ascenders or descenders, making it hard to create an interesting composition. It was easy to find challenges and a bit of a struggle to find creative solutions for them.
Once I identified the areas of concern, I needed to decide on which direction to take. I needed to keep in mind that the style of the logotype goes well with the symbol and that as a unit, they make sense.
After exploring many different directions, I decided that script would be the best approach. I looked for ways to balance out the “V” and “D” as the composition balance will depend on the capital letters. I finally came up with the style I liked and started to build from there.
Most of my decisions are made during the sketching phase. Then I move on to the digital phase where I fine-tune my designs. I use Illustrator for almost all my projects because I can dig deep into fine-tuning letterforms. However, I do trust my eyes and make optical, not mathematical decisions.
I trust my eyes and make optical, not mathematical decisions when fine-tuning letterforms.
After I digitized my logotype, I realized some challenges with the original concept. I did not like how “VSK” looks, it was too “loopy” compared to the rest of the design; it was throwing it off. This was a good point to involve my lettering community, aka. Lettering Ladies and get their input on how to improve it. They came back with the same feedback that I was concerned about and gave some great suggestions on how to fix it. I can’t stress enough the importance of outside perspective, a fresh set of eyes, especially if those eyes know what to look for.
Based on the self-critique and the feedback I received, it was easy to go back to my digital file and make final tweaks to my logotype. I was happy with the result and realized that I enjoyed the process far more than I expected. Something was satisfying in the technical approach to the lettering, even though at the end I wanted my logotype to have a natural look and feel to it, almost like handwriting, only better.
In addition to the symbol and logotype, I needed to pick colours and fonts for my brand. These assets will define the tone of the brand and tell the visual story behind it. I want my brand to be playful and versatile, and I don't want to restrict myself too much. But having clearly defined brand assets can help to ensure consistency and unify the look of the brand. At the same time, it needs to reflect my work and my personality. I took a look at my surroundings and realized that most of the accents in my home and my home studio are blue, red and yellow. I love this combination, and I decided to make these colours my primary brand colours. I added silver/grey to the pallet to help tone down the vibrant colours.
Having a personal brand feels rewarding. The sense of accomplishment and integrity shines through these assets. I enjoyed this process and looking forward to having more fun with my brand.
Now, there is only one thing left to do, get creative & conquer the world.