How to Create a Personal Brand in the Design Industry

The aim of this article is to provide readers with information and guidance on how to create and showcase a compelling personal brand in the digital design industry. Emphasizes the importance of creating a unique personal brand that reflects designers' skills, visuals, interests, and values, and highlights key elements.

Ask yourself: Why do I need a personal brand?

In order for designers to succeed in today's highly competitive market, it is critical to have a strong personal brand that will allow them to stand out and not only receive better job offers but also build trust and authority, increase income, and advance their careers. Personal branding involves presenting yourself as a professional with specific strengths and unique personality traits. This image is your own professional self that influences how people perceive you and, therefore, allows you to find new opportunities.

To gain public trust, attract potential employers, and clients, or increase their influence, designers need to consistently promote themselves through various media, professional communities, or personal websites. As a designer, your personal brand reflects not only your technical skills but also your creativity.

Who is successful in the industry and why?

Try checking LinkedIn, and you can find over a million designers: service designers, graphic designers, UX designers, UX/UI designers, or product designers. LinkedIn's influence on the job market is enormous, providing an important place for recruiters and hiring managers to find and connect with talent, and for designers the opportunity to promote themselves. Analyzing the profiles of other designers and influencers on platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, X, Dribble or Behance can provide insight into preferences, storytelling, and current trends.

What are my strengths and talents?

Before starting to work on creating their personal brand, designers need to decide on a strategy, and clearly formulate and describe their skills, talents, interests, and strengths, i.e., core competencies in design (hard skills) or additional skills (soft skills), as well as their contribution to the field. To create a unique brand that reflects your personality type, you need to get to know yourself better, then you can build a brand around your personality that reflects your achievements and desire for growth.

What do I want to achieve in a few years?

You need to figure out where you want to be in a few years and what will help you get there. It’s important to understand yourself and your desires, then the work towards creating your own brand will go easier. Think about what you want, maybe you want to get into a certain world-famous company, or maybe you want to become a public figure and speak at conferences, or your passion is to write professional books. Such reflections will help you define your goal.

In today's world, branding is used not only by famous people or companies but also by ordinary people who apply the same fundamental principles and tools to create their personal brand. A person possesses a powerful personal brand when they leave a lasting impression on others, build valued and trustworthy relationships, and make a meaningful contribution to the lives of others. A brand is made up of a collection of thoughts and feelings that are held in the memory of another individual.

Ask yourself: What makes someone choose my brand? Who am I? Who do I want to be? What is my purpose? Who is my target audience? Who are my competitors? How do others see me? What story do I want to tell?

The answers to these questions will help create your brand identity. Once you define your unique value proposition (UVP), you can reflect on your skills, strengths, and passions. This holistic approach helps you gain greater control over your professional and personal image, and therefore, the success and impact you can have on the world.

Having an online presence is becoming increasingly important in the digital age. Building trust, self-marketing, and being noticed in an expert environment becomes necessary to promote your strengths and uniqueness among the target audience. Creating and maintaining social media and networking profiles, personal websites, and blogs, and using search engine optimization (SEO) techniques increase the reach of your information. A strong personal brand for designers requires consistent self-promotion across a variety of media, including resources like Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, or websites. All of these actions build trust and a digital presence, attracting potential employers or clients.

Feedback on your work, letters of thanks, or recommendations from clients, colleagues, and mentors play an important role and significantly affect your credibility, trustworthiness, and reputation. For example, on the LinkedIn platform, users can receive/give feedback through recommendations, endorsements, tags, likes, and reposts. Such external endorsements act as evidence of your competence and trustworthiness, making your personal brand more attractive to others. Collecting and displaying such information on your website and social media profiles allows you to enhance your professional reputation.

If you enjoy interacting with people, focusing on in-person networking events, participating in online or offline design communities, or public speaking, then working on your personal brand may come naturally to you. Not only do these activities help you build relationships, but they also develop contacts and new connections with peers and industry leaders, which, in turn, helps strengthen your personal brand by making it recognizable and in demand. The key is to find a balance between remaining a design professional and dedicating your time to networking, giving yourself time to recover, and staying true to your character and values.

Table of various activities for personal brand development in the design industry.

In summary, others are most often attracted to authenticity and consistency, which are fundamental to a strong personal brand. Being authentic, true to your values, ​​and consistent in your actions ensures that your brand message remains consistent across all touch points with others.

This comprehensive approach promotes loyalty and trust, which undoubtedly helps develop deeper connections, and stable and long-term success. The main thing to remember is that developing a personal brand in the design industry takes time, effort, and a multi-faceted approach. You can create a powerful personal brand that will stand out in the competitive design field through self-awareness, articulating your UVP, maintaining a strong presence online and offline, showcasing your work, using testimonials, and being authentic.