Personal Branding Exercise!

Brand definition

Oxford dictionary

"a particular identity or image regarded as an asset."

As a part of this project we did an activity as a class in Web Design. This was really helpful as we had to describe ourselves in three words and the another three words described key skills we have that are relevant in order to complete our website.

This activity gave me a clear idea on what skills I want to focus on while creating my hotglue website.

The words I chose were creative, sociable and professional. I feel that throughout my website there is a sense of creativity coming through by the use of colours, font style and layout of my pages.

My website also looks professional as I kept the same layout throughout all my pages and is easy to navigate and read. The website also looks attractive as I used lively colours and images as well as several videos.

The Logo

The Photo

While thinking about the branding of my website I asked myself "what visual elements make up a brand?". I then looked at other professional websites such as Virgin Media and decided to have a logo to make my website distinguish from the others and give it a visual identity.

When thinking about my logo I decided to have something simple that represents me. This is why I chose to have a "C" which stands for my name, Consuela. I looked at different images of the letter C on internet and chose the one on the right hand side of the page because is sharp and clear. This is because I didn't want my logo to be to complicated and be easy to see as "Simple is more".

Even though I wanted my logo to be simple I felt like just the letter C was a bit to simple. This is why I decided to add a tiara on top of the C which represents me as being a girly girl.

To put it all together I used Photoshop to get rid of the original white background of the letter C and add the tiara on top. The color I went for, for my logo, is white as it stands out on the black background and even if the logo is small it still visible.

After doing my logo I was thinking what other elements can I use in my website to make it more unique. So i decided to include a photo of my self as Frederick R. Barnard said "a picture is worth a thousand words".

I chose a picture that has lively color to reflect on my personality. I then used Photoshop to crop it and the clone stamp tool to get rid of the imperfections created by the "comic" effect in PhotoBoot.

Additional to this picture I included my Facebook and Twitter page where the users can contact me for any questions. This gives my website a more personal feel which make the users feel more connected to me.

The colors

The videos

The layout

By designing the whole website by myself all the visual elements help communicate my brand.

This is been done through the use of the colours chosen because it intrigues the users by, creating enigma into wanting to know more about my website so they start reading into it. This is because my website is not a stereotypical conventional website as it uses an unusual combination of colours.

The videos I included in my website are my own production which adds to the realism of my website and makes it more trustworthy.

The layout of my website is sophisticated, professional and informal.

All those elements mentioned above communicate my brand as they are all my personal work even though I did copy the background picture from Google, however I made it my own by using it in a context that gives it more meaning.

If I was to change anything I would add a comments page where people can leave feedback about my website and also raise any questions and suggestions in order to improve my website.