What Personal Branding Shouldn't Be

I'm still not overly sure what to do for my personal branding, but it's getting to the point where I can't keep putting it off any more. Before I start working on it, I want to establish a clear idea of what I don't want to do, in the hope that this will make it easier for me to decide what I do want to do.

The Christopher Doyle Stuff

A while ago we were showed this in a PPP session. While it is pretty clever, and the full version of it was quite funny when he was talking about his girlfriend, in my opinion this isn't what personal branding is. 

To me, this shows that the guy knows about and understands branding, and that's all we know. It is a literal example of personal branding. In my opinion, personal branding is more about how you act, how you think, and how you interact with people, and the printed material should only be a supporting characteristic. I wouldn't want someone to hire me for a job purely because they thought I had a nice business card, I'd want them to hire me because they thought I was the right person with the right characteristics for the job, and my business card reassured them of that. There is only so much about a person that graphic design such as this can communicate about a person.

American Horror Story

Last year we were shown this clip from American Psycho in COP, and, on the opposite end of the spectrum to the Christopher Doyle thing, this isn't what my opinion of personal branding either.

I think that a lot is more is of made of stock than is needed. Even the word itself annoys me to some extent, as I can't help but feel somewhat pretentious when saying it, although this is something I am getting used to. In my opinion, a business card isn't about what paper you choose, it's about what you put on the paper. I also think that a business card is probably the most important part of personal branding, and therefore is probably the thing that I should start working on first so I can use it as a reference point for the rest of the brief.

Evolution Print

Whilst I thought the guy who came in from Evolution Print did a pretty useful talk, their business card isn't something I find very inspiring.

This is the front of it, which is fine. There's enough on it for me to not think it's anything either as boring or pretentious as the examples in the previous clip.

But this is what the back of it looks like. Completely the opposite. Obviously it's the companies logo, but you wouldn't know that from looking at it by itself. I personally feel it'd have been far better off a lot smaller on the front of the card. I suppose this is a case of knowing when to stop, and I think having a business card where the front and back clash in styles like this is an important thing to avoid.