This document provides guidance to designers on developing their personal brand, including designing a logo, resume, portfolio, business cards, and social media presence. It offers tips on choosing fonts, colors, and layouts that effectively represent one's work. Workshop activities guide participants in designing these branding elements and getting feedback from others. The goal is to help designers create a consistent, professional brand that impress potential employers.

1. GUEST SPEAKER

2. ROBERT WEIL
18 years direct marketing experience.
VP of Marketing - managed $150 million customer
acquisition campaigns for DIRECTTV and AT&T Wireless.
Worked with the founder of Crunch Gyms - created
customized fitness DVDs.
Founded BLUEFLY Web Marketing

3. SEO & GOOGLE ANALYTICS

4. PROJECT REVIEW

5. ADVERTISING YOURSELF

6. ADVERTISING YOURSELF
Develop your own personal brand in order to communicate
your skills as a designer.
The Complete Package:
logo, resume, portfolio, business cards, social media

7. YOUR PERSONAL BRAND
Before you start designing all of the separate components,
you should decide how you want to “brand” yourself.
Choose one or two typefaces that work well together, and
decide on a color palette that compliments your work.
When in doubt, less is more.
Neutral colors and clean typefaces let your work speak for itself.

11. LOGO DESIGN
Creative way to showcase your name & typographic skills.
Should appear consistently on your resume, portfolio, and
business cards.
Can be a simple type treatment, or can include a symbol.
Doesn’t need to be fancy, stick to one or two colors.

29. WORKSHOP #1
How would you brand yourself as a designer?
DEVELOP A LOGO USING YOUR NAME OR INITIALS.
- Use Illustrator or Photoshop
- Find a unique typeface that best represents your work
(try FontSquirrel.com or Google Fonts)
- Experiment with simple geometric symbols (lines, circles, etc)
- Develop a simple color palette that references your work
(try ColourLovers.com or Kuler.Adobe.com for inspiration)
- Present your logo ideas and color palette as an 8.5 x 11” PDF

30. YOUR RESUME

31. RESUME DESIGN
Your resume is the easiest way for a prospective employer to
quickly learn about your skills and your experience.
For designers, it is easy to get carried away with designing
your resume, but remember that less is more.
Concentrate on legibility and fitting your resume onto one
page (if possible).

32. RESUME CONTENT
Name & Contact Info
Brief personal statement
Experience (most recent job first)
Education
Skills & Capabilities
Affiliations and Memberships
Awards and Certifications
References

33. RESUME TIPS
If a job posting specifically asks for references, then it is a
good idea to include them on your resume. If not, then
“References available upon request” is just fine!
Do not include your personal information (age, race,
religion, hobbies).
Avoid vaguely worded objectives and job descriptions.
Don’t forget to include any awards you have won!

34. RESUME PAPER
An often overlooked component to resume design, choosing
a unique paper stock can communicate your attention to
detail and design sensitivity.
You can get samples and swatch books from paper mills.
Neenah Mohawk

35. DO

40. DON’T

45. COVER LETTER
Is the cover letter dead?
Some people feel that email has replaced the printed cover
letter, but a formal correspondence can set you apart from
other candidates and convey your professionalism.
Cover letters should not be generic, no copy and pasting. It
should be specifically related to the company and position.
And don’t forget to match your stationery to your resume.

46. WORKSHOP #2
Please divide into two groups and critique your resumes.
DOES YOUR RESUME CONTAIN THE FOLLOWING ELEMENTS?
Name & Contact Info
Brief personal statement
Experience (most recent job first)
Education
Skills & Capabilities
Affiliations and Memberships
Awards and Certifications
References

47. WORKSHOP #2
Please divide into two groups and critique your resumes.
MORE RESUME QUESTIONS...
Do you have relevant (related to graphic or web design)
experience and education?
Does your resume accurately communicate your experience?
Are there any spelling or grammatical errors?
Is your layout clean and organized?
Is there good typographical hierarchy? Your job title and
employer should be easily scannable, and details should be
smaller but still legible.

48. YOUR PORTFOLIO

49. YOUR PORTFOLIO
In the design world, a great resume is not enough to land
your dream job. Prospective employers will want to see
visual proof of your talents and aesthetic, and your portfolio
will very likely be the deciding factor in their decision to
hire you. There are many different types of portfolios, what
is the best way for you to showcase your work?

50. PORTFOLIO TIPS
Let your work speak for itself, avoid overly colorful or
complicated designs.
Group projects by medium, industry, or client.
Include a description for each project.
Check all text and projects for typos or grammatical errors.
Don’t forget to include your contact info, artist statement
and resume!

51. WHAT TO INCLUDE
Student work
Internship work*
Freelance work*
Personal work
Contest submissions*
Poster designs
*Make sure you have permission from the client.

52. WEB PORTFOLIOS
If you are looking to feature your web or interactive design
work, a web based portfolio is the logical choice. In addition
to serving as a great interview tool, an online portfolio also
gives people from all over the world the opportunity to view
your work. More and more prospective employers are using
the internet to find potential candidates, so don’t miss out.

53. WEB PORTFOLIOS
Advantages:
Easy to update.
Easily accessible from any computer or mobile device.
Can link to your completed web designs.
Disadvantages:
Your work is available for people to copy or use.

54. PORTFOLIO COMMUNITIES
Host your portfolio online portfolio sites:
Behance, Cargo Collective, Carbonmade, or Shown’d.
These sites are free or offer a free plan, and many of them
have social networking and job search opportunities as well.
Though they do not offer the same amount of customization
as a self hosted site would, they are a great option for an
aspiring designer on a budget.

55. BEHANCE behance.net
Advantages:
Free with no upload limit.
Great community for social networking and jobs.
Disadvantages:
Invite only, but you can request an invitation.
You are stuck with their (somewhat cluttered) layout, but
you can change the color scheme.

56. CARGO COLLECTIVE cargocollective.com
Advantages:
Free up to 12 projects and 3 pages.
Multiple themes and customizable layout.
“Cargo Comments” allow for social networking.
Disadvantages:
Application based.
Requires your own domain name.

57. CARBONMADE carbonmade.com
Advantages:
Free up to 5 projects and 35 images.
Minimal presentation and customizable layout.
Anyone can join.
Social networking opportunities.
Disadvantages:
Space limit.

58. SHOWN’D shownd.com
Advantages:
Free up to 15 projects and 75 images.
Has job listings.
Minimal presentation.
Disadvantages:
Less popular.
Less design customization.

59. SELF-HOSTED
Allows custimization.
More expensive but you can have your own domain.
You can a customized template if you don’t code.
You can redirect your domain to your Behance, Cargo
Collective, Carbonmade, or Shown’d page.

60. SELF-HOSTED
Advantages:
Can be customized exactly how you wish.
Can use WordPress or other CMS template or custom design.
Looks more professional.
Disadvantages:
Domain registration and hosting can be expensive.
Requires more advanced HTML/CSS knowledge.

61. OTHER PORTFOLIO TYPES
PDFs or Printed Portfolios - great to send to prospective
employers or bring to interviews.
Less interactive, however.
If you are displaying your interactive work in a static way it
is important to include storyboards or wireframes that
demonstrate the interactivity of your designs.

62. PDF
Advantages:
Can be emailed and viewed on screen or printed out.
Can contain some interactivity (imbedded links).
Disadvantages:
Requires the viewer to download the file.
Less interactive.

69. BINDER STYLE
Advantages:
Can easily add or remove projects.
Inexpensive.
Can be purchased at most art or office supply stores.
Disadvantages:
Pieces must be printed (whether in house or professionally).
No interactivity.

71. BOUND BOOK
Advantages:
Very professional presentation.
Can be self published at sites like Blurb and Lulu.
Disadvantages:
Cannot be easily updated.
No interactivity.

73. WORKSHOP #3
Please split into two groups.
Find three portfolio sites to critique.
Do you think that the portfolio’s design accurately represents
the artist’s work?
If yes, why? If no, why?
Be prepared to share you findings with the class.

74. OTHER ESSENTIALS

75. BUSINESS CARDS
Business cards- a must for job interviews and networking.
You want to share your contact info.
Help reinforce the brand that you have created for yourself
through your logo, typography, color palette, and paper
type.
Can design a QR code that links straight to your website.

76. BUSINESS CARDS SHOULD INCLUDE
Name
Website URL
Email address
Phone number
Mailing or office address (optional)
Social media accounts (optional)

77. American Psycho

86. WORKSHOP #4
Use Illustrator or Photoshop to design a business card (front
and back) using the logo you created in Workshop #1.
Card should be 3.5 x 2”, portrait or landscape, two sided
PLEASE INCLUDE:
Name
Website URL (if you have one)
Email address
Phone number
Mailing or office address (optional)
Social media accounts (optional)

87. ORDER YOUR CARDS
www.moo.com
www.overnightprints.com
www.vistaprint.com

88. SOCIAL MEDIA

89. SOCIAL MEDIA
Helps to establish yourself as an expert in your field;
Communicate with potential employers.
LinkedIn is a must for business networking - be sure to keep
up to date.
Twitter can also be a great way to communicate with the
design community.
Showcase your work on Tumblr and Pinterest.

90. SOCIAL MEDIA DESIGN
Not a lot of room for design customization.
Still there are some things that you can do to tie into your
brand: make your profile picture your logo.
Twitter is the most customizable of all the services, allowing
you to change your profile picture, background image, and
link colors.

91. TWITTER BACKGROUND TIPS
Image files anchor to the top left corner.
You can set the background color to display where the image
doesn’t reach.
You can also tile a pattern.
ColourLovers offers Themeleon, which allows you to create a
seamless pattern using your custom color palette.

92. WORKSHOP #5
Design a Twitter background to match the brand that you
created for yourself.
If you don’t have a Twitter account (or don’t want to use your
personal account) please register for one at Twitter.com.
Create either an image based background (using the PSD
template) or a pattern (using Themeleon).
Make sure that your background works well at different size
resolutions.
Find a legible link color that matches your background.
PSD Template Themeleon

93. In The Perfect Elevator Speech, Aileen Pincus states that an
ELEVATOR SPEECH
should sum up unique aspects
of your service or product
in a way that excites others.

94. ELEVATOR PITCH
An elevator pitch (or elevator speech or elevator statement)
is a short summary used to quickly and simply define a
product, service, or organization and its value
proposition.The name "elevator pitch" reflects the idea that
it should be possible to deliver the summary in the time
span of an elevator ride, or approximately thirty seconds to
two minutes. Wikipedia

95. ELEVATOR PITCH TIPS
Use when you introduce yourself at networking events, to
new clients etc…
Keep it short – What do you most want the listener to
remember about you?
Describe what you do – state your value phrased as key
results or impact. Think of this as your tagline.
Tell why you are unique – what unique benefit that you
(your company) bring to the business.

96. THE SEVEN WORD BLURB
Worksheet

97. WORKSHOP #6
Create a networking pitch for yourself.