Self Branding

I'm currently working on a project of branding myself. Unlike most projects, the client here is myself, and that surprisingly is far more tricky than I expected. Its harder to make decisions. Looking through my bookmarks on the internet, i've collected a number of designers logos for inspiration. I didn't really notice it at the time, but now that i've collated them all together, I've realised that black and white is the popular colour choice. I suppose it just looks proffesional and doesn't really tie you to a particular mood or style of work.

I've also noticed that theres a variety of idiogram based logos and type based logos. Some designers choose to use a bit of both, other designers such as Jason Munn and David Rager don't really have a logo at all, its just there name written at the top of the page in the same type as the rest of the site. I suppose they just want the work to speak for itself rather than jazz it up with any particular branding or bright lights.

Its interesting to note that designers use a variety of typefaces and styles. All the designer logos I've shown here are by people I like, but despite the similar colours, there logos are all quite distinctive, which is key. I think of the logos i've collected above, my favourites are the 'Doublenaut' logo and the SEEN logo. the doublenaut logo is just a really well executed symbol. The type is really light and refined, and I like the way the eye weaves over and under the 'D', its just a nice touch which stands it apart. The SEEN logo type is really retro using that very square shape styled type, it just fits the letters very well and his body of work.

Thats the main thing to think about with branding yourself. Your logo needs to reflect your style of work, otherwise it just won't work. For me that means it needs to be simple, clean and probably needs to include a shape somewhere along the way. I'm now going to go and start scribbling some ideas.