What do they mean:
The speakers were advocating that an artist should create a personal “brand”. They mean a process. Speaking specifically about design, you need to try to create a personal design style niche – something you like to do and can do well and probably with some consistency in terms of look and feel, and then advertise your talent in a consistent way across social media, business cards, blogs, etc.
Do I agree with them:
“Personal branding, self-positioning and all individual branding by whatever name, was first introduced in 1937 in the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.” (Wikipedia)
“The term personal brand is believed to have first appeared in the August 1997 issue of Fast Company Magazine, in an article by management guru and author Tom Peters, who wrote, ‘We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.’ ” (PersonalBrandingWiki)
Obviously people can’t even agree on the origin of the term, much less it’s definition!
Yes and no. Some people can be consistent and create design works that are consistently in the same niche. Others are not as consistent, or have such a wide variety of interests that it becomes very difficult to create a consistent brand-like identity.
The truth is people are not products and inconsistency is inherent in the human condition. Even actors and other public professionals have trouble maintaining a consistent brand identity – for example Arnold Schwarzenegger and his run for Governor, or Leonardo Da Vinci who was a great artist, but also a great scientist and invented a lot of things. Albert Einstein didn’t succeed by creating a brand for himself – or if he did it was one of being difficult to work with – he had trouble finding a teaching job, and was working for the patent office when he invented the famous theory which changed his life. The truth is: if you can create one thing that catches the imagination – just one work that is recognized as outstanding, it will make your image and you won’t need to do anything else; all the work suggested by the speakers about consistency and advertising won’t matter. The “brand” idea is for those of us who are not geniuses but just want to get work.
It’s easy to say just create a brand, and probably is a good thing to try to do if your goal is a job. However sometimes it can make life very boring.
And basically, if you can create one thing that catches the attention of important people, just one thing, then that one thing will make your brand.
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