Personal Brand: Assignment

Your brand is a representation of you. Think about the professional brand that you want to present to others. How do you want other people to see you? Think about key words and visual images that help tell the story of you.

Please review the Facebook group post/Powerpoint presentation about personal brand, along with related blog posts that you can find below. Then, prepare what is called a spec sheet of your brand providing information about the four required elements listed below. Your spec sheet can be designed on the computer or cut and pasted like a scrapbook (and scanned or photographed so it can be turned in here).  Just be neat!

Turn your brand sheet in as a Word doc or a PDF to omars@msu.edu. Your deadline is no later than 9 a.m. Friday, May 18

1. Brand Statement

What is your brand? Explain your brand in 160 characters or less. Use key words and phrases. Complete sentences are not necessary as long as your statement makes sense. You might use this description for your social media profile, or just as a guide.

Visual Identity —

2. Typography

Different fonts have different personalities. Choose up to 2 fonts that match the personality of your brand. These are fonts that you will use on your website and in any print materials you would produce (resume, cover letter, business card, etc.)

Tip: Choose fonts that are easy to read and that complement each other. When mixing fonts, the safest combinations are a serif (like Times New Roman) with a sans serif font (like Helvetica). Be careful about specialty or script fonts. Use them sparingly.

Show examples of these fonts so that we see what they look like, briefly describe how they are consistent with your brand and provide an explanation of how they would be used.

3. Colors

Choose 2–3 key colors that help tell the story of your brand. These are main colors that you would use in any materials you produce—including your online portfolio. Show these colors and provide a brief statement about why you choose them and how they are consistent with your brand. Learn about the meanings behind colors.

4. Social Media Avatar

Your professional brand should carry through to your professional social media presence. Create a social media avatar that is consistent with your brand that you could use across various social media platforms. Your social media avatar will probably be a photograph, but could be a graphic illustration. It should be original. Make sure it looks good even when really small!

Make your avatar at least 1000 pixels by 1000 pixels (that way, it will be big enough to work with any site — although many sites will show it much smaller than that). Present your avatar and provide a brief explanation of how this avatar helps represent your brand.

Rubric:

• Brand statement (3 points), statement is clear and professional
• Typography (2 points), typography matches brand, if more than 1 font is used, fonts complement each other
• Colors (2 points), color matches the spirit of the brand; colors match.are complementary
• Social media avatar (3 points), avatar is consistent with brand and will be recognizable at small sizes

TOTAL: 10 POINTS