Your personal brand as a designer
What is a personal brand?
We’re all familiar with company brands. A company brand will include logos, colours, fonts and product names. But it will also include a mission statement, core values, decisions around positioning, voice/tone and audience. A company’s brand tells us what that company stands for and how they want to be seen by others.
As you might expect, a personal brand does the same, for an individual. Your personal brand tells other people who you are and what you stand for.
My book The Board Game Family is all about how to have positive family game experiences. This is a core interest and motivation for me as a designer.
Start with your purpose
To define your personal brand, start with your purpose. Why are you doing what you are doing? In the case of game designers… Why are you designing games? You could have a particular interest in a certain type of game; in bringing games to a particular audience; or to a specific setting.
Perhaps you are fascinated by the power of play; or want to use games as a vehicle for education or training; or to create meaningful experiences. Or perhaps you just want to delight in being creative and have the pleasure of sharing your creations.
Of course, there’s more to game design than just designing games. There’s a whole community to interact with. There are other games to play, events to attend and people to meet. Your drive and purpose may also be linked to the wider games community.
No motivation is more worthy than another. Be honest with yourself and work out what is driving you. If you’re struggling to define your purpose, there’s a great book that might help – Simon Sinek’s Find Your Why. It’s a business book and, of course, not specifically related to design, but still definitely worth a read.
Other aspects of personal brand
Everything else builds on this purpose. When you have your purpose properly defined, all the other decisions – about how you present yourself, what you spend your time doing, which events you attend and how you interact online – are easier.
Your personal brand is really the way that others see you. So it’s worth thinking about how you want to be seen. How do you think people would describe you… and is that the way you want to be described? Do you want to be seen as professional, approachable, wacky? Do you want people to be able to recognise you from a distance across a crowded convention hall? Do you want people to ask your advice or ask you to help? Do you want to be invited to work on collaborative projects, to speak on podcasts… or to attend parties?
What makes you different from other designers? What is your niche? Why should people mention you to others? Answering these sorts of questions will help you define your personal brand.
Designers at the Friday Playtest UK group
Building your brand
Once you’ve worked out how you want to be seen within the industry, lean into the things that reinforce this. You can be proactive.
For example, part of my personal brand is the fact that I care a great deal about my relationships with other designers. For me, it’s one of the best things about being a designer – being part of the community and having a thriving network of creative and interesting people around me. So there’s lots of things that I do to make sure that people know how important this is to me.
I give time (for free) to any designer who asks for help or advice. I pass on industry contacts and help connect designers with publishers. I organise playtesting events and weekends for designers. I write this blog, which I hope is of use to designers. I’m genuinely delighted when other designers get games signed. I am to actively cultivate an abundance mindset.
The practical things I do tell other people who I am and what I stand for. If you aren’t actively doing things that communicate and reinforce your personal brand, then the way that people perceive you is left a little more to chance. How do people know what you’re interested in and what matters to you if you don’t show them?
The value of having a clear personal brand
When your personal brand is clear, it makes you more visible and more memorable. You will often be mentioned when your particular areas of interest come up in conversation. You will get more referrals, connections and mentions – expanding your network and attracting opportunities. When people feel like they understand what you like working on and what gets you excited, it will attract people that are also interested in those things. Publishers who like your games, will expect to like your new games too.
Need convincing? Think about the designers and publishers that you like. What makes you like that particular designer or publisher? Which stands do you make a beeline for at a convention? Which designers do you follow on social media? Why? There’s something about their brand that attracts you.
Bez Shahriari is a game designer with a clear personal brand. Always in red, she is instantly recognisable at conventions. Her self-published games are (almost) all sold in Bezzy Bargain Bags and have clear consistency of type and look.
I’ve recently started to host a podcast called Behind the Cardboard. When The Game Design Round Table Podcast asked me to do this for their channel, it was an easy decision to make because the content of what I’m discussing – the business and practicalities of being a board game designer – are clearly linked to my interests, personal brand and vision.
Personal benefits of a personal brand
Defining your personal brand isn’t just useful for others, it can be hugely helpful for you as an individual. It’s easier to decide which ideas to pursue and which games to concentrate time on, when you have a clear idea of where you’re going and why.
You’ll make better connections within the industry and start to foster relationships with the right sort of people for you. You’ll find it easier to create focussed content online.
Your personal brand not only encapsulates where you are now, but where you want to be… your vision for yourself in the future. Of course, your personal brand isn’t static, it develops and changes as you do. Some things are pretty fixed and others evolve.
Vision helps you know where you’re going.
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