Review examples of strong personal brands

Your personal brand is the way in which your personality, unique skills, and values as a designer intersect with your public persona. You want your brand to be as vivid and well-defined as possible so you can leave positive lasting impressions and stand out as a designer.

A strong personal brand should be widely-recognized and consistent. Just the mention of someone’s name can evoke strong emotions! You might even be able to immediately sum up their work and personality in a few words if they have a strong personal brand.

To understand how this concept comes to life in the real world, check out three examples of people with strong personal brands.

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey has created one of the most recognizable personal brands in history. She became a household name by using consistent branding across all of her platforms and products, like the Oprah Winfrey Show, Oprah Radio, and O Magazine. Oprah shares inspiring messages with her audience, which has led to real change in people’s lives. Her personal brand lets people know that Oprah’s content will be powerful and uplifting. Just a mention of the name “Oprah” evokes images of honesty and empathy.

Check out Oprah’s website for yourself. What common themes do you notice about her personal brand? How does her content make you feel?

Sarah Cooper

Sarah Cooper is a comedian and author, who also happens to be a former Google employee (and a UXer, at that!). Her website and blog perfectly mirror her sense of humor. All of the photos on Sarah’s website are lighthearted and poke fun at life, just like she does in her comedy skits and TikTok videos. Like Oprah, one of Sarah Cooper’s keys to success is that her personal brand is consistent. Her fun personality shines through all of her content, from the bio on her website, which begins with a quirky “Oh hello, I didn’t see you there,” to a colorful gallery of self-portraits.

Check out Sarah’s satirical blog, The Cooper Review, and compare it to the content on her YouTube channel. Notice how the tone she uses in her headings makes it immediately clear that her content is comedic. Even the language in her upload schedule is playfully written as “new videos every whenever.” What else do you notice about the consistency in her personal brand across these two platforms?

Bill Nye

Bill Nye is a scientist and engineer who’s famous for making science fun and engaging. His brand is solidified by his fun theme song for his show, Bill Nye the Science Guy. All of his content and television appearances focus on science, but he presents it in a way that’s easy for anyone to understand.

Check out Bill Nye’s Twitter page. Notice that he uses puns in his tweets, while still presenting useful facts about science. The voice that he tweets in is consistent with his television personality, and maintains his brand as the “goofy science expert.” His personal website uses fun, exaggerated imagery (there’s a floating globe on his homepage!) to keep the atmosphere lighthearted while staying relevant to science.

The big picture: brand yourself consistently

When it comes to building your personal brand, consistency is key. Being consistent in how you present yourself personally and professionally communicates authenticity and builds trust among people in the design community.

Building a successful personal brand means that each time someone thinks of you, a few of the same ideas and keywords immediately come to mind. Oprah is strongly associated with inspiration and hope, while Sarah Cooper is tied to satirical comedy. When you think of Bill Nye, you immediately think of learning science in a fun way. As a UX designer, you want to associate yourself and your work with certain words, like “clean” or “modern” or “abstract” to leave a strong, lasting impression. It’s also helpful for employers to get a sense of your UX design style through your personal brand. If your style matches their needs, it’s a win-win for everybody!

Your personal brand is an essential way to demonstrate your value as a designer. Whatever your brand is, make sure that it’s specific, clear, and above all, consistent in all of your work.

Sources: Google UX Design Professional Certificate

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