Why Must The Shoemaker’s Children Go Without Shoes?
In a day and age when anyone can have a web site (or a blog), many designers just don’t take very simple steps to get their own brand online. A series of conversations I have had with fellow designers—and this AIGA article (which focuses on traditional marketing rather than online marketing)—have led me to ask, "Why don’t more designers market themselves online? Why don’t more have any sort of online presence?"
My college education included a heavy dose of "self promotion" projects; then, I got a second education in online word-of- mouth marketing while working at a PR firm. Over time, I have explored this avenue less for myself and more as a test bed. I’ve found that my site is the perfect way to be able to relate to clients trying to get off of the ground. Why? Because I can honestly say what worked—and what didn’t—for me, both personally and professionally.
When I tell a client, "I totally feel ya," I mean it. It makes understanding the client’s position on a project a whole lot easier.
So far, I’ve found no better way to learn and improve than from building my own site and marketing my own brand. I am familiar with the old saying, “The shoemaker’s children always go without shoes.” Is that old saying still applicable with the lines being blurred between work and life through the social web? With communication moving online at a faster pace than ever, there is ample opportunity to brand oneself with little to no effort ... just by being yourself.
The series of small steps I have taken online include creating a brand, having a web site and blog, and marketing that brand (which is both online and offline). It is challenging to stay dedicated, but I’m constantly fueled by curiosity and excitement of connecting with other designers online (which in my case is really an added bonus because I like engaging with other human beings rather than a computer). One of my key motivators has been the bellowing echo of a mentor of mine saying, “you have to make it a priority”.
The question I pose then is, why isn’t marketing oneself via a web site, a blog, or a brand a priority for so many designers?
Hey Samantha.
I know for myself, even as a non-designer, designing my own blog and playing around has given me invaluable experience as I speak with clients. And not just in design, I’m constantly signing up for the latest things and giving them a whirl. And I agree, having my own site allows me to test things out in a safe environment (read: my blog isn’t so great and I don’t care if I mess it up).
I wonder if it’s because some people just don’t care to have their own personal brand? Do you think it’s still a worthy cause even if you’re not interested in creating your own brand?
I also think the distinction you made at the very end is valuable. You don’t HAVE to have a blog to have an online presence.
I noticed I’ve had many ideas for a personal site but often times they got shoved aside for office and/or freelance projects.
I like working on my stuff, because you get that feeling of being free and allowing yourself to do what YOU want to do without clouding your process with what the client/marketing/sales folks want or what are the technical limitations, deadlines etc.
Aside from experimenting the cool bit is basically going “overboard” with ideas, running off and seeing where something might take you. Especially those ideas that come up while working with a client but then get scrapped.
I think that marketing oneself online (just like any serious and difficult endeavor) should be done to achieve specific goals. As someone who’s happily employed and uninterested in freelance work, I don’t really have any goals I can reach by sinking hours into a site/blog/portfolio to increase my visibility. My goals online are more focused on actions than results: I want to talk about design, post videos of cats, and share music. This kind of content doesn’t really market the Doug Avery brand, so a less-robust platform (like a tumblog) can easily handle all these tasks.
As to why other designers aren’t doing it: Unless a designer has a serious goal that marketing can accomplish ("advance career,” “make new friends”, “get more freelance"), they might believe that self-marketing just isn’t necessary.
Side thought: “Personal brand” is an term I’d like to see further defined in the community. I don’t see a brand as something you consciously create or control (although you can occasionally shape the context around it). I’ve never understood why a designer looking for work would lock themselves into a specific logo or set of colors, especially since 95% of your brand is comments you leave on other blogs, impressions you leave at networking events, and (most importantly) the quality of work you show.
I think a lot of students get hung up on the “personal brand” idea coming out of college, and end up making silly logos and hyper-bright personal color schemes, which seem wasted considering the few times a potential employer will see your brand elements before contacting you. My advice: Just pick the attributes of your work that you want viewers to particularly examine/remember. Is your work trendy? Professional? Cross-media? Non-profit focused? Write down one or two of them and design your portfolio/resume around those attributes. Just like with all design, the visuals you create aren’t going to communicate your X quality to viewers, but instead, they say: “When viewing my work/writing, please look for the X quality, which I pride myself on.”
In two years’ time, you’ll probably have new attributes you want to focus on and maybe a new job or industry you’re looking at. Instead of mournfully ditching your old “brand” and coming up with a New You look, you can just focus on your new goals and redesign. You end up with more successful designs, and less time-intensive work between you and what you want.
My problem is that every time I create a web site for myself it typically doesn’t take very long for me to become completely disgusted by the design. For some reason I am extremely hard on myself when it comes to my personal site.
The cycle usually goes like this… I have a great idea, I build the site, I look at the site everyday, I find something that bugs me, I find more things that bug me, I tear the site down in a fit of rage, a splash page goes up, I wait for the cycle to start over again.
Since I’m out of the freelance game and I don’t need to have a web site this process has only become more vicious. Anyone have any advice besides going to therapy?
Interesting article. Made me wonder though if you did indeed put your shoes on… because I couldn’t find any link to visit your website withing the article, even though you talk extensively about it and about auto promotion =)
@ Josh, good call I think a lot of people feel pressure when the word “blog” is used… but in a world where social media is being becoming social and professional, a designer could market themselves via flickr, or a tumblelog.
@Josh Franco You touched on my favorite part of working on my own stuff… being free to define my own design rules.
@ Doug Avery Your comment is likely representative of the feelings of many designers. My question though is: as a designer do all have the goal of understanding what we do for our clients better? On the subject of Personal Brand: I think the word “brand” is often interpreted much too literally. I do not think colors, imagery, or a logo defines a brand. The great thing about a personal brand is that you don’t have to make it up, its you! Its just a matter of breaking who YOU are down to a digestible level that is easily recognizable and consistent. Perhaps that is represented in a consistent avatar, or tone of voice in which you comment. With the evolution of communication personal brand is less about brand elements and more about clear communication.
@ Les I can completely relate, I did over 30 comps before going with the current iteration of my site now. The benefit of going thorough that process is that I can honestly say I understand.
@Omar. Touché. There is a fine line between “Self Promotion” and “Shameless Self Promotion”. Shameless Self promotion can alienate your peers and backfire to generate bad PR for you. I am constantly at odds over when it is appropriate to add a link, or plug my own stuff. I try to stick to my personal rule of linking to myself when adding value and/or communicating a unique point of view. My goal is to connect with people, smothering them with self promotion is not who I am at all. When writing this particular post I thought if someone was interested enough to look for my website they would find my link in the Viget profile. In this case my URL as an example may HAVE been appropriate… my website is here: www.badassideas. Maybe I will write a post on how to avoid “shameless self promotion” in the future. Cheers.
Another thing to consider and throw out there are copyright issues. For me, my personal site was a showcase of work I had been involved in - not uncommon. And as someone only in the industry a few year this became a mix of student/personal work and work that I had completed at my first place of employment. I got into all kinds of copyright issues with my old employer even though I credited them with the work, and the legal standing - they were completely in their rights to request I remove all that work immediately.
If we as designers who work for other people cannot legally showcase that work, what form can our websites take on that are useful and worth the time…
just a few thoughts to put out there, this is the first time ive come across this site. awesome!
The most obvious answer here is time. While that’s not much of an excuse since we can always find something else we’d rather be doing than sitting in front of a computer outside of work, it’s still valid. Unless your presence online is necessary, be it for a job or networking, it’s going to be hard to make it a priority.
The thing is, we’re talking about a couple different things here. One is a brand, one is a presence. Developing a brand is much more difficult and time-consuming than simply having some real-estate on the internet. I spent months and months coming up with sketches for my personal logo until I developed one that I could embrace. Meanwhile, I can develop one for a client in a matter of days or weeks. It’s understood that the standards are much higher when designing for yourself. Sometimes that fact is a little too intimidating when sitting down to your desk after half the day in the office.
Oh, and ask me if I’ve done anything with that logo besides slap it on the “coming soon” page of my website. Don’t get me started on how long that could take (I recently died on that hill and have since redirected it to my Behance profile).
On the flip side, brand or not, there are far to many **free** resources out there for designers to not have a portfolio presence on the web. Flickr, Behance, Coroflot, even Facebook. There’s simply no excuse and designers owe it to themselves to show off work they’re proud of.
Developing a brand is difficult. Showing off your work, not so much. Three cheers to you and your team for doing both so well.
Great article, Samantha.
Web design and hosting are one of the most competitive niches around. Even if they did get their site online I dunno how much good it would due…
It’s always nice if your designer has a page to look at but it’s not really necessary. If you look at the site in my comment, it was designed by a freelance guy with no personal site of his own and I think it looks pretty good.
Oh, and ask me if I’ve done anything with that logo besides slap it on the “coming soon” page of my website. Don’t get me started on how long that could take (I recently died on that hill and have since redirected it to my Behance profile).
Sorry to butt in late, but I’m all for branding and creating a portal that carries our voice across the net. After all, clients do find us through this portal. Branding has worked well for me ever since I started out in my freelance writing business and i couldn’t stress enough how important it is.
Hope this helps somebody
Monika :-)
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