How to Brand Yourself as a Top Graphic Designer

Companies spend a lot of money on graphic design. But before they spend that money, they want to be certain they’ll get the best possible return on their investment. Graphic designers hoping to attract new clients need to give the impression that they can provide everything their clients will need. They do that through smart, effective branding techniques:

What makes you personally special?

Graphic design is a competitive field. You’ll be submitting your proposals alongside other smart, driven designers, so what do you offer clients that others don’t? Maybe it’s exceptional customer service, catering to your clients’ every need. Or maybe you have a quirky sense of humor, or clearly distinctive visual style. Whatever makes you special, identify that core piece and turn it into your brand. Express it in your pitch, your social media, and anything else you put out into the world to show who you are. It will make you memorable as clients try to pick out the people who stand out.

Know your skillset

Where do you excel? Are there types of projects you hesitate to take on, or you have less experience with? Highlighting your professional expertise both shows off your best angle and helps attract more clients who want similar projects done. This success will build on itself, but it begins with you identifying your skillset and intentionally highlighting the types of work you do best. Whether it’s logo design, illustrations, packaging, or whatever you do best, find your specialties and bring them to the forefront of your personal brand.

Identify how you want clients to feel

Do you want potential clients to feel impressed with your work? Excited? Intimidated? Or maybe comfortable, like you’re a friend they can trust? Whatever the feeling, make sure everything about your brand is directed to inspire it in potential clients. Your color palette, logo design, typeface, and other basic design choices should all work towards that core impression. As a graphic designer, this is your opportunity to show off your own skills.

Experiment!

This part is probably the most fun, but it can also be the scariest. Try a few different variations of your resume, portfolio, and other branding materials. This kind of A/B testing is common among designers in the real world, and there’s no reason you shouldn’t try it out yourself. Of course, you’ll need to offer resumes and pitches to a large number of potential clients in order to get useful information from your experiments, and that’s a great way to encourage yourself to pitch a minimum number of times per day. Experimenting can be scary, but it will give you some great opportunities to refine your brand and pitch even more clients!

Bonus tip 🚥

If you’re building your brand across several social media sites, you’ll want a single page where you can direct all the interest you’re building. Fortunately, that’s where Ahoyo can help out. To create a single, easily customizable page where you can hold your products and services descriptions, contact page, and anything else you might need, just click here!