Monday, 1 September 2014

5 Unique Self Promotions


As I have just completed a placement and I now preparing for my fourth and final year of uni before heading off into the big bad world, I have spent a lot of my time recently looking at CVs, portfolios and other creatives self identities for inspiration for my own branding. Along the way I have come across some really unique ideas that I can't help but wish I had thought of, and thought they were worth sharing with you.























What I really loved about this self promotion was the irony. In his description he explained that the idea came from an agency telling him that they would keep him on file, which gave him the mental image of being out on a dusty shelf with the rest. I think that this is a really clever way of getting noticed; by designing his self promotion to look like a generic file he is actually creating something that can physically be put on a creative director's desk making it a lot harder for them to ignore him and add him to their "file", which is most likely digital.



02. Monica Wang, China
























Although her project on Behance only shows still images, judging by the fact that the last one says "Thank you for watching", I am assuming that this is sent to potential employers as a video. However, while I think that sending a video or motion graphic is incredibly unique and would be sure to get a lot of responses, it is not that that drew me to this project. I actually chose to talk about this self promotion because I just love the fact that entire thing has been illustrated. The fact that every single element of this self promotion has clearly been hand-drawn reflects the time and effort this girl has put into it and is likely to reflect the time and effort she puts into all of her designs. I think that this is a great way to get noticed by potential employers as it is hard to deny the effort and consideration that has gone into this self promotion, proving that she is passionate about the job she is applying for and has the creativity and enthusiasm to do the job well. I would definitely hire her if this arrived on my desk!




























I have to admit, I don't think that this is the most professional self promotion I have seen, but I had to include it anyway. I was always passionate about Fine Art when I was in high school and sixth form, and the one thing that I miss because I do graphic design is the opportunity to just experiment with paints and other Fine Art materials so I love the fact that this girl has used watercolours to create unique backgrounds for her self promotion. She has also completed the entire self promotion in her own hand writing, so similar to Monica she is hard to ignore because it is obvious how much time and effort she has put into producing her self promotion. I have mixed feelings about this project because I think the fact that the watercolour has been done on the actual paper with give the final outcome an odd texture, and I wonder if it would have looked more professional is she had experimented with the paints and then scanned the work in and completed the self promotion digitally and had it printed. However, any potential employer will be able to see the time she has spent on her self promotion which will go in her favour, and they will be able to guarantee that what they have been sent is unique!



I think that infographics are the most common type of self promotion and therefore when I have been looking for inspiration I have been trying to stay away from these, but I couldn't help but be drawn to this one by Stuart Mayhew. I don't think that the infographics and the text themselves are that unique, but I just love the way he uses them to tell his story. I think that the colours work really well together and will appeal to anybody, and I think that he uses the infographics to display all of the important information, while adding a few personal details in too that will really help him to stand out from the crowd. Rather than over complicating the design he has used simple infographics to illustrate his story and that combined with the colours creates a simple but striking CV that will be sure to get some attention.



Last but not least, I have chosen to highlight the self promotion of Daniela Milier. The reason I chose this one is because I think she is a great example of how you can create a complete brand for yourself, and the many ways you can apply it. What I particularly love about her self promotion is the repeat patterns she has designed as part of her brand that can be used as a background for various things. Her brand is very strong; it is very well considered and she can show an extensive amount of detail about her brand beyond her logo, such as the colour palette and the repeat patterns as well as the various ways it can be applied to promote herself and I think if she has been implicating these when applying for jobs then she will get attention for sure. She shows a great level of professionalism which is a key quality that potential employers will be looking for. 

So there we go, five great examples of self promotion that will hopefully inspire you as much as they did me! 

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