Before you start designing your brand identity, it's important to define the foundational elements of your visual identity that align with your brand's philosophy. 👉 Open up Figma, drag in your inspiration images from your Research boards and start structuring it however you want. Start by playing around - identifying the key components of your visual identity—logo, color palette, typography, logo concepts and other visual motifs. 🎨 These elements should reflect the essence of your brand and resonate with your target audience.

PS: The great thing with Figma is that you can use it as your interactive design board that allows you to start forming your brand and it's free version is super powerful. Need some inspiration? Here you have it. 👀

Here is the fun part. Craft your design concept(s) and start evolving your brand identity. Your own branding is one of the most enjoyable projects you will ever work on. But hey, we did not say it's easy as you are your most critical client ever 😬

But before you start losing yourself in designing your own pen, stickers or other not-so-impactful work, think where to apply your brand. ⚠️ Start with the crucial brand pillars first! Social Media presence is probably key, as well as your CV, Cover letter and portfolio (we'll cover this in a separate class). ⏰ Spend the necessary time to establish a powerful personal branding that represents you as a professional and you as a personality.

Create mock ups to see how your brand will look like in real environements. We like to take screenshots of our social profiles and overlay them with the newly crafted profile banners, pictures or feed posts. It does help us to get a clearer understanding how it looks in context. ✨

You should also use high quality mock ups to visualize your business cards, collateral or website - especially helpful if you are planning to create a case study around your new branding - it needs to look stunning! 👁️

👉 And lastly don't forget to seek for feedback from fellow peers, mentors or other pros in the industry you trust! Don't work on it in silo - a second pair of eyes will often times make it better. 👀