16 Places to Build Your Brand for Graphic Designers

September 22, 2008 by Pete Kistler
Filed under: All, Brand-Yourself.com, Careers, College, Google PageRank, Personal Branding, Web Identity 
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To build a brand worthy of remark as a graphic designer, you should be actively participating in your niche online. One of the easiest and best ways to start is by posting comments on blogs and forums relevant to your area of expertise, and share original, on-brand media you’ve created wherever members of your niche hang out. You will soon find people thinking of you as a passionate and valued member of the community.

The following ten blogs are excellent resources to post comments on and interact with on a regular basis:

  1. http://graphicdesign.about.com/
  2. http://www.designer-daily.com/
  3. http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/
  4. http://www.youthedesigner.com/
  5. http://www.septemberindustry.co.uk/blog/
  6. http://justcreativedesign.com/
  7. http://www.positivespaceblog.com/
  8. http://www.crazyleafdesign.com/blog/
  9. http://outlawdesignblog.com/
  10. http://veerle.duoh.com/

The following six forums are great resources to share your thoughts and media with others:

  1. http://www.graphicdesignforum.com
  2. http://forum.howdesign.com/
  3. http://www.allgraphicdesign.com/phpBB2/
  4. http://www.yourdesignforums.com/
  5. http://graphicdesign.about.com/mpboards.htm
  6. http://www.estetica-design-forum.com/

Remember to always include the following brand-builders whenever you post on a blog or forum:

1. The full name you want people to find you with in search engines. If your name is John Doe, it will be nearly impossible to make it to the first page of Google results for “John Doe.” So make sure you figure out the exact term you want to be found under when people search for you online. (Read our post, 5 Tips to Rank Highly on Google and Increase Your Visibility Online, to learn how to most effectively choose the term you brand yourself with online).

2. A link to your personal website or blog. Google counts a link from one site to another as a “vote” for that site. Sites with the most votes end up highest in search results. So, the more sites that link to the places you exist online, the higher your name will show up in results when someone Googles your name. Every time you post on a blog or forum, you should be leaving a link back to your “home base” site (which ideally contains your full portfolio) to boost its rank in Google results.

3. An eight-words-or-less description of your brand. Who are you, what do you do best and for what audience? Consistently leaving this short description with every comment builds brand awareness and associates you with your unique promise of value.

4. Optional: Your email address. If someone wants to get in touch with you, make it easy for them. Include your email address when you post comments to keep yourself open to as many opportunities as possible.

Know of any sites we missed? Submit a comment below if you know of any other blogs, forums or resources for graphic designers we missed. There’s no way we could include them all, so join the discussion and tell us about your favorite sites for graphic designers!

Pete Kistler
Author: Pete Kistler

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Comments

  • Thanks for posting these links on your post. It was quite helpful.
  • Happy to see that it was helpful for you. Is there any link in particular that helped you the most?
  • Excellent blog, thanks for the post!
  • Thank you! Is there any part in particular that really hit home more than anything else?
  • Your shared list is a sure hit for those who want to succeed in this competitive field of designing. I'll use this too for sure. Thanks anyway.
  • You need to use every tool at your disposal. There are so many sites and resources out there that many people are unaware of. The first thing I would recommend for anyone in design is to create an online portfolio to display all of your work. This is were a personal website really comes in handy as it is a great way to show off your art to anyone without sending it to them.
  • designclub7
    Very Valuable Information for Designers. Nice Sharing With this Informative & Knowledegable post.
  • Glad to share it with you! Having an online presence is applicable to any expertise, especially for designers who now have the ability to create an online portfolio to demonstrate their skills. Is there any point or site that you found to be most useful?
  • webdevelopment
    Nice Reading. Very Very Useful tips. Thanks Sharing.
  • Happy that you found them VERY useful. As a graphic design which stood out to you the most?
  • great tips! it's a struggle to follow all these tips but they are all worth doing it in the long run! :D
  • I know that we threw a lot of content at you in this post. I would suggest that your best bet is to start small. You need to pick and choose one or two items to focus on initially and once you get those under control branch out. It is not an overnight process but at the same time it is not meant to take a significant amount of effort moving forward. Best of luck,
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