I’ve just read this article in Design Week about how celebrities like Michael Owen are being branded in order to PR their entire personality to the world at large.  Actually, when the Michael Owen brand values were released http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2009/june/michael-owen , there was a genuine outcry amongst the design community, but is personal branding really so tawdry?

Australian designer, Christopher Doyle has just won a D&AD for the project above which, in his own words, “takes the piss” and applies the branding approach that he uses throughout his working life to himself. It’s not an old concept, and has attracted much media attention before thanks to the infamous Stefan Sagmeister self mutilation project http://www.sagmeister.com/work5.html .

What I think is interesting though is that it’s no longer just celebs who are branding themselves; when I started this blog, I came up with a brand (ok, actually I had a lot of help from http://ryantym.tumblr.com/) and in essence, I marketed myself.  I’ve got a ‘presence’ on most of the social networks, as is so often recommended as a strategy to corporate brands and I now use my branding throughout my freelance work as well in order to aquire new contacts and new work.

Social networking has given everyone the ability to brand themselves and, being a bit cynical, sell themselves to the world at large.  From telling people what your favourite films are on Facebook to blogging your opinions and daily thoughts, we’ve all got a personal brand that’s constantly evolving.  It’s not barefaced immodesty, it’s just a modern way of communicating your personality.