Orange Goldfish?

The bright idea behind the brand identity of Kirsten Dixson

Online Identity Profile of Kirsten Dixson

Brand Attributes
Like everyone, I’m complex. But mostly people who know me describe me as: Entrepreneurial, Forward thinking, Confident, Enthusiastic, Resourceful, Connected and Intelligent.

Brand Strengths
I’m tech savvy. (Not to be confused with a “techie” — that, I’m not.) I’m forward thinking, yet always practical. My ideas take shape from bleeding-edge trends, but I find a way to leverage technology in order to enhance lives and careers. I strive to be generous in sharing information and learning resources.

Brand Imagery
We all know that a picture is worth a thousand words. But they need to be the right words!

My goal was to help my designer find imagery that was different in my field — yet still relevant and compelling. I began my fishing expedition for the big idea by searching stock photo sources with keywords like “futuristic” and “think different.” My searches yielded thousands of images; most were too technical looking, and I needed something more organic. As soon as I found the goldfish image, I felt like I had struck... well... gold!

Here’s why... The fish are swimming forward, and thinking and moving forward is my primary message. It’s best to have the design communicate one main idea, but, happily, this image also happens to subtly underscore most of my brand attributes. I’m about having a connection with others, yet standing out. (Have you ever seen a school of fish swim instinctively in unison?) The standout image of the “red fish” fits right in with the standout principle of personal branding. Plus, the subliminal thought of “school” is something that falls in line with my strength of sharing knowledge.

The symbolism of goldfish swims congruent to several of my own brand attributes. Concepts like: prosperity, happiness, energy and success. These positive words all coincide with what I aim to communicate with this identity.

Color Palette
In collaboration with my designer, we arrived at a nice mix of warm, cool and neutral colors.

Orange Enthusiasm. Creativity. Determination.
The qualities of an entrepreneur. (And this entrepreneur’s favorite color.) The color of warmth, strength and change. All things I embrace. Orange has high visibility; perfect for standing out! Also representative of autumn, my favorite season.

White Cleanliness. Goodness. Simplicity.
(Good words when talking technology.) The color of perfection. White represents a successful beginning. That’s how I want people to feel when they begin to create their online identity. Fresh start. Blank canvas. The sky’s the limit. Which brings me to my next color...

Light Blue Sky. Sea. Consciousness.
The color of intellect and understanding; the perfect hue for a company founded to draw out and communicate natural talents. Blue is also associated with business and technology. This particular blue purposefully connects to Brandego®, my original online identity and brand management company. Plus, on the color wheel, blue is the perfect complement to orange.

Red Energy. Courage. Passion.
An accent, this color is a nod to Reach, the personal branding company in which I am a partner. It’s a bit more intense than my orange, so I use it in small, fish-food size doses.

Taupe Balanced. Grounded. Flexible.
Another accent color, taupe is my contrasting color that’s actually a neutral. Half beige, half gray, it has the unique quality of helping my other colors stand out, yet ties them all together swimmingly!

Logo

In 10th grade, I switched from cursive to writing with all-capital letters like the guy sitting next to me in geometry whom I admired. This ruined my very nice penmanship. I’ve long since gotten over that unrequited sophomore crush, but I never did get over the switch to all caps. (Especially signing my name with a bold, juicy pen!) It just felt right to set my name in all caps as a personal logo.

Typeface
Fedra Sans: Corporate. Humanist. Legible.
In a word, Practical. In two words: Kirsten Dixson. I love how the negative spaces in this typeface help my name flow. (See how the R flows to the S to the T?) I was looking for clean, sans-serif face that communicates “technology-oriented” or “tech savvy” — but again, NOT “tech-ie.” It’s a great feeling when you find a typeface that makes your name look right at home, yet not look like anything else. Kudos to Sue Brettell for pointing me to myfonts.com where I found my ideal typeface.

Tagline
I had two personal criterion for my tagline. 1) It must be short. 2) It must not be long. Those parameters left about three words in the entire English language that could effectively and efficiently communicate my value proposition. (Plus, I wanted something that no one else had previously trademarked.) Since I’m mainly interested in empowering others to build and manage their personal brands online, I chose brand yourself online™ rather than branding you online.

As you can see, creating a personal brand identity system takes a lot of thought, heart and energy. But the rewards are worth it! Thanks to my talented branding advisors,* I’m now proud of how I represent myself online — and that confidence carries over to how I represent myself in person.

My online identity clients feel the same way. Drawing out their unique strengths and positive qualities, and then translating those qualities into powerful images and words online... it’s something I was born to do. I’d feel like a fish out of water doing anything else!

* Because it is so difficult to be objective about yourself, the end result won’t be as strong if you go it alone — even if you are a personal branding expert like me.