Personal branding isn’t too different from product branding, except the entity being branded is you. Just as Nike uses their tick to attach a personality and uniqueness to their products, an individual’s personal brand is made up of their unique qualities and traits (Skellie 2008, p.5). Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon communicates personal connections and human emotions as the core of self-branding (Tim Leberecht 2012). He states, “your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room”.

The importance of self-branding for freelance graphic designers can often be overlooked in today’s hyperconnected world, as many people don’t realise the great benefits that can come from it. With millions of freelance graphic designers worldwide, Skellie (2008, p.5) reflects on the significance of being able to capture people’s attention and not just be another speck in the crowd.

This project, Me Inc. was developed as Peters (1997) highlighted the new brand world we live in. He stated that, “we are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You”.

This project examines the two underlying concepts of personal branding developed by Karen Kang, through the metaphor of the “cake” and the “icing” (Reid 2015), as a foundation to explore the question “what are the benefits and challenges of online self-branding for graphic designers?”.

Peters (1997) stated that personal branding is “that simple – and that hard”, Kang examined how individuals can discover and advance their self-brand through rational values, the “cake”, that articulate what one’s self-brand is about (such as experience and expertise), and the emotional values, the “icing”, as the unique personality and soft skills of one’s self-brand (such as personality and image) (Reid 2015). To convey a strong self-brand, individuals need to achieve a balance between the “cake” and the “icing”.

However, Labrecque, Markos & Milne (2010, p.38) reveal that personal branding can entail some unique challenges that mainly stem from the complexities in the online environment. Peters (1997) states that “everyone has a chance to be a brand worthy of remark”, but if not created and maintained correctly the power is given to someone else in the same field.

Peter (2007), Kang (in Reid 2015) and Labrecque, Markos & Milne’s (2010) findings are examined in the profiles section, where in-depth interviews were conducted with four freelance graphic designers across Sydney. The respondents were asked a range of questions in order to learn about their online and self-branding behaviour, including the benefits and challenges they have encountered.