Your Signature Vibe: A Personal Brand’s Guide to Creating a Visual Identity
Think of the most memorable brands in your life – they probably popped into your head with a specific color, look, or feeling attached. That's no accident. Creating a visual identity is the secret sauce that turns scattered content into an unforgettable personal brand. While everyone else is trapped on the content hamster wheel, wondering why their posts aren't gaining traction, intentional personal brands are building something more powerful: a signature style that stops the scroll and makes their audience feel at home.
While you might think that using the same filming angle or color palette will make your content boring, this consistency is exactly what makes your brand recognizable in the endless scroll of social media. Let me walk you through 5 no-brainer ways to craft your signature vibe.
Choose Your Color
A simple place to start is by picking a color that’s your color and include it everywhereeeee. For me it’s red-orange; you’ll see it on my lips, throughout my website and featured in my graphics. Signature Color is one of those tried and true visual identity hacks and you literally see it everywhere: If I asked you what colors Walmart and Target were you would say blue and red. Dunkin is orange, Starbucks is green.
Even your favs online tap into signature color, like Tori Dunlap whose berry lipstick color ended up being paired with the font choice for her book title. Or Captolia, another brand witch who’s entire feed is electric lavender.
Lean Into Your Look
Similar to color, leaning into physical appearance can also create instant repetition and recognition. But it doesn’t have to be the entirety of your likeness to be effective, think of Steve Jobs everyday uniform or Anna Wintours iconic sleek hairstyle. You can lean into anything that’s apart of you from your glasses, trusty collection of sweater vests or continual obsession with leopard print (like me).
With appearance however, be mindful of changing these elements. A new hair color choice, significant chop or shaving of a beard can turn your audience off- or at the very least require them to retrain the mental image they have of you. This isn’t to say that you can never change your look, but gradual shifts can ease your audience into a new persona, where sudden changes can be an excellent mark of a new era.
Tap into Traditional Branding Elements
While having go-to font choices and logos are an obvious must-have for consumer brands, these assets also go a long way for personal brands. When creating your next instagram story or infographic, try keeping the fonts as consistent as you can. Even if you can’t source the exact type, try staying in the same family.
In that same vein, while it’s not required, personal brands can absolutely have their own logo. A simple signature of your name, a set of icons (or fav emojis!) that pepper throughout your content, or even a fully fledged logo are another way you can create a visual touch point for your audience.
Templates are Life
Creating a good template is like striking gold. Instantly unifying your content, templates are also serve as a major time savor. Sticking with the same email newsletter layout, filming videos in the same location of your home or having a go-to carousel designed in Canva will help maintain the look and feel of your work while also creating repetition. And if these templates also feature your signature color? Oh baby, now you’re cooking…
Beyond the Visual
Visual elements quickly and easily build your identity, but vision is not the only sense you have to rely on. Choosing a specific mood or genre of music to accompany your content is a super simple way to implement this. If you’re someone who does a lot of in person networking or events, having a go-to perfume or cologne can also cue instant familiarity. And lastly catchphrases, slogans or even your accent all help build your brand. Do you need to adopt a cheesy tagline? No, but there is something comforting about hearing your favorite gamer’s YouTube intro.
Don’t Sweat It
Your signature vibe should feel like an amplification of who you already are, not a costume you're trying to wear. Start with elements that already feel natural to you, then be intentional about incorporating them consistently in your brands presence.
And while creating a visual identity should absolutely be as intentional as it is authentic, don’t stress over getting it ‘right’. Personal branding by nature is a constantly shifting identity, because you are a constantly growing and evolving human. It’s okay to try a few colors before you land on your signature, in the beginning no one is watching that closely anyway.
At the end of the day, putting yourself out there is far more important than making sure you’re constantly ‘on brand’. If I forget my red lipstick one day, that doesn’t mean I skip posting content. The point isn't perfection- it's creating a consistent thread that runs through everything you do, but you gotta still be doing the thing to build the consistency! That means showing up even when things aren’t 100% perfect.
Quick Action Steps
Now to recap, here are the 5 ways you can start building your visual identity:
Choose your signature color
Lean into your look and identify 2-3 elements to highlight (glasses, lipstick, sweaters…)
Tap into traditional branding elements like consistent fonts… maybe play around, pick a signature emoji
Create less stress and more consistency by implementing go-to content templates wherever you can
Be intentional with your choices, but don’t chase perfection- you gotta do the thing to be consistent!
Remember: Your vibe is just one part of your personal brand, but it's often the easiest place to start making intentional choices. Start with what feels natural to you, and build from there.
Need a little help discovering your signature elements? Looking at your astrology chart can be a fantastic way to uncover your natural tendencies and visual vibe. Right now I’m crafting an offering similar to Selling With Certainty that’s just for personal branding. Interested in trying it out? Just book a Selling With Certainty session and mention on the intake form that this is for personal branding.
