The online brand of You
A couple of weeks ago I noticed that almost every service I use allows me to post an avatar to identify myself. Then I noticed that almost everyone uses an avatar that is a picture of themselves and that many times these avatars change every couple of weeks. Then I realized that many of the people that I follow or friend or whatever I have to double check who they are because their avatar doesn’t really tell me anything. Then I realized that is silly.
I needed a logo.
Why? Well because I am a brand myself and to be honest I want to stand out from the millions of other people we follow online. I mean have you ever seen a Twitter client’s interface? Here is a screenshot of mine.
I could probably tell you who each of these people are, but it would take a couple of seconds of thought. Ignoring my twat at the top all of these avatars make my mind go hmm for second and I probably wouldn’t recognize them in other places. We care so much about being a presence online and yet we aren’t taking the time to make sure our presence is recognized. Ever been to a bar/club/party and felt like people wouldn’t know if you were even there? That is 99% of us online. I’m not saying everyone wants to be a superstar, but if you spend enough time online you know you have put time and effort into something. I can’t say what that something is for you, but damn if my presence is the guy who changes his avatar every once in a while.
Sure not everyone needs a logo and not everyone will want one, but with over 6 billion people in the world wouldn’t it be cool to have a “shield” representing you? Okay maybe not that cool for you, but I thought it would be cool for me because these are the things I think of when I am laying on the beach watching the sun set.
Now I had to go and find a logo for myself that I can use in many places. I needed something simple yet powerful. So I went into the graphics program and played with fonts and I found many cool ones to work with. Now did I want my logo to be ‘Paul Scrivens’ or ‘Scrivs’? Well I am Scrivs basically everywhere I go, even in real life so I might as well continue that trend. Besides one name personas are much cooler than two name personas. So Scrivs it was, but every logo I tried with ‘Scrivs’ just didn’t scale well. As you should know if you are going to create a logo, create one that scales at different sizes and in grayscale.
I guess the next logical step then was to simply go with the letter ’s’. This is risky because someone might own the letter ’s’ already, but nobody that I knew of. Then I thought of how Superman had the letter ’s’ and that made it kind of cool so I knew I had to go with it because I am the 9th cousin of Superman so it only made sense to carry on the family legacy.
After all of this thinking, which in reality only took about 13 minutes I came up with this.
And so this is what I use on Facebook and Twitter and will use in whatever future attempts of online domination I attempt. This of course could be an exercise in futility, but I like the idea of it. I think it gives me a better identity online than what my past avatars were and allows me some consistency. A pic of mine in some capacity would be more personal, but I don’t like the pics I have and how they would relate to my new logo/shield so this is where I stand now.
At least @zeldman likes it.
@scrivs Lovin’ that avatar, chief.
If you have a consistent identity online or know of anyone else that does I would love to see them.
UPDATE: Dan Benjamin likes the idea of faces being used and I understand his point of view, but in the long term faces change. And a shield will always be cooler than my face.
21 Responses
Justin Ruckman / 04.01.09
It’s why I keep my weird starry pic, even though I’ve cut all my hair off. Everybody knows me by it.
Mike Rundle / 04.01.09
I need a new avatar, you’re right about needing a personal brand. Right now I’ve got a picture of myself taking a self-pic with an iPhone… recognizable only because I’ve had it for so long but it’s meaningless, really.
Paul Scrivens / 04.01.09
Yo dawg, I heard you liked your iPhone in the mirror pic so I put your iPhone mirror pic in your avatar so you can avatar with your iPhone mirror pic.
Paul Scrivens / 04.01.09
With regards to using your face, you don’t understand how many people say I look like X celebrity. I don’t want me to be represented as the guy that looks like someone else. That sucks.
So the ’s’ it is!
Ollie / 04.01.09
I came to similar conclusion as you have a while back. For a start, I was getting fed up of having to change my avatar every time I found/took/had taken a decent picture of myself. So I just threw together a favicon for my site that also doubles as my (gr)avatar on most other sites.
Logo looks sweet Scrivs. And it really does stand out.
James Craig / 04.01.09
I think you got this one wrong, Scrivs. You’re right that, if you’re trying to maintain a personal brand, the picture probably shouldn’t change every few weeks (mine rarely does) but using a logo instead of your face removes a personal connection that’s built-in to the human psyche. Dan Benjamin wrote a related post a few months ago.
http://hivelogic.com/articles/view/why-your-avatar-matters
Paul Scrivens / 04.01.09
@James Craig: Yeah I linked the article in an update that I guess you missed.
I even admit that taking away the face removes that personal touch, but I think you gain more than you lose in this case if I wish to expose myself all over the place (that sounded weird). The way my mind workks I see an image I can relate to it fast. I see a face I don’t get that relation very fast, but in the end it might be more personal.
I guess I would rather have the quick recognition and then people having a feeling that my brand is still me, than them going is that Barack Obama or Scrivs?
Don’t act like you don’t have a personal connection to Apple when you see their logo. Faces are overrated.
Paul Scrivens / 04.01.09
Now I do like the illustrated pictures that people use like Dan Benjamin, Lea Alacantra and Zeldman.
James Craig / 04.01.09
@Scrivs: Something that you might lose is the ice-breaker when you meet that person in real life. I’ve met lots of people at SXSW or other places just because I recognized their face or they recognized mine. The first time I met Chris Heilmann in person was walking down Haight street. I said, “Hey, you’re Chris, right?”
You do kinda look like Obama, but not in every picture. Pick one that stands out, or use an illustrated version like you mentioned.
You wrote, “Don’t act like you don’t have a personal connection to Apple when you see their logo. Faces are overrated.”
There’s a big difference between a corporate brand and a personal brand.
A personal brand that doesn’t use a face can come off as impersonal at best, or at worse, cocky. There are a few exceptions, but they are mainly tied to products associated with an individual, like Nike’s Air Jordan “jumpman” logo, but it’s a reference to the product more than the person. In contrast, Shaq’s “dunkman” logo was too closely tied to him personally, and came off as cocky.
For the counterpoint, a corporate brand that uses a face is just weird. Remember Max Headroom for Coca-Cola? Even McDonald’s only uses the clown sparingly.
Kyle Bradshaw / 04.01.09
Paul I agree with you wholeheartedly. Across the geek-space I want to have a consistent brand that pops off the page and is instantly recognizable.
I blogged about it last year here:
http://somedirection.com/2008/03/30/controlling-your-online-persona/
I’ll rely on Facebook for a more personal touch.
I see Twitter as an important career/business platform more than one for finding new friends. Besides, you should be able to get your fill of my dashing good looks on Flickr/Blog/Facebook etc.
I’d rather be instantly recognizable amongst the herd.
Paul Scrivens / 04.01.09
@James: You see I am more recognized by name than face though. Always have been, always will be probably. My name is more my brand than my actual looks. I guess I have that advantage over many people. Zeldman would be the same way. In that case a nametag would be more important than my fat head walking around.
Since I am cocky I am only following up with that then. You know me and how I am, I think this logo thing fits me to a tee. Almost as if you like me it’s a cool thing that you would expect and if you dislike me it’s an asshole thing that you still expect.
Is it for everyone? Not at all and I hope I made sure that came across in my entry. The ’s’ is my personal touch and if you know me then I don’t see why you can’t look at it and have the same feelings towards it as you would if you saw my face.
Shaq’s jumpan didn’t work because it was just like Jordan’s. Different poses, but it was still more Shaq trying to be Jordan than Shaq being Shaq.
When I say shield, maybe a better comparison would be Family Crests that the cool old school families in Europe use to have. Nothing about the name.
Paul Scrivens / 04.01.09
Also I went with this path more for my own longterm goals for my own brand which is why I can see why many people would care less about this tactic.
Tyme White / 04.01.09
I think I understand your logic but long term, it doesn’t make sense to me because you’d end up making things harder for yourself.
BullieBoard! will have his brand, and identity.
Emersian has it’s logo – another brand but smaller presence.
Your PERSONAL Facebook account, the ones with your friends and such, blends BullieBoard! and your personal life.
We won’t even throw in 9rules and the leaf.
Or anything else you do.
So essentially, you’re saying you are going to blend your personal and business brands and successfully maintain these brands, without them conflicting with each other.
Why?
It’s hard maintaining one brand successfully but you’re talking about multiple brands (that criss-cross) that will end up confusing people in the long run. At best, your personal brand will outshine the business ones. Which would mean you’d have to plan your exit strategies carefully….
I’m not saying not to use the S but I guess I don’t understand the long-term logic.
Paul Scrivens / 04.01.09
Maybe my brand is confusion which I will make my own. No other person will claim confusion as their brand. Seems to work well for me.
Paul Scrivens / 04.01.09
Another way I see it is Paul Scrivens is a pic avatar while Scrivs is a logo type of avatar.
Mark / 04.01.09
I think the brand you’re building is that of impatience and change. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as long as it’s your true intent.
A brand is nothing more than a promise you make to your consumer. Given your history online, change is definitely a promise you can deliver on — again, not a bad thing.
However, given all this, it kind of works against the grain of your promise to now consider any “long term” solution with this particular logo — in my opinion, anyway.
James Craig / 04.01.09
@Scrivs: You said, “You see I am more recognized by name than face though. Always have been, always will be probably. My name is more my brand than my actual looks.”
True that. I guess I didn’t consider that aspect since I have two generic first names. ;-)
Regarding the family crest, I’ve got a crest on one side and a tartan on the other side. I might have to use a variation of one; thanks for the idea.
The only problem I can foresee with the family crest in the age of digital identity is one of security. Each time a marriage happened between families that had crests, the graphic would split. Long story short, if you use a family crest unmodified, someone could loosely figure out your family tree, potentially including your mother’s maiden name. PWND!
Paul Scrivens / 04.01.09
I really have nothing to say except for how impressed I am that you know so much about family crests when I knew absolutely nothing about them.
Paul Scrivens / 04.01.09
Oh and you have that weird double first name thing going. That is brand enough.
Montoya / 04.02.09
I’ve been using a stylized picture of myself. People have said very nice things about it. It’s cool because even though you can tell it’s based on a picture of me, it’s more than just a photograph. It also implies that I’m a geek, which is usually true.
Anton / 04.02.09
Earlier, you mentioned that you liked some of the illustrated avatars. Not sure if you knew this or not, but I happen to be the guy that drew Lea’s icon. She’s using it on her site now as well. So if you, or any of your readers are considering an illustrated avatar, I’d love it if you’d let me lend my skills to the job.
You can find out more here (shameless plug):
http://antonpeck.com/avatar_you