How I arrived at my brand positioning

Working on your own brand positioning can be an incredibly challenging, introspective but rewarding process.

When I decided to set up on my own again after six very happy years at my previous agency, creating my own brand was one of my first, and most important tasks.

I’ve been through this process countless times over the years for all sorts of clients. But doing it for yourself is a completely different matter. It can be frustrating, head-frying and, at times, downright tortuous.

Who am I? What do I actually do? How do I add value? What do I do differently? What’s my personality? What should I say about myself? How should I present myself?

And that’s just for starters.

So, how did I go about it?

1. Look beyond the job title

Firstly, I knew that simply telling people I was a designer and creative director wasn’t going to cut it.

There are plenty of talented designers and creative directors out there. Experience and ability are important, but they don’t necessarily give you a distinctive position in a crowded market.

I needed to uncover something more authentic, a positioning that captured not just what I do, but how I think, how I work and the value I bring to the table.

2. Look back before looking forward

Reflecting on my career to date was a big part of the process.

I looked for recurring themes across the work I’d created, the clients I’d worked with and the way I’d approached creative challenges. I also reflected on a number of past and more recent experiences, which helped reinforce what I felt I was all about and, equally importantly, what I wasn’t.

That last bit is worth considering.

Identifying what you’re not can be a surprisingly useful springboard for discovering who you are. Sometimes the things you instinctively reject tell you as much about your positioning as the things you embrace.

3. Consider the world you’re operating in

I also took a step back and looked at the wider landscape faced by creatives and clients alike.

Financial pressures, tighter budgets, shrinking timelines, technological change and the rapid rise of AI are just some of the challenges influencing how creative work is commissioned, produced and valued.

Understanding that context was important. I didn’t want to create a positioning that simply described me. I wanted something relevant to the world I was working in and, ultimately, useful to the people I wanted to work with.

4. Ask other people

Finally, I spoke to family, friends, fellow creatives, ex-colleagues and trusted business contacts.

This was incredibly valuable.

When you spend too long inside your own head, it’s easy to lose perspective. Other people can see patterns that you’ve become blind to, or describe your strengths in ways you’d never think to describe yourself.

Those conversations helped me move beyond my own assumptions and understand how other people actually perceived me.

Joining the dots

The theme that seemed to keep presenting itself was character.

Character in my work. Character in how I presented my work. Character in the relationships I built with colleagues and clients. Character in the way I approached creative challenges.

And this wasn’t entirely new to me.

For years, I’d been talking to people about what I saw as a growing lack of character in design. So much of the work we see can feel increasingly homogeneous, influenced by the same sources, following the same trends and borrowing from the same visual language.

Creatives follow what other creatives are doing. Clients follow what competitors are doing. Before long, everyone starts to look the same.

For me, good creative work should do more than look polished. It should have an idea behind it. It should have a point of view. It should have personality. It should make you feel something.

It should have character.

And that’s when the dots started to join.

Creativity with character

Eventually, I arrived at my big idea:

Creativity with character.

It felt simple, memorable and, most importantly, true.

It brought together the recurring themes I’d uncovered throughout the process, my experience, my approach, my personality, my frustration with bland and predictable creative work, and my belief that good ideas should have substance as well as style.

But it also gave me something more valuable than a tagline. It gave me a brand touchstone.

Something I can use to question and guide everything I do, from the work I create and the clients I work with to the way I communicate and present myself.

Does it have character? Does it feel like me? Is it interesting? Is there an idea behind it? Does it have a point of view?

If the answer is no, it probably needs another look.

The importance of getting it right

The process reinforced something I already knew from working with clients: a good positioning shouldn’t be something you simply invent. It should be something you uncover.

It needs to be authentic, distinctive and clear enough for people to understand quickly but with enough depth to give it longevity.

Because if I’m going to hang my hat on a positioning for the next decade, it better be bloody right. And I believe it is.

Hopefully, some of these thoughts might be useful if you’re thinking about your own brand positioning. Take the time to look back. Talk to people. Consider what you’re not as well as what you are. Look for the recurring themes. And don’t be afraid to challenge the obvious answer.

Because sometimes the strongest positioning isn’t hiding in what you do. It's hiding in how you do it.

And if you need a hand uncovering yours, you can always call on someone who delivers creativity with character.