Branding (and trying not to get burned)
I hope you like that title. That's a fun little play on words, there. We have fun here on Matt's blog.
Lately, I've been trying to get everybody to call me Scoot. Two of my professors are dead set on making it happen for me; they're trying to say the actual word in conversation as much as possible, encouraging me to sign in-class quizzes with that name, and so on. Me being me, I love the attention. But I know in the end that it's just a crazy pipe dream.
See, these professors and I (as much as I love them) are still kind of new to each other. They've known me for less than a year, so a new nickname comes with a much smaller challenge than the one faced by my roommates, parents, brother, partner, and doctors. Not to mention, most of these people think that the nickname is silly, or downright stupid. "You sound like a hick," my partner Tasha says. I don't really care, as long as I sound like Scoot. But it doesn't matter. To them, I'll always be Matt.
And that's where our story on branding begins. For Morgan Leckie's class (hi again!) we've been asked to put together a logo for our personal brands; in other words, represent ourselves in some kind of artistic fashion, one that captures our personalities, interests, and tastes in one delightful image. Appropriately, I did mine on MS Paint (I see you shuddering--don't @ me). In my defense, I don't think y computer could even handle a more sophisticated program, and I just never got the training other folks may have been exposed to. Here's my best work:
Lately, I've been trying to get everybody to call me Scoot. Two of my professors are dead set on making it happen for me; they're trying to say the actual word in conversation as much as possible, encouraging me to sign in-class quizzes with that name, and so on. Me being me, I love the attention. But I know in the end that it's just a crazy pipe dream.
See, these professors and I (as much as I love them) are still kind of new to each other. They've known me for less than a year, so a new nickname comes with a much smaller challenge than the one faced by my roommates, parents, brother, partner, and doctors. Not to mention, most of these people think that the nickname is silly, or downright stupid. "You sound like a hick," my partner Tasha says. I don't really care, as long as I sound like Scoot. But it doesn't matter. To them, I'll always be Matt.
And that's where our story on branding begins. For Morgan Leckie's class (hi again!) we've been asked to put together a logo for our personal brands; in other words, represent ourselves in some kind of artistic fashion, one that captures our personalities, interests, and tastes in one delightful image. Appropriately, I did mine on MS Paint (I see you shuddering--don't @ me). In my defense, I don't think y computer could even handle a more sophisticated program, and I just never got the training other folks may have been exposed to. Here's my best work:
It's asymmetrical. Its free vectors don't match up very well. For God's sake, it was made in MS Paint. But it's mine. It's me. That's vaguely what my beard looks like, and those glasses were the closest I could find to my aging tortoiseshell ones. More importantly, those words are very dear to me. When I look at this, and hopefully when other writers do, too, it reminds me to be true to myself in my own work, and also to value it as big work--it reminds me that I can create things that take up space and that matter, and that even if some people are confused by my weird poems and essays and blog posts and logos, at least what I made was honest.
This logo is made up of things I know about myself: I write, I have a beard, I'm weird, I wear glasses. It's full of things about me that are close to myself and others: it's like my name. Even take away the words, take a look at the white space face. I mean, it's not complete, but it's me. That face could be very few people besides Matt Swain. Who's this Scoot guy, anyway?
What it all brings me to: there's more than one way to represent myself. I've got my words, I've got my face, but I've got my dreams and beliefs, too. And all three of these things--things that make up my personal brand--go into my logo. Through it I exist and take up space and make weird poems and essays, and whether you choose to call me Matt or Scoot (I will respond to it) it's a part and representation of me and my weird self.
This post got a lot more self-affirming than I expected. So I'll leave things on that note. Here's some feel-good music featuring 8-bit martians and a flying guitar.
Until next time, guys.
This logo is made up of things I know about myself: I write, I have a beard, I'm weird, I wear glasses. It's full of things about me that are close to myself and others: it's like my name. Even take away the words, take a look at the white space face. I mean, it's not complete, but it's me. That face could be very few people besides Matt Swain. Who's this Scoot guy, anyway?
What it all brings me to: there's more than one way to represent myself. I've got my words, I've got my face, but I've got my dreams and beliefs, too. And all three of these things--things that make up my personal brand--go into my logo. Through it I exist and take up space and make weird poems and essays, and whether you choose to call me Matt or Scoot (I will respond to it) it's a part and representation of me and my weird self.
This post got a lot more self-affirming than I expected. So I'll leave things on that note. Here's some feel-good music featuring 8-bit martians and a flying guitar.
Until next time, guys.