Creating My Personal Brand

Most people my age have a pretty strong online presence, so you can imagine my surprise when I googled myself to find that I am as close to a digital ghost as you can get in 2025. I had no digital footprint- apart from a singular picture of me in my prom dress posted by my sorority post-recruitment. The rest of the photos under the name "Ellen Shipman" were of a long dead gardener, famous for her structural landscapes.

Was this terrible news? No, neither was it shocking. I've never had social media, so there aren't many places my photos could surface. This made me a little sad until I remembered- I have a gift hardly anyone else in my generation has- NO DIGITAL FOOTPRINT. There's no evidence of my fingerless gloves phase in middle school, nor my short-lived dream of being Mrs. Harry Styles.

So.... Welcome to the ground floor of my digital footprint! I've heard it only goes downhill from here! Welcome as I build the woman I want to be brick-by-brick as best I can with the tools I have right now.

What is My Brand NOW?

In my past era's as an artist, I tried:

• sculpting food when I was struggling with eating

• erecting a  13'x10' foot wall collage/ scrapbook over 4 years

• trying desperately to use as many mediums as possible to make the chunkiest sketchbooks you can imagine

• designing websites, packaging, and apps for my imaginary products in hopes that someday I could design real ones

Now, I have so many mediums under my belt in the hopes that one day I can find a form of employment that allows me to travel full time making art digitally, or as an art curator.

If I had to describe my brand at the moment, I'd describe it as...

• Colorful, Chaotic, and the opposite of Charismatic

• A rejection of monotone minimalism

• A parade for your senses

• Incorporating whimsy back into everyday life, images, and objects

• Unapologetically loud (some might say even a little obnoxious)

  
  

My first website explored different line weights, structures, and how to adapt your vision to be more user-friendly. Do you see what I mean when I say I say "unapologetically loud"?

My Inspirations Include:

• 90's Marketing campaigns

• Bright food advertising, on the verge of being synthetic

• Lisa Frank, the sticker queen of the 90's

• Khinda Kalidy

How did I get there?

Marilyn Monroe once said "Diamonds are a girl's best friend", and our lovely Marilyn was right- for someone who lived before Pinterest. Now, Pinterest is a girls best friend- or in this case- a BRAND'S best friend.

To find my color palette, I thought back to colors that draw me in wherever I wander, anywhere from art gallery's to grocery stores- bright, borderline primary colors. Then I cross referenced them with established color palettes, creating a scientifically accurate aesthetically pleasing color palette.

You can't tell me these colors wouldn't be at home on a bowling alley carpet, (which my pattern designs are often compared to).

See similar colors to my palette in my work, "Stacked on Crack"- 2024

My brand presents itself with no obvious patterns in order to create the sharp contrast and clashes that I desire with the inherent chaos of my aesthetic, nor does it rely on any specific shapes. I want my brand to feel like a free space of self expression while simultaneously being designed for an enjoyable user experience.

Another example of what I hope my brand achieves- colorful, retro, and chaotic, with enough order your eye isn't uncomfortable. This is my "Carpet Crescendo"- 2024.

What's the Vision?

Now that I knew the vibe and the color, I combined it with my inspiration from the mid- 90's, graphics that moved me to create, advertisements I found stimulating, and every kind of medium- from animation to comics. I am especially intrigued by the collage medium- because it combines sustainability with the chaotic puddle of ideas I feel like my mind often resembles.

Another Mood board- I'm thinking of calling it "minimalism Masochism".

Goals for my Personal Brand:

My dream for my brand is to illustrate my core values without having to blatantly state them:

1) Gratitude for every day we are given

2) Don't take life so seriously

3) Enthusiasm is the key to progress.

I am hoping that my lack of organized structure, bright colors, and positive messages will get these 3 things across.

Throughout building my brand I want to become more experienced on Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Adobe Express. I hope it makes me more mindful of prioritizing the experiences of my users- those who I seek to make happy with my art.

Designing my first app was a crash course in user experience design and how it can make or break your product!

Audience

As far as people I want to influence... I'm not sure. But I'm a firm believer that my art will find it's way to whoever needs to be reminded that this life is a gift to be grateful for: a present, not a punishment. I would like to target a nostalgic audience, even a young one, namely, Gen Z. Gen Z longs for a time they can't go back to. It's impressive how they possess a nostalgia for era's they never experienced, like the peak of Y2k or 90's grunge. I want to give them a tatse of the experiences they missed out on, despite never having experienced it myself, an in a way, bring them into the present.

Fin.

In conclusion, my art is for everyone, but an acquired taste. With it's bold colors, apparent lack of structure, contrasting patterns, and limitless shapes, my art is meant to free the eyes from the pressure of understanding art just so they can explain it to the brain and move on. My goal is to reach the people who want to fall in love with life again, and remind them of the obscure beauty of the world around them. Art has made me fall in love with life again, and I would feel honored if I could serve some stranger in the same way countless others have inspired me.

My Album Cover- "Cold Costumes" was a way for me to reflect on the roles I've played in the past that I no longer want to inhabit. This reflection process led me to build the brand I have today upon a refreshed perspective.