On personal branding

Sign up to some online service, pick a username, password... and an avatar.

I had been using the same one for several years, and I wanted to change it for something cleaner. But what could it be? I'm not a fan of having my own face there and I didn't want something generic like a travel picture. Maybe a shadowed profile? Or some personal item?

After some thinking, I decided to embrace the gamer that I am and keep the Minecraft head I had been using for some time now. After all, I modeled that skin after my actual head! I changed its perspective with an angle that feels more natural, added detailing like the glasses that aren't glued to the face, and muted the background to create something less look-at-me.

Here's the before (2017) and the after (2024)!

Avatar change

Sci-fi fans who look hard enough might notice a small reference I put in the background. Do you see it?

I also took this opportunity to pick a new color to flag personal items, such as calendar appointments. Whenever I mention this, people are quick to point out the Interordi red as an option, but I see this as the “product” color, what I offer. What I wanted was a “me” color, separate from this. Red is already used, green is identified with the Creeper's Lab, I like orange but I wasn't feeling it... Eventually, I settled on teal. I like teal. And it goes well with a lot of things.

I took this opportunity to regroup all these colors I use on a single page, as a quick reference. The next time I need to set a color somewhere, I won't need to open each site's source code to look for it – I've got a convenient reference right there!

#branding #personal

– Doctacosa