This website has been live (as a blog) for nearly two years now. It started off as a quick installation of WordPress accompanied with a very quick design to just give it my own personal touch (rather than the standard Kubrick installation). While I didn’t spend much time on it, I had a few ideas I wanted to implement:

1. I was a big fan of the “glare” graphic so that had to be involved somehow.
2. My favourite colour was (and still is) brown. It was still quite a new colour in Web design back in February 2005 so it gave the design some originality.
3. The design had to be stretchy. Fixed width really wasn’t an option.
4. It had to be easy to read (light text on dark backgrounds tend to be easier on the eye than the inverse).
5. It needed to be expandable.

To be honest, it was a bodge job. I knew if I spent a long time on the website, I wouldn’t get any real work done so I settled on a rough template and went with it.

After two years, I’m looking at the website and I’m thinking it needs a facelift with some real time spent on it. But before I get deep into the page layout and colour schemes, there is one element I need to concentrate more than anything - the branding.

As many designers know, branding yourself is one of the hardest tasks you can face. As much as you know yourself, it is really hard to come up with something that portrays both your personality and design skills but, at the same time, something that you are happy with. You are your own worst critique apparently.

Anyway, after much sketching, doodling, binning and deleting, I’ve finally come up with a logo that I’m happy with. I present to you the Simon Jobling brand.

For those who know me might recognise what I’ve done. It’s basically a simplified illustration of my prominent features - hair, glasses and beard.

There are a couple of reasons behind the logo:

• I’ve removed any actual facial features to keep the graphic simple.
• I want to get the message across about creating the right look without worrying about the content behind it.
• I wanted to keep the brand personal to me - identify my main features and make them stand out.
• I wanted the image to be monochrome so it would work in any combination of colours (there are examples of this in the bottom five icons).
• I wanted the image to work at any scale - from small icons to large printed material - hence the simplicity.
• It had to be something new and recognisable.

I hope that I’m not alone on these thoughts which is why I’m putting these initial designs out to the public before a full redesign. I want your opinion. Do you think its a good logo that represents me? Does it look professional, yet personal? Do you like it? Do you hate it? Tell me what you think. I know there will be a select few of you out there who will have something to say (naming no names) but what about those lurkers out there - I need your feedback. Be honest. I can take it (honest).

Right, time to sit back and await some constructive criticism.