Creating a Brand

A brand is basically name to represent you and your work. It is how people will recognize you, and it is how you will be able to build a reputation. A brand is not just a logo or a name, it is the entire experience that people have with you and your work.

Using Your Legal Name

When you start out, you might be inclined to use your legal name as your brand name. This is a common practice, especially for freelancers and independent contractors. It makes sense because it is easy to remember and it is already tied to your identity. If your name is John Doe, maybe you want to get johndoe.com for example.

Although that is done, there are some downsides to tying this concept to your legal name. Your legal name that is on public records. That may not concern you now, but what if the best-case scenario happens and you become financially successful and well-known. Well now, your private life and identity is tied inextricably with your public brand.

Having things tied with your name also limits growth. It’s sort of weird and confusing if Sally Smith and Jim Johnson become representatives of johndoe.com.

Using Your Initials

Using your initials or nickname is also a common practice. This can be a little safer, in terms of privacy, but it still ties your brand to your identity. This might be in the form of jd.com or jdcodes.com, etc. Or if you have a middle name, you could include that as well like jmd.com or itbyjmd.com, if it we John Michael Doe.

Choosing a Brand Name

Choosing a brand name is an important step. It should be something that is easy to remember, pronounce, and spell. It should also be unique enough to stand out, but not so unique that it becomes difficult to find. In fact, here’s a checklist of things to consider when choosing a brand name:

• Memorable: The name should be easy to remember and pronounce. You don’t have to be super-creative. I just mean something like 88fbfc.com is not memorable. But itbyjohnd.com is memorable. Or, memorable enough.
• Unique: The name should be unique enough to stand out, but not so unique that it becomes difficult to find.
• Descriptive: The name should give some indication of what you do or what your brand is about.
• Short: The name should be short and easy to spell.
• Available: The name should be available as a domain name and on social media platforms.
  • Check the domain name itself. Use: Cloudflare for example.
  • Check GitHub.com
  • Check LinkedIn.com
  • Check x.com
  • Check Instagram.com
  • Check Facebook.com
  • Check TikTok.com
• Timeless: The name should be timeless and not tied to a specific trend or fad.
• Flexible: The name should be flexible enough to allow for growth and expansion of your brand.
• Legal: The name should not infringe on any existing trademarks or copyrights.
• Positive: The name should have a positive connotation and not be associated with anything negative.
• Visual: The name should lend itself to a visual identity, such as a logo or icon.
• Standard Spelling: The name should use standard spelling and not be overly complicated. Avoid using unusual spellings or play-on-words that might confuse people. Names with numbers or special characters can be problematic, as they can be difficult to remember or spell correctly. If you have data4you.com, do you also get dataforyou.com? If you don’t and someone domain squats on that name, it can be confusing for people trying to find you.

Movie: “That Thing You Do”

A really great example of what to think about with a brand, is in the 1996 movie “That Thing You Do”. The film takes place in the 1960s and follows a fictional band called “The Wonders”. The band starts out as a garage band, but quickly gains popularity and becomes a national sensation.

The Problematic Name

If you do watch the movie, at about :09 minutes in, the lead singer’s girlfriend and he come up with a band name. Following after a name like “The Beatles”, with the “Beat” being a play-on-words, they decide to name the band “The Oneders”, pronounced “The Wonders”. The “one” being a play-on-words with the “One” sound in “Wonders”.

From the start, the name is a problem. Even the guitarist gets the intention but says “It looks like ‘The O-needers’”. Sure enough, as they play different venues, the announcers keep introducing them as “The O-needers”, and the lead singer keeps needing to correct them.

The Solution

After they have reached national fame, their manager Mr White (played by Tom Hanks) corrects this. At about the :40 minute mark he says: “This Oneders with the O-N-E? It doesn’t work; it’s confusing. From now on you boys will simply be: The Wonders.”

The Lesson

The lesson here, even for me, still talking about this scene in a movie from 30 years ago, is that brand names need to be obvious and simple. If they are not ridiculously obvious and intuitive, then people will get it wrong. The name needs to be obvious on it’s face.

Other examples:

• Bagelz - a bagel shop near where I worked. When they answered the phone, they would say “Bagels with a Z”. We all referred to it as “Bagel Zee”, in terms of pronunciation.
• the-chordsmanz.com - a fictional band name. Every time you would tell someone your domain name, you’d have to say something like: “Oh, it’s the-dash-chordsmanz-dot-com. It’s cords with a C-H and a Z at the end. No, a Z at the end, not an S and it’s chords, as in musical chords, not like power cords, or, I mean electrical cords.”

Taking Ownership of Your Brand

Once you have chosen a brand name, it’s important to take ownership of it. This means registering the domain name, creating social media accounts, and establishing a presence online.

The idea here is to “claim” the name on platforms where you may use the service. For example, even if you use ProtonMail for your primary email of your brand, you should still create a Gmail account, which also covers your YouTube channel name.

Here are some steps to take:

• Register the Domain Name: Use a domain registrar like Cloudflare or Namecheap to register your brand name as a domain.
  • If you don’t have a preference or don’t current own any domains, Cloudflare is a better option because you can easily use Cloudflare Pages to host static websites.
• ProtonMail Account: Create a ProtonMail account with your brand name. This will be your primary email address for your brand, and it provides end-to-end encryption for privacy.
• Gmail Account: Create a Gmail account with your brand name. This will be your secondary email address for your brand and also your YouTube channel name.
• Microsoft Account: Create a Microsoft account with your brand name. You will need this for using VS Code and GitHub Copilot.
• GitHub Account: Create a GitHub account with your brand name. This will be your primary code repository and collaboration platform. Use your primary email address, and use an alias. Example: [email protected].
• LinkedIn Account: If you don’t have a LinkedIn profile, create a LinkedIn account with your brand name. This will be your professional networking platform. If you already have a profile, consider changing your “URL slug” to match your brand name. Also see: LinkedIn.
• Twitter (X) Account: Create a Twitter (X) account with your brand name. Use your primary email address, and use an alias. Example: [email protected].
• Instagram Account: Create an Instagram account with your brand name. Use your primary email address, and use an alias. Example: [email protected].
• Facebook Page: Create a Facebook page with your brand name. You can also create a Facebook group for your brand if you want to build a community around it. Use your primary email address, and use an alias. Example: [email protected].
• TikTok Account: Create a TikTok account with your brand name. Use your primary email address, and use an alias. Example: [email protected].

Logo

Once you have established your brand name, it’s time to create a logo. A logo is a visual representation of your brand and should be simple, memorable, and unique.

You can use tools like Canva or Figma to create a logo for your brand. However, there are at least two other really good options to consider:

• ChatGPT: I’ve had really good luck using ChatGPT to create logos (using the GPT-4o model). Use a prompt like: “Create a logo for my brand ‘ITbyJohnD’. The logo should be simple, modern, and convey a sense of technology and professionalism. It should be simple enough that it should still be recognizable as a FavIcon. This should just be the iconography, and should not have any words or letters, it should just be a unique and novel shape.” You can then refine the design based on the output.
• Fiver: I’ve only ever had great experiences with Fiver for getting logos designed. You can find a designer who can create a custom logo for your brand. Just search for “logo design” and you’ll find many options at various price points. These will be professional-grade and typically better quality.

Image Sizes

You ideally want to have an original, source image that is at least 1024x1024 pixels. This will allow you to create various sizes for different platforms. If you use Fiver for example, you can often ask for it in a “vector format”. If you can get your logo in SVG format, that’s ideal.

In short, for your source image, you either want a proper SVG vector image, or a high-resolution raster image, like a PNG file that is at least 1024 pixels x 1024 pixels.

Once you have that, you can navigate to a site like:

https://realfavicongenerator.net/

This will help you generate all the various sizes and formats that you need for a website or mobile app. Without getting into the weeds, devices like an Apple iPad have different pixel densities and Pixels Per Inch (PPI) which means that the same sized image can look different on different devices. Just for “favicons” (the little icon that appears in the browser tab), here’s what you might need:

So that’s what that site above (and there are many like it) will do for you. It will generate all the various sizes and formats that you need, and give you the HTML code to include in your website.

Image Formats

Here’s just a quick crash course of the kinds of things you’ll need to know about your brand images:

• PNG: This is a raster image format that supports transparency. It’s great for logos and images with sharp edges. This is what you’ll use in most places for most things. It’s supported by all browsers and devices.
• SVG: This is a vector image format that is scalable and can be resized without losing quality. It’s great for logos and icons. This is the ideal format for your source image, but not all platforms support it, and there are some limitations.
• JPG: This is a raster image format that is best for photographs and images with lots of colors. It does not support transparency, so it’s not ideal for logos. You can use this for things like your profile picture on social media.
• WEBP: This is a newer image format that is designed for the web. It supports transparency and has much better compression than PNG and JPG. It’s not fully supported yet, but most modern browsers do. Later on, you’ll care about this from a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) perspective, because WEBP will allow your website to load faster. So, you will likely have code (a <picture> HTML tag) that knows how to check if WEBP is supported. If it is, it uses that format, otherwise it falls back to PNG.

Image Tools

If you’ve never done anything with graphics, you can outsource this to a designer on Fiver, or you can use some tools to help you create your own images. Here are some options:

• Adobe Photoshop Elements: This is a simplified version of Adobe Photoshop that is great for beginners. It has many of the same features, but is much easier to use. It’s a one-time purchase, not a subscription. It’s about $100 USD on Amazon: Adobe Photoshop Elements 2025.
• Photopea: This is a FREE, web-based image editor that is very similar to Adobe Photoshop. It has many of the same features and is a great option if you don’t want to install anything on your computer. You can use it at Photopea.com.

I know there are others like Canva and Figma, but I find those to be more geared towards creating graphics for social media posts, and not so much for creating logos or icons. If you want to create a logo, I recommend using Photopea or Adobe Photoshop Elements.

Summary

Creating a brand is an important step in establishing your online presence. At this point, you’ve picked a name, got the domain name, and reserved the name on relevant Social Media platforms. Now you can start building your platform, creating content, and sharing your expertise with the world.

Or put visually:

flowchart LR
    A{{"<i class='fa fa-sign-hanging'></i> Brand Name"}} --> C(["<i class='fa fa-camera'></i> Social Media Accounts"])
    C --> C1("<i class='fab fa-github'></i> GitHub")
    C --> C2("<i class='fab fa-linkedin'></i> LinkedIn")
    C --> C3("<i class='fab fa-twitter'></i> Twitter (X)")
    C --> C4("<i class='fab fa-instagram'></i> Instagram")
    C --> C5("<i class='fab fa-facebook'></i> Facebook")
    C --> C6("<i class='fab fa-tiktok'></i> TikTok")

    A --> B(["<i class='fab fa-cloudflare'></i> Domain Name"])
    A --> D(["<i class='fab fa-figma'></i> Logo"])
    A --> E(["<i class='fa fa-at'></i> Email Accounts"])
    E --> E1("<i class='fa fa-envelope'></i> ProtonMail")
    E --> E2("<i class='fab fa-google'></i> Gmail")
    E --> E3("<i class='fab fa-microsoft'></i> Microsoft")
    style A fill:#ff7d7d66,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px,font-size:16px
    style B fill:#7dff7d66,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px,font-size:16px
    style C fill:#7dff7d66,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px,font-size:16px
    style D fill:#7dff7d66,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px,font-size:16px
    style E fill:#7dff7d66,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px,font-size:16px

    style C1 fill:#7d7dff66,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px,font-size:16px
    style C2 fill:#7d7dff66,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px,font-size:16px
    style C3 fill:#7d7dff66,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px,font-size:16px
    style C4 fill:#7d7dff66,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px,font-size:16px
    style C5 fill:#7d7dff66,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px,font-size:16px
    style C6 fill:#7d7dff66,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px,font-size:16px

    style E1 fill:#7d7dff66,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px,font-size:16px
    style E2 fill:#7d7dff66,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px,font-size:16px
    style E3 fill:#7d7dff66,stroke:#333,stroke-width:2px,font-size:16px