I have spent the last week in perpetual frustration attempting to figure out how to "re-brand" myself. I've done numerous design exercises, compiled all of my previous "branding" work, and whiteboarded until the dogs came home (well until my roomie-wife did). I crowdsourced words, creeped on peers' portfolios, and read content strategy and emotional design books.

From all this research I came to absolutely no definite conclusions. I did however, find avenues through which I see personal branding appear.

The big ones include:

1. One's portfolio: through language you use to communicate who you are
2. One's resume: through which you show your identity at a glance
3. One's Social media: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blog (what photos you upload, what screen names you choose)

But I also realized personal branding comes in subtly too. For example, through:

1. One's email signature
2. One's physical space: through how you set up your working space (what do you put up for decorations)
3. One's appearance: through how you dress
4. One's speech: through personal lexicons, voice inflections, as well as personality and communication styles

There are millions of articles on the web about how to brand yourself a certain way. But how do we translate our "in-person" self into an "online" self? Is there a point in even trying to as complex social creatures? While there is no easy answer to these questions, they are things to keep in mind. A helpful resource on this journey by Aarron Walter on design personas combines these senses of emotional design and content strategy to create a brand.