Personal branding · Creative and design
Buyers cannot see the thinking, so they price you as a pair of hands.
Personal branding for a designer or art director is the visibility of the reasoning a portfolio hides: why that typeface, why that pack, what the brief actually asked for.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
Personal branding for a designer or art director is the visibility of the reasoning a portfolio hides: why that typeface, why that pack, what the brief actually asked for. GullySales draws it out in a regular interview and publishes it under your name.
Also written for
Graphic designer, Art director, Creative director, Visual designer.
Where this sits
For graphic designers and art directors
Where it usually goes wrong, and what we would do.
“Portfolio sites made everyone look identical”
Grids, mockups on a marble surface, no client, no problem, no result. A marketing head at a packaged foods brand scrolls through twenty of them, cannot tell one from another, and decides on rate.
“The work you are proudest of belongs to somebody else”
Agency years leave you with a body of work you cannot claim and cases under an agreement. Naming the discipline and the constraint without the client is usually permitted, and almost nobody bothers.
“Clients now get a free first draft”
A founder can generate a logo before lunch. What they cannot generate is somebody who will argue with them about it, and that argument is what you are actually selling.
“Art direction is invisible in a JPEG”
The call on the casting, the crop, the one word cut from the headline. If your page is only finished frames, none of that reaches the person setting your fee.
What we do
What we deliver for graphic designers and art directors.
Every deliverable, what it covers for you, and the result it is there to produce. Nothing here is an extra.
A portfolio page with the brief attached
Each piece rewritten around the problem, the constraint and the decision, in three short paragraphs. Clients named only where you have permission.
Result: A buyer who understands what they are paying for before they ask your rate.
An hour on work you cannot show yet
An hour about one project, the one where the client pushed back and you turned out to be right. Everything published that month comes out of it.
Result: Writing that sounds like you, done without opening a document.
Your rate, explained in public
A straight piece on how you price: what a day of art direction covers, why a logo is not the deliverable, how many rounds a fee includes, and whether the figure you quote carries GST. Written once, sent with every enquiry.
Result: Fewer calls that end at the word budget.
Profiles that agree with each other
Your site, LinkedIn, Behance and Instagram saying the same thing about what you take on, with one photograph and one description.
Result: A client finds one designer instead of four half-finished ones.
A route to the people who commission
Pitches to design publications, a speaker biography for college juries and meet-ups, and a note to the studios that farm out overflow.
Result: Work that arrives before it becomes a pitch.
How the result is measured
- Enquiries that name you or came through your profile
- Searches for your name, from Search Console
- Profile views and connection requests from your industry
- Speaking invitations, press enquiries and podcast requests
- Posts published against posts planned, and what held up the rest
Recorded as a baseline before work starts, so every later report has an honest comparison.
How it works
How the work runs for graphic designers and art directors
The work itself, in order. How an engagement starts, from your brief to a written scope, is set out on our method page.
- 1
Work out whether this is even your bottleneck
The first conversation covers how enquiries reach you today. If the company's own site is the weaker link, that comes first, and we say so.
- 2
Search your own name with you
We look at what a buyer sees today: every profile, old listing and photograph. Some of it you will want taken down, and some of it only you can take down.
- 3
Agree what you will and will not say
The subjects you know cold, the ones that belong to your clients, and the lines your regulator or association draws. Written down before anything is published.
- 4
Rebuild the profiles
The bio page, LinkedIn and the directories that matter in your field, done once and done properly.
- 5
The routine
Interview, drafts, your approval, publication. The interview is the only part that needs you, and it is the part that cannot be skipped.
- 6
Hand it over
The subject list, the drafting notes and the calendar are yours. If you would rather keep it running yourself, that is a fair outcome.
Before you hire anyone
The first thing to do yourself.
It costs nothing, and it shows what a buyer sees before they ever call you.
- Search your own name and your practice or business name in a private browser window, and list the first ten results.
- Open your profile on each major platform and check that the name, photo, description and contact details agree.
- Ask two people who recently chose you what they looked up first, and write down their answers.
Judge any provider
What to ask any agency or ghost-writer.
Useful whoever you choose, including us.
- Who writes my words, and do I approve everything before it goes out?
- Which of my own details and claims will you need to check with me before publishing?
- What will you not write because of the rules my profession follows?
- Whose account do the profiles and the content sit in, and what happens to them if we stop?
- What do you count as a result, and what will you not promise?
Where this fits
Three pieces of sales work, in this order.
GullySales builds every engagement from three pieces of sales work. This page is not one of them, but the same three steps apply to the business behind it.
Step 1
Sales audit
Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.
Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.
Step 2
Sales process design
One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.
Start here if every salesperson sells differently.
Step 3
Sales management
A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.
Start here if the team has targets and no routine.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
I cannot show most of my agency work. Is there enough left?
Will this get me better-paying clients or just more of them?
I would rather design than write.
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
Creative and design
Personal branding for the rest of the creative and design.
Or start from personal branding.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.