Representation and Reusability
Representation and Reusability
I’ve had two conversations recently about brand identity and memorability apropos of this post. Of late, I’ve been concerned with self representation on the web and meat space and how these things can or should overlap.
To recap that post, I changed my internet handle a few years ago and exchanged memorability for maturity as I started to explore and define myself. I’ve been toying with the idea of going back to a more memorable name as I establish BunnyRope in the world. “ABMann” has no obvious link to BunnyRope nor is it as easy to remember as my business name.
Conversation 1 with Alyska (in reverse chronological order) was around changing my handle back to AngryBunnyMan. Alyska proposed that memorability can be achieved in a variety of ways, name recognition not withstanding. I could, in fact, increase overall memorability by simply identifying myself as ABMann of BunnyRope which sort of links me to the memorability of my business name.
This seems like a better approach to for 2 related reasons:
- Your business should be of primary importance as that is your contribution to the world.
- You are your business. If I should choose to be remembered as myself or my contributions, the virtuous answer, potentially the more humble answer, is to choose my contribution.
Legacy versus Fame.
Conversation 2 with Graydancer was around brand representation across multiple creative endeavors. Gray is an industrious and prolific creative - he has written books, teaches on sex and sexuality, blogs on personal development, and other numerous things about town. He recent transitioned into full time self employ ,you can become his patron (I finally did as I had been meaning to for a while), and has been attempting brand his various endeavors in a memorable and, especially, meaningful way.
In our conversation, we were trying to figure out how to you separate the things you do as distinct entities but keep the spiritual link between the two. I argued that a person is at the heart of everything even if their businesses are different - you are your business(es) irrespective of output.
Condensed:
- Your business is a representation of yourself. Gray argued that each aspect can or should be distinct enough from each other so as to carry their own weight - your business(es) and representation should speak for itself and not be a stand in for you. Condensed:
- Your business is its own representation in the world.
I don’t think either is wrong and each are grounded in producing something as a legacy. I disagree that you can ultimately divorce yourself from anything you do and, potentially, it behooves you not to divorce yourself from it. I think it impossible, in fact, when you have already created something else in the world. Everyone knows that thing of yours already and it will be the comparison for other things that you do, good or bad.
Still, this helped coalesce my own approach to Identity and its something I’ve been doing unconsciously.
Here are my two current brands:
<img src="_BR+Chop.pngBR+Chop" alt="">
<img src="_Chop.pngChop" alt="">The BunnyRope icon came first. But it wasn’t named first.
When I first started it, I chose the name because it harkened back to my original name, AngryBunnyMan. In my mind, I already had this internet identity, why do something completely divorced from it? I figured, and this is important, that people already knew me so let’s use that to carve out this new aspect.
I didn’t realize it but that seeded the most recent introspection on identity. BunnyRope’s memorability had overtaken me and I didn’t want to be lost to it.
Thus, I set out to create the second brand, something to better represent me as me and not as ‘me’ of BunnyRope. This was actually the last of half a dozen ideas, some of which can still be found online but I think tis one will stick for one important reason:
I’ve created a branding language. I have threaded myself into that identity in a way flexible enough that it can apply to all the things I may want to do.
I am what I put into the world.