People keep asking about the bear. Fair enough — it's in the nav, the menu, the favicon, and it stares at you from every link preview. I'd love to tell you it came out of a rigorous brand sprint with moodboards and a naming workshop. It didn't. It was a warm-up doodle before a client call. Five minutes, one brush pen, one grumpy bear. It made me laugh, so it stayed.
But the reason it stayed is an actual branding lesson, I promise. I'd spent weeks before that trying to design myself a 'proper' identity — geometric monograms, refined wordmarks, the full portfolio-brand starter pack. All of it competent. None of it mine. The bear was unreasonable, slightly aggressive, and a bit funny — which, honestly, is a fair review of how I work.
A personal brand isn't the mark you'd design for a client. It's the thing you keep doodling when nobody's paying. The polish came later — I redrew the curves, balanced the negative space, made sure it survived at 16 pixels. But the teeth stayed. Every sensible person told me to soften it. Every time I tried, it turned into another forgettable circle-animal logo. Memorable beats likeable. Especially at favicon size.
If there's a takeaway, it's this: when a mark makes you feel something specific — even mild menace — protect that feeling through every polish pass. Refine the geometry all you want. Never refine the personality.