Today I created a Facebook Welcome Tab for my personal Facebook brand page Serentonin

This design incorporates my personality, my likes, my interests and the content people should expect to see on my Facebook page. People have asked me why bother with a brand page? What are you going to use it for? What’s the purpose, what’s the point? What value will you get from creating one rather than just have a personal profile on Facebook…

As a Freelancer I enter a new phase in my working career and development and I want to use my page as a medium to share the content from my blog. My blog will be focused on topics ranging from Graphic Design Social Media and Popular Culture. Having a brand page will allow me to openly share my work on Facebook where I can gather inspiration, resources and get feedback. It will allow me the ability to socially connect with people online. With a brand page your page is visible by the public and therefore gives you the ability to open your page up for all to see.

So the reasoning behind why I created a Facebook Welcome Tab was to express in an image what Serentonin is all about and what people should expect from the page if they were to LIKE it – It’s difficult to show what your page is about when by default people land on your wall, thus relying on your first few wall posts to try an gauge the reasoning behind why they should like your page.

The Design – What’s it about?

I wanted to make my design fun, funky, organic and fresh, which is why I have used a coconut, a pair of jandals and a big can of corned beef – these items reflect my cultural background being part Samoan and the type of humour to expect from me in my use of words and language. I am a pop culture and digital media fiend so I have used elements and objects to summarize the content you’ll see posted on my page.

I am eclectic and music has a huge influence on me in my work, how I work, what I need in order to work. The boom box and cassette tape represents old-school, hip hop music; it’s a time specific genre as I love music from this era. Also I love the commentary in lyrics and sometimes music can be quite metaphoric and conjure up a lot of imagery in my mind. I mentioned in an earlier blog but I have a great memory when it comes to music lyrics, song names and artists.

The sheep is my symbol for being a Kiwi and the grass is to show that my content is organic, fresh and real! You can expect posts from me that are about good old New Zealand.

The dancing ballerina’s incorporate my love of dance and all things vintage – I am a big fan of monochromatic photography and an amateur photographer.

I used a map of the world because I gather and post content that I find useful and meaningful from all over the world. I love travel and learning about different cultures and traditions. The map is symbolic of who I hope to meet and make connections with – these are people from all around the globe, I just love how Facebook provides a platform to connect with anyone one – makes the world a smaller place and creates new opportunities.

I used Aphrodite from the Birth of Venus by Botticelli, this artwork symbolises my love for art and art history.

I used an old television with lushious lips to represent social media. A medium I use every day with Twitter, Facebook, Skype, foursquare and it is definitely a passion of mine to pursue working in this industry.

What do you think?

I will use my blog to document my progress and share things I’ve learnt, my struggles, challenges and hopefully through blogging I’ll have the opportunity to get some feedback that I can use to improve on my designs and their functionality. I’m also keen to hear about what you think of this design, do you like, dislike it?  Has my blog made you think about making a branded page? Or using Facebook this way?

Also do you want to know how to create a Facebook Welcome Tab or do you need someone to design you one? Feel free to contact me and drop me a line.

So yesterday I was a complete dodohead, having completely forgot that I ran out of business cards and needed to make some quickly! Here’s a few pictures showing my mock to finished result. Took me 40 minutes to mock up the template/design, 30 minutes to drive out and get them printed and around 20minutes to cut them out. All up, to print 96 business cards on cheap A3 card it cost me $17 bucks which included a new metal ruler.

STEP 1. – Mock up Business Cards

STEP 2. – Go to da shop and get them printed au!

(TIP: Make sure your file is CMYK, High resolution and PDF – flatten the fonts to eliminate font errors)

STEP 3. Cut them up! Ninja Blade & Steady hands required for cutting..

(TIP: You’ll need a cutting board, sharp ninja blades and a metal ruler + music to sing to and make you calm while cutting as this can require a bit of paitence)

Suffice to say the quality of these business cards weren’t anything to drool over like in American Psycho or anything but my quick fix it homemade solution was not too bad to fix a dodohead problem!

I’ll be working on making a more slick version with a full design on the front and details at the back. I was contemplating the use of a QRcode back to this blog but thought.. one day I’ll save the use of a QR code for something very special! Anywho, watch this space for my updates as I’m crafting up my Serentonin corporate identity pack – that I will be printing professionally.