The Look
Colors, fonts, imagery—the visual vocabulary that speaks before you do. What does yours say? (Be honest.)
Here's a truth nobody tells you in business school: people form opinions about you in milliseconds before you've said hello. Before you've handed over your card. Before you've made your pitch.
They've already decided something.
Your colors, your fonts, your imagery are not decoration. They're communication. And if you haven't thought carefully about what they're saying, well, they're still saying something. Just probably not what you intended.
The Language Nobody Teaches
Think about the last time you walked into a room and immediately felt something. Maybe it was trust. Maybe it was intimidation. Maybe it was warmth. That wasn't an accident; it was a design.
Colors carry meaning, whether we acknowledge it or not. Blue builds trust (there's a reason every bank uses it). Red demands attention. Black whispers luxury. Green suggests growth, renewal, or money, depending on context. And beige? Beige says you didn't think about it at all.
Your visual identity works the same way. The question isn't whether you have a visual vocabulary—you do. The question is whether you've chosen it intentionally.
Consistency Is The Real Secret
Here's where most people trip up: they get the colors right once, then forget about them. They nail their headshots, then use a blurry phone photo somewhere else. They choose sophisticated fonts, then send emails in Comic Sans.
Every inconsistency chips away at trust. Not dramatically, but rather subtly. People can't always articulate why someone feels "off" or "unprofessional." But they feel it. And feelings drive decisions more than facts ever will.
The Audit You've Been Avoiding
Pull up your LinkedIn. Your website. Your last presentation. Your email signature. Put them side by side.
Do they look like they belong to the same person? Do they tell the same story? Or do they look like committee work, AKA a little bit of everything, adding up to nothing in particular?
This isn't about being perfect. It's about being intentional. Every visual choice is a signal. Make sure you're sending the right ones.
Where To Start
Pick three words that describe how you want to be perceived. Not who you are necessarily, but who you want to appear to be. Approachable. Authoritative. Innovative. Whatever fits.
Now look at your visuals again. Do they support those three words? Or do they contradict them?
The gap between those answers is your homework.
