Since I got into blogging about 2 years ago, I probably saw hundreds of blogs using beautifully designed custom themes. Still, there’s only a handfull of blogs that were memorable enough to remember after a long period of time. In most cases, what made the blog memorable was not the design itself, but the person behind the blog. Not necessarily because the blogger was a famous person, but because of the way he chose to visually brand himself.

Below are some examples of bloggers using visuals to build a strong personal brand. Of course there are other elements (achievements, networking, charisma, helping others, supporting a cause, etc.) that contribute to a personal brand. I’m strictly talking about visuals here:

Ayoush Saran – his site was recently featured in CSS Mania. The action figure representation of himself is the best creative idea I’ve seen recently. This is also a great example of how you can build a viral personal brand.

Ayoush Saran


Matt Brett – his blog went through a redesign since I first saw it, but it still keeps the same look and feel. Matt is famous for a lot of projects, like the standardization of feed icons, but I will always remember him as the guy with the grungy looking blog, who loves video games.

Matt Brett


Doug Dosberg – he’s probably one of the first bloggers to use the cartoon representation of himself, instead of a real picture. There are so many bloggers using it nowadays. Doug managed to stay memorable, by adding a little twist: the head band and the chopsticks.

Doug Dosberg


Brad, Ryan, Keegan aka The Big Noob – the big bold title, the navy blue background, but most of all the portraits on the header and the featured post, all these elements make this blog memorable. It’s probably one of the best blogs (certainly the most famous) making use of the blue / green color scheme.

The Big Noob


Matthew Mullenweg – the first time I saw his blog, I didn’t know he’s the guy behind WordPress. Now I know he’s the #1 most important Matt in the world, but when I say Matt Mullenweg, I instantly think about the header collage, the mug, the childhood picture.

Matt Mullenweg


Lisa Bettany – Lisa is a “multimedia producer, blogger, photographer, 2.0 expert, model, actress” and also “Canada’s Sexy Geek Blogger”. Oau! She’s definitely a purple cow. She is yet another example of beauty and brains. The blog header pretty much sums it up and makes her blog so not easy to forget.

Lisa Bettany

Do you have other examples? Do share. ;)