Designing for Yourself Is the Hardest Design Brief Ever
One of the toughest things to do as a designer is — to design for yourself. And things get worse when you have to design an identity for yourself.
After years of working on the idea, I finally locked in on a monogram that felt just right — RJ. Like Kalam had a vision for 2020, I had one too. I thought I was ready to build my brand and make content for myself. Guess what? It’s 2025. And if you’re wondering how that went—duh. 🙄
Anyway, I finally landed on the perfect monogram “RJ”… that never saw the light of day.
You might ask: “Raj, that looks great—so what’s the issue?”
It’s the name.
I love my name—a lot. (Yes, self-obsessed. 😌) But here’s the problem: Raja Shekar is such a common indian name. Google me and you’ll find a legion of Raja Shekars—but not me.
So when it came to finding a username, I came up with “rjshekar.”
It was short, unique, and secretly a nod to my childhood dream of becoming a radio jockey. 🎙️ Then came the realisation — The monogram didn’t quite capture me. People missed the later part of my name. It looked cool for sure, but it didn’t tell the whole story.
So I did the hardest thing any creative has to do — I let go of what I loved.
I switched from a monogram to a wordmark: rjshekar.
It’s not what I prefer, but it works.
Like my friend and filmmaker Mike Isaac often told me, “Kill your darlings, Raja!”
As artists, we hoard the things that look cool, but sometimes, they don’t serve the story. And for me, that’s what this identity is all about learning to tell the story that lasts.
