Personal Brand Archetypes

Brand archetype

The Explorer

The Explorer archetype is an embodiment of innovation and ambition, always pushing boundaries to discover new frontiers. They are constantly on the lookout for self-discovery.

  • Discovery
  • Adventure
  • Independence
  • Exploration
  • Pioneering
Promise
To grant you freedom
Goal
to find fulfillment
Strategy
to experience all there is to experience in life
Weakness
Explorer brands can be perceived as reckless or as encouraging dangerous activities, and they may be perceived as flaky.

How the Explorer sounds

Tone of voice is the most immediately useful part of an archetype, because you apply it every time you write anything at all. For the Explorer, the register to aim for is:

  • curious
  • enthusiastic
  • daring
  • resourceful
  • adventurous
  • inquisitive

Write a post, then read it back against that list. If it does not sound like those words it will not sound like you either — and that gap is exactly the friction that makes publishing feel like work.

What the Explorer fears

Every archetype is defined as much by what it avoids as by what it wants. These are the things this one instinctively moves away from:

  • Aimlessness
  • Conformity
  • Safety
  • Confinement
  • Short Sightedness

The blind spot: Explorer brands can be perceived as reckless or as encouraging dangerous activities, and they may be perceived as flaky. Naming it is what stops it running the show — an archetype used well leans on its strengths and plans around this one.

Colour direction

The Explorer palette leans towards earthy colors such as neutrals, grey, tan, some oranges, and reds.

#265678
#F0D49B
#B5B060
#D5984F
#367871
#A4D0BF

Type direction

Typefaces for the Explorer should feel structured, and youthful.

The Explorer characters you already know

Recognisable examples of the pattern, described rather than pictured — these are other people's characters.

Owen Grady in Jurassic World

Owen is a free-spirited adventurer who uses his wits to get out of each situation.

Penny Lane from Almost Famous

Captain Kirk from Star Trek

Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones

Is the Explorer actually you?

Reading an archetype and recognising yourself in it are different things. The test scores you against all twelve and shows you the whole spread, not just the winner.

Discover Your Archetype

The other eleven