Personal Brand Archetypes

Brand archetype

The Magician

With their mastery in thinking deeply and outside the box, Magician brands promise miracles and know how to make dreams come true.

  • Transformational
  • Charisma
  • Imaginative
  • Idealistic
  • Insightful
Promise
To share uncommon knowledge
Goal
to make dreams come true
Strategy
to share a compelling vision of what is possible
Weakness
Magician's can be perceived as too off the wall or eccentric, but if the brand strategy focuses on evocative marketing infused with enigma, then this archetype can be quite effective.

How the Magician 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 Magician, the register to aim for is:

  • thought provoking
  • ethereal
  • charismatic
  • experiential
  • transformational
  • shapeshifting
  • inspiring
  • magical

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 Magician 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:

  • Repetition
  • Boring
  • Stagnation
  • Doubt
  • Ignorance

The blind spot: Magician's can be perceived as too off the wall or eccentric, but if the brand strategy focuses on evocative marketing infused with enigma, then this archetype can be quite effective. 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 Magician palette leans towards pastels such as purples, pinks, and some light blues.

#5A5A5A
#588687
#304755
#27274B
#76486C
#A69052

Type direction

Typefaces for the Magician should feel fun and flowing, maybe even some cursive.

The Magician characters you already know

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

Snape from Harry Potter

A literal magician, but also a protector of Harry, even while pretending to despise him.

The Evil Queen in Sleeping Beauty

Obsessed by transforming herself, and ultimately brought down by it

Helen Hunt as Jo in Twister

While her colleagues speak science, she speaks t the heart of the storms.

Is the Magician 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