A strong personal brand is essential for building your professional identity. It can help you land a job offer, secure a promotion, and make connections that bring you more opportunities. Recognizing this, the Professional Science Master’s program brought our students a session of the MBS Café Series focused on brand identity with Skye Dillon. The discussion was facilitated by Rupa Misra, Ed.D., director of our User Experience Design (UXD) and Product Design concentrations.
Based in New Jersey, Skye Dillon is the Founder of SKYE, a leader within the sports branding industry. With nearly 20 years of experience, Dillon has been instrumental in creating some of the most visible brands across all sports categories, including NCAA, MLB, MLS, NBA, NFL, and NHL. Over the past few years, SKYE has evolved into a full-service branding agency, with Dillon serving as Creative Director.
Dillon began the talk by exploring the concept of a brand, emphasizing that it is not just a logo or a product but a story and identity. He explained that discovering your brand involves answering two key questions:
- What am I passionate about? What interests and inspires me? What do I enjoy doing for fun?
- What am I really good at? What do others compliment me on? What comes naturally to me?
"We all matter,” Dillon said. “Everyone on this call matters. We're all unique in our own ways. We all have unique gifts, passions, and experiences."
Dillon walked students through his own personal and professional journey, sharing details from his childhood in rural main to the modern day: in 2023, MLB contacted SKYE to redesign the World Series logo.
At the end of the talk, Dillon put together his suggestions for building a brand identity:
- Stay focused on your specific brand – don't compromise.
- Learn from those who have already gone where you aspire to go.
- Embrace opportunities – put yourself out there.
- Have an open mind to evolve and grow.
- Be patient, it’s a process.
- Impart your experiences and knowledge to others.
Dillon’s story was truly enlightening, and as Dr. Misra said, “Your life story would be a great book.” It was a great chance for students to learn and be inspired.
Join us in our next MBS Cafe Series to uncover more journeys and valuable insights from industry leaders.
For more events like this, visit our events page. You can also follow us on X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram to stay updated.
