Making Your Portfolio Stand Out: Brand Yourself
Coleen Sallot | Inkk Academy
Skill isn't enough anymore. Judgment is.
Be your own client. Dig in, direct AI, and build something uniquely yours.
Learn to direct AI through a real design process, from first idea to finished home page. The judgment stays with you at every step. You’re the client, and the project is your own portfolio.
This used to be one job, then it split apart. Researchers handed findings to strategists, strategists handed decks to designers, and designers handed Figma prototypes to developers. Design systems replaced craft. Portfolios became presentation decks focused on process instead of proof.
AI changes that. With real craft knowledge, you can go from an idea to a live website without a development team or a template. Anyone can build a site now, but not everyone can defend why it looks the way it does. AI is only as good as the judgment directing it. The craft isn’t obsolete. It’s the differentiator.
The course follows one process: learn, make, then generate. You make your own version first, so AI builds from your thinking instead of guessing.
You leave with a complete brand identity with logo and mood board, a strategy that makes a real case for you, and a refined site design in Figma. Every decision follows the same process you'd use on a client engagement — except the client is you.
What you’ll learn
You leave with a complete brand identity and a refined Figma design: proof you can direct AI with real design judgment.
Learn the vocabulary first: elements like line and color, principles like balance and hierarchy
Practice on real portfolios and brands: name the specific principles doing the actual work
Apply what you can now identify deliberately in your own design decisions
Learn the vocabulary first: the Jung/Aaker framework behind twelve brand personalities
Practice on real brands, their websites and logos and name the archetype at work
Apply it to identify your own archetype with confidence, using the BrandForge personality assessment
Develop a color palette that expresses your archetype, grounded in color theory, not guesswork
Select and pair typography that visually communicates the same personality
Define an imagery style that doesn't just look nice but portrays your archetype consistently
Build your imagery from your own artwork, or generate it with MidJourney or Nano Banana.
Design a logo mark appropriate for a professional portfolio
Assemble a mood board using real generated assets, not placeholders
Use a structured ChatGPT conversation that digs into who you are, how you tick, what makes you unique
Turn that self-understanding into a site map and wireframe: structure follows what you discovered
Apply layout and gestalt principles so the structure actually communicates that meaning
Convert your strategy and site map into a Lovable build prompt
Use Lovable for structural ideation and know when to stop and export
Export a Lovable design into Figma and refine until it's right
Learn directly from Coleen
Coleen Sallot | Inkk Academy
Design education founded by Coleen Sallot. 30 years of practice, not theory.
Who this course is for
Designers, developers, engineers, and game professionals with real work who need to prove, not just claim, what makes them different.
Strategists and researchers with strong thinking, but a portfolio that doesn't yet argue their case as sharply as their real work does.
Students and early-career professionals with thesis, studio, or project work that deserves better than a Behance page or a template.
Prerequisites
Prerequisites
None. This is the entry point to the two-course series, just a willingness to dig into what makes you tick.
What's included
Live sessions
Learn directly from Coleen Sallot | Inkk Academy in a real-time, interactive format.
Lifetime access
Go back to course content and recordings whenever you need to.
Community of peers
Stay accountable and share insights with like-minded professionals.
Certificate of completion
Share your new skills with your employer or on LinkedIn.
Group roundtable & feedback
Real-time critique each session
19 real skills, one portfolio
Brand strategy, archetype theory, typography, imagery, color theory, layout, logo design, and many more
Real world tool guidance
BrandForge, ChatGPT, MidJourney/Nano Banana, Lovable, Figma
Maven Guarantee
Your purchase is backed by the Maven Guarantee.
Course syllabus
4 live sessions • 81 lessons • 4 projects
Live sessions
3 hrs / week
75 minutes of structured content + 15 minutes of office hours
Projects
4-8 hrs / week
The real production work happens as homework between sessions. Your final project consists of your home page mockup built in Lovable and exported into Figma, with your generated images and content
Extra content
1 hr / week
The BrandForge archetype assessment, plus pre-work guides on visual design principles, brand personality, and other topics.
Week 1
- 📄
Elements and Principles of Visual Design
- 📄
Get Design Inspiration
- 📄
Stay on Top of Trends
- 📄
Understanding Brand Personality and Archetypes
- 📄
Brand Identity and Logo Design
- 📄
From Personality to Identity System
- ✍️
Module 1 Assignment: Due Thursday, January 14
Submit by Jan 15 - 📄
Archetype Quick References for Images
- 📄
Art Movements and Styles: A Guide for Your Archetype
- 📄
BrandForge Quick Start
- 📄
Design Reading List
- 📄
Design Vocabulary
- 📄
Logo Design Fundamentals
- 📄
Mood Board Template Guide
- 📄
Strategy Methods Reference
- 📄
Strategy Questions Worksheet
- 📄
Strategy Source Disciplines
- 📄
Running the Reviewer
- 📄
Submitting Your Projects
- 📄
Using Midjourney
- 📄
Using Nano Banana
- 📄
Web Design Trends
- 📄
Working with the Inkk Academy Agent
Jan
7
SESSION 1: Live Workshop - Who Are You?
Module 1.1: What Makes a Great Design?
Great design follows principles you can name and reuse. You’ll study the elements and principles of visual design, then find inspiration in award-winning work and current trends. You’ll leave with examples you admire and the words to explain why they work.
Module 1.2: What's Your Brand Personality?
You can’t direct AI until you know who you are. Your brand personality drives every choice after this. You’ll take the BrandForge assessment and connect your results to brand archetypes. You’ll leave with your archetype and the start of your identity system.
Module 1.3: Homework and Deliverables
Put this session to work. You’ll complete your brand summary, logo sketches, and draft mood board, and bring them to the next live session.
WEEK 1 RESOURCES (Optional)
Week 2
- 📄
Understanding and Using Color
- 📄
Understanding and Using Typography
- 📄
Understanding and Using Imagery
- 📄
Why Strategy Comes First
- 📄
What Makes You Different, and Who Decides
- 📄
Decide What Your Site Must Do
- 📄
The Inkk Academy ChatGPT Agent
- 📄
Generating a Brand Profile
- 📄
Determining Strategy
- 📄
Generating Imagery
- 📄
Building Your Mood Board
- ✍️
Module 2 Assignment: Due Thursday, January 21
Submit by Jan 22 - 📄
Connecting Strategy to Content
- 📄
Information Architecture and Your Site Map
- 📄
Your Message and Voice
- 📄
What's a Wireframe?
- 📄
Sketch It, Then Wireframe It
- 📄
Test Driving your Structure
- 📄
Creating your Site Structure
- 📄
Determining What You Want your Site to Say
- 📄
Seeing It Before You Build It
- 📄
Visualizing your Site Strategy Using Lovable
- ✍️
Module 3 Assignment: Due by Monday, January 25
Submit by Jan 26 - 📄
Card Sort and Tree Test Guide
- 📄
Case Study Story Template
- 📄
Content Audit and Gap List
- 📄
Gestalt and Layout Cheat Sheet
- 📄
Home Page Copy Worksheet
- 📄
Home Page Section Library
- 📄
Message and Voice Worksheet
- 📄
Page Design Checklist
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Portfolio Review Checklist
- 📄
Site Map Cheat Sheet
- 📄
Sketching and Crazy 8s Kit
- 📄
Standard Rules Checklist
- 📄
Testing Your Structure Guide
- 📄
User Flow Cheat Sheet
- 📄
Wireframe Cheat Sheet
- 📄
Writing for the Web Cheat Sheet
Jan
11
SESSION 2: Live Workshop - Design It
Module 2.1: Design Fundamentals
Color, type and imagery carry your personality before anyone reads a word. You’ll choose your palette, typography and imagery direction based on your brand, not on what looks nice that day. You’ll leave with the visual rules every page will follow.
Module 2.2: What Makes You Uniquely You?
Most portfolios look alike because they start from templates. Your story and the way you work set you apart. You’ll identify the strengths and experience only you bring. You’ll leave with the core message your site will prove.
Module 2.3: Bringing It to Life with AI
AI can make anything look polished, but it doesn’t know your brand. You’ll use your brand rules to direct ChatGPT and image tools as they create your logo, imagery and mood board. You’ll leave with brand assets you chose, not ones AI guessed.
Module 2.4: Homework and Deliverables
Put this session to work. You’ll complete your brand profile, strategy and image direction documents, finished mood board with imagery, and high fidelity logo, and bring them to the next live session.
Jan
14
SESSION 3: Live Workshop - Architecting your Strategy
Module 3.1: Content Strategy and Structure
A portfolio makes claims, and your work is the proof. Without a plan, AI fills the gaps with guesses. You’ll decide what your site needs to say and how the pages connect. You’ll leave with a content strategy and site map.
Module 3.2: Wireframing
Sketching first shows you whether AI’s output matches your plan. You’ll sketch your page layouts, then turn them into wireframes. You’ll leave with wireframes for your key pages.
Module 3.3: Using AI to Put It All Together
AI builds well only when you give it clear direction. You’ll use the Inkk Academy Assistant to combine your brand, strategy and wireframes into build instructions. You’ll leave with your Navigation and Content document and a draft Lovable prompt.
Module 3.4: Homework and Deliverables
Put this session to work. You’ll complete your hero lines, site map, home page sketch, your navigation and content document, and draft Lovable prompt, and bring them to the next live session.
WEEK 2 RESOURCES (Optional)
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