Years ago, when I started painting and learning more about art and business, there was nothing called personal branding for artists. What people talked about the most at that time were art styles. It meant having a specific painting style that people would instantly recognize as yours and which naturally speaks of you. However, today:
Your personal brand as an artist is everything.
In case you’re interested, I have a blog post about how you can find your art style in case you’re interested, check it out.
Nowadays, especially with the large social media presence of artists and creative professionals, having a personal brand as an artist matters more than your art style and your art itself.
So, what’s personal branding for artists? And how can you create your own personal brand as an artist?
What’s personal branding for artists?
Personal branding for artists is how you want your audience to see you and how you promote yourself. It is the personality, the skillset, and the values you want others to attribute to your name whenever they hear it.
As an artist, your personal brand reflects itself on your work first, then on your physical and online presence. Your behavior, spoken and unspoken words, and your attitudes, all speak for you. If done well, you can deliver the right image of who you are through your personal branding as an artist. But if not, you will let it grow chaotically on its own and have people from the impression they want or just not care at all about you.
Why do you need to have a personal brand as an artist?
Your personal brand is a must for your creative business. It is the way you’re introducing yourself to your audience including clients and potential clients.
You’re not always going to get the recognition your business needs only through creating no matter how awesome your work is.
It also provides you with the opportunity to highlight your strengths and passions and just tell your story which makes people believe they know you better. As a matter of fact, people have much more trust in those they believe they know, even if they have never met them in person.
How can you create your own personal brand as an artist?
As I have mentioned above, building a personal brand is about you and what makes you unique and stand out from others.
You will have to start by asking yourself specific questions about who you are, what your message and values are, and the best visual representation of you and your messages.
1- Brand yourself as an artist
Creating an artist’s identity takes work. You’ll need to delve deep into your artistic personality to find a trait or experience that distinguishes you from others. This feature is known as your “value proposition” in the marketing world. It is considered one of the most important aspects of personal branding. Don’t be afraid to express your thoughts or perceptions of the world, as well as your values, no matter how provocative or unconventional they may appear.
2- Find your Art Niche
A very important thing before you decide on your niche, don’t trap yourself in a too narrow niche. You are an artist, your work will clearly change and evolve. If you overly restrict yourself, you will eventually feel trapped in your personal brand which will lead to giving up.
Being an artist, I bet you already know what you are interested in: painting, designing, photography, or writing about one of these topics.
It could be a theme, a color palette, or a technique that you enjoy and deeply connect with. However, the more specific you can get with your brand, the better.
A way to do it is to:
- Brainstorm your values.
- Look at your art.
What inspires you to keep creating for years to come? What do you want others to know about you when they see your work online and offline?
Artist Stephan Brusche (iSteef) says: “With branding, it has to feel authentic, especially as an artist. The only way to accomplish that is if it’s really connected to who you are. It will also help you make choices going forward.”
3- Don’t become a copy of someone else to get what they got
Even if you are wishing to have the clients they’re working with, don’t become a copy of them! I have heard this so much in workshops on personal branding and so on, that you have to see what others in your field are doing and just do the same. And while it’s great to imitate and learn from others, you shall never fall into the trap of becoming a copy of some great artist. No matter how much their work speaks to you, you can use it for inspiration, critique their work to learn more, and just experiment with what’s out there, but don’t forget to add your authentic persona to that. Your personal brand as an artist shall be yours and uniquely yours because it is your forever living trace of online and offline presence.
4- Share your journey
Every artist has a story to tell, no matter how basic, boring, or dull it might seem to you, if said properly, people will connect with you through it. Even if you’re a beginner and have no idea what you’re doing, share that with your 30 followers, and stop trying to be perfect and influential. It could be about your process of learning, how you’re turning a hobby into a business and a lifestyle.
It is about inspiring others with your consistency and the way you’re chasing your dreams.
5- Have an aesthetic
I know this may sound weird for personal branding, but it’s just another way to say: develop a visual representation that speaks for your taste and inclinations.
Your aesthetic should represent you as an artist in the first place then your work.
Here’s an example: You are a female painter who’s into nature and enjoys painting landscapes and reading books. The ideal aesthetic for your taste would be cottagecore. And thus, I’d expect your social media feeds to look something like this.
I would also expect to see you exhibiting your artworks in an open space. Something more natural, more plants around, and so on.
What matters is that you stay consistent and coherent with your aesthetic. You can always change along the way though, you’re not tied to an aesthetic for life. But, if you shock your audience with a radical change, or just be a mix of every aesthetic, you will create confusion around your brand and damage how your audience sees you and what they expect from you.
6- Words matter
Art is a very wide tricky philosophy, if we are talking about painting, it’s not just visuals and paintings, we’re talking: about impressionism, renaissance, surrealism, and more. Words matter in art, whether you are reading an Instagram caption, a portfolio, an artwork description, or a press release for an exhibition. You have to know how to speak of your art, you have to learn how to write and express yourself with the right proper words (which I know many artists suck at). Create a brand statement, which refers to a short sentence that describes your mission as an artist, what you could offer your potential clients, and your area of expertise (what you do? Why you do it? And what makes your art unique?).
Your writing should best describe your art and values. And it should be in a voice of your own.
Example:
Let’s say you are an artist painting the sea and caring about life underwater. Your artist brand statement could be : “Eco-friendly sea landscapes artist, contributing to ocean and marine life conservation”. Here you have spoken about your values, art, and why people should support you all at once.
Last, don’t be afraid to come up with words to describe your art style or personality type, this is how people have been doing it for years.
7- Get feedback and take it into consideration
This is the main reason why you should share your story and journey with others (especially online). It is the way to get immediate feedback from your audience which will certainly affect your strategy of posting and creating in the long run. How we want people to see us, and how they actually see us are two different things. So it’s always a great idea to:
- Post your work and see how others respond to it.
- Tell your story in words and let others tell your story in their words to learn the difference and maybe rework some bits here and there.
8- Use as many promotional channels as you can manage
Interaction with social media audiences is also essential in developing a successful art brand. As an artist, you should always be available for a comment or an answer because it shows that you care about those who appreciate your work and want to engage with them. By reaching out to your target audience, you are building an army of devoted fans for your art brand. And using different promotional channels guarantees you a wide variety of audiences and thus, different povs and feedbacks.
Another thing to note is that when creating your brand guidelines, make sure that all of the elements are consistent with the original voice and style that your artworks convey. Note that brand guidelines are:
- Your brand name (could be your name).
- Logo (could be your picture).
- Color palette.
- Photography style (angles, filters, editing style…).
- Editorial chart (key messages, the tone of voice…).
Include these brand elements in every promotional channel you use, such as your website, social media profiles, and business cards, so that potential customers can recognize your brand at a glance.
Last but not least, I want to remind you that no matter how strong and successful your personal brand is, you will feel the need to change things up in the long run. Do not restrict yourself, and enjoy the process of evolving and growing.
Conclusion:
Building a personal brand as an artist is a bit of a process to which you will need to devote attention and time. But it gets easier the moment you are able to identify your values and your intention for creating art.
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