Finding Your Fingerprint: Artist Branding

Introduction

Your unique visual image, that lasting aesthetic impression people use to recognize your studio, is as important today as your good work. Make no mistake, that unique package of elements that identify you and how you employ them can spell the difference between a winner and an almost ran when it comes to a robust industry presence. What am I talking about? I’m talking about artist branding, that identifying visual fingerprint you leave in the minds of every person you encounter. Indeed, your branding should be consistent across all your marketing materials, in all your packaging, your swag, and your online presence (like your website or storefront, blog or social media), even right down to your promotional merch. The truth is that artists with a strong branded presence simply leave a more lasting impression and that translates into more trust, more authority, and more recognizability. All of which can turn into more collectors of your work. See, the thing is, selling art has changed over the decades with the advent of the Net. Today art commerce has shifted towards online sales with online galleries, email marketing (newsletters), social media direct sales, the surfing of private collectors, and the use of art consultants. That means each artist must stand out amongst the sea of other artists out there in the big, wide world to get noticed and attract interest. That’s precisely where artist branding comes in. 

So, let’s talk about artist branding and how to deploy it to improve the visibility of your unique identity and artistic vision. Because without a doubt, a solid brand strategy can be a most effective tool for a successful working studio!

What’s In A Brand?

But what is artist branding exactly? Well, it’s basically the strategic selling of yourself as an artist and as a person. A solid artistic brand is a cohesive and consistent representation of who you are and what your stand for as an artist. In turn, good artistic branding has three benefits: 

1. It separates you from other artists by creating a unique aesthetic that elevates your artistic identity.

2. It helps you bond with your target audience much better.

3. It helps to attract those people who are predisposed to collect your work.

Standing out in the sea of others out there and targeting your intended audience are the quickest ways to success. See, highly focused, niche marketing is where it’s at nowadays with mass marketing going more the way of the dodo when it comes to selling art. Why? Well, for starters, niche marketing targets people who are predisposed to do business with you. If you appeal to everyone, you appeal to no one, right? Find your people! Find those people predisposed to buy your work or who can open doors for you. Indeed, the more focused you are, the easier it is to find and target these folks which also saves time and resources to boot. (On that note, it might be of interest to you that millennials are the fastest growing segment of art collectors today!) 

What’s more, people buy art when they feel an emotional connection to you, the artist, not just because they like the art itself. Honestly, there’s plenty of great art out there, but no one has your unique take, your novelty of vision and style. That’s yours alone! And no one else’s work has that unique component that is you! In fact, when you sell your work, you aren’t really selling your art. What you’re really selling is you! When people buy your work, they’re physically bringing a part of you into their homes, into their everyday lives. Truly, every time they look at your piece, they’ll also think of you and that’s a crucial connection every artist should keenly understand. 

“People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel,” says Maya Angelou. So, people will literally experience you through your art in their homes so make sure that experience is always positive and inspiring. And it’s branding that seeks to capture and package that quality into a visual language that makes you instantly recognizable and consistent in your message, what is known as a “brand voice.”

It should be noted that a “brand voice” also goes beyond simply your marketing visuals and materials. It encapsulates your personality, your style, your vision, and your philosophy, too. A well executed brand voice leans on a cohesive mood and an appealing visual design rather that wordage as well, constructing an infrastructure that identifies and elevates your work and you.

What are the goals of a good brand voice? Well, the components of a successful brand:

1. Establishes your core values and determine the guiding principles that inform your work and influence your artistic decisions.

2. Defines your artistic niche, your unique style, medium, and subject matter and what sets you apart from other artists in your field.

3. Develops a compelling brand story with a narrative about your artistic journey, values, and goals, making it easier for your target audience to connect with you.

4. Identifies your target audience so branding and marketing efforts can be tailored to appeal directly to them.

5. Embodies a visual identity that represents your brand, making it easier for your target audience to find and recognize you.

6. Are implemented in the real world across the board, on and offline.

7. Communicates your messaging consistently in your “voice,” i.e. personality.

The Ingredients

So what exactly constitutes “artistic branding”? Quite literally, branding entails your complete “face” you present to the world. It’s cohesive and consistent across the board and designed in a way that looks professional and polished. 

To start this process, begin first with a set of introspective questions. Be as specific and deep as you can be. Get to the heart of the matter, not just the surface details. Such questions could be:

• Who are you as a person? 
• What contributes to your art and artistic vision?
• What’s your artistic point of view?
• Why did you become an equine artist? Why do you make your art?
• What themes do you focus on and why?
• What processes and techniques do you use and why?
• What are your goals and aspirations as an artist?
• What inspires you?
• What’s your art about? What’s its calling? What are its overarching themes? What are you trying to say through it?
• What are some influences on your art?
• What are the guiding principles that inform your work and influence your Vision?
• What are you exploring, attempting, or challenging with your art?
• What does your art mean to you?
• What’s the main idea and approach to your Vision?
• What’s the nature of your Voice? How do you use it?

Once you’ve answered all these questions, and be pointed and precise, you can now write your artist statement. This is a key bit of insight that essentially distills everything you and your art are about into a focused, overarching mission objective. Overall then, it needs to be distinctive, unique, and effective as a concise, clear distillation of what it is you do with your art and what it’s all about. It should be no more than five short sentences tops and be free of punctuation, spelling, and grammatical errors. It should sound warm and authentic, but also professional and authoritative at the same time. Above all, prove to people that you’re a real person, not an AI bot. Never, ever use “AI” to create an Artist Statement! Honestly, if you cannot be bothered to conjure up an effective Statement on your own, you simply aren’t worthy of being collected. Period. People need and want to know they’re connecting with a real person through your statement, it’s that important. Your statement speaks for you in the most personal, deepest way, so make sure that’s 100% you.

As for the writing style, your artist statement needs to be specific, written with economy, and to the point. It should also be written in the “active” voice so it’s impactful and engaging, so it seems like it’s happening right now rather than in the past. It should also be written in the first person, not as “the artist.” It should be authentic and honest, too, and try to capture your own speaking voice. Also sharpen the wording of your statement as much as possible by cramming as much meaning as you can into each word choice and avoiding repetition. Tone is also important as it should read as inspiring, intriguing, and novel. Likewise, it should never beg questions or be tone deaf in any way, a huge misstep when writing an artist statement. Like coming across as pompous and arrogant or boorish and bragging just isn’t a good look. Most of all though, your statement needs to avoid clichés and jargon. Clichés like “I just love horses” or “the beauty of horses inspires me” isn’t enough. We already know that’s a given! What’s more distinctive about your inspirations and drives? What’s more personal and meaningful than that? Likewise, it’s easy to use academic, flowery language in our statement, but instead opt for simplicity and to-the-point wordage to get people engaged. Think of it as an elevator pitch rather than a novel, a teaser rather than a full explanation. For example, here’s my artist statement, 

“I seek to explore the inner life of an individual soul resonating within the living moment so that I can convey this gracious creature with sensitivity, insight, and kinship. The story from the animal’s point of view is what captivates me and compels my hands to shape the clay.”

Your artist statement is your opportunity to really speak for your art with a clear, authentic voice, so make good use of it. Once you’ve created one then, consider putting it onto your website like on an “about” page or even the homepage if warranted. Think about including it in your swag and certain promotional materials, too.

The Brass Tacks

So now that you’ve got those questions answered and your artist statement completed, you should have a clear idea of what you and your art are all about in terms of its essence, its gist, and its mission. With this then, you’ll be able to tease out its unique branded voice with a lot more clarity and confidence. You can now compile your visuals, those elements that establish the distinctive, identifying “look” of your comprehensive branding. Specifically, then, these visual elements are:

Logo: The logo is the basic currency of your brand that helps your brand stand out with current and future collectors. It’s important to design a distinctive, totally unique, stylish, clean and effective logo for your studio that can be used across the board and scaled up and down cleanly. If you cannot design one yourself, hire someone who can, it’s that important. Your logo will become your primary visual identifier of your studio; when people see it, they should immediately know it’s you. Think of the Starbucks logo or the Nike logo. You instantly know who the company is simply by the image, right? So, the logo can be a symbol, something visual and immediately unique and recognizable. Or it can be your distinctive signature, ideally the signature you apply to your finished works. Your logo could even combine a symbol and your distinctive signature as a third option. And lastly, you can make a tile out of one of your iconic works and turn that into your logo. Ultimately then, use your logo everywhere, on all your marketing materials, swag, merch…wherever you are, so should be your logo, too. See, people tend to be visual; visuals stick with people more than words which make logos such powerful identifiers.

Color Palette: Choose a complementary palette of standard colors that you’ll use on your website, blog, swag, social media, email marketing, etc. Your colors should be distinctive and harmonious, but also instantly recognizable as your studio. Don’t go too bananas here…a palette of say two-four colors is fine. These colors should speak to your Vision, speak in a visual language that embodies who you are and what your studio is about. I know that sounds a bit highbrow, but which colors you choose are key. Above all, the colors you choose should never distract from the work you’re featuring but complement it, showcase it, “frame” it to its best advantage in a polished, professional way. For example, I’ve chosen a light sage green as my primary color with turquoise or teal as a secondary complementary color and with purple or black font.

Fonts: Choose standard fonts for your studio name, your verbiage, and your tagline. These fonts should be cohesive and complementary together and be consistent across the board. They should also be versatile, able to be configured in multiple ways to be adaptable in multiple formats and designs. They should also speak to your specialness, your distinctiveness as an artist, and what your work is about. Choose fonts that are unique, but also easily read and scale up and down well, staying readable. Then once you’ve chosen your fonts, lock them in across the board on all your materials and marketing. So how does a font “speak” for us? Well, serif fonts can appear more traditional and classic whereas sans serif fonts look more modern and sleeker. Then decorative fonts can really speak all over the map but are also highly identifiable, so pick them with care. For example, I use one decorative font for my studio name (Samurai), one modern font for my wordage body (Trebuchet or Ubuntu) and one decorative font for my tagline (Baka Too). As such, I like the edginess and distinctiveness of my chosen decorative fonts and the “relic,” “ancient,” or “elemental” feel they impart contrasted with the clean and modern feel of my wordage font. So, think about your core values, the nature of your unique artistic Vision, and the distinctiveness and message of your work and consider how all that can be conveyed through fonts alone. That’s how you pick your identifying fonts that speak for you.

Language: Think about the nature of the language you use. It should be concise, clear, free of punctuation, grammar, and spelling errors, and reflect who you are as a person and as an artist. Your language should be cohesive and unified across the board, too, and always be positive in tone. Said another way, the tone of your language, the words and phrasing you use, should speak for you beyond just what is being said. Your wordage should instill a sense of authority and respectability, of course, but also be warm enough to invite people to connect with you. So don’t be too clinical or highbrow, be yourself, just be your best self. But at the same time, also don’t be too casual as there should be a professional polish to all your promotional wordage as well. It’s a careful balance so always put thought into your word choice and tone in all your materials you present to the public. What’s more, don’t beg questions with your phrasing. For example, if you come across as putting down other work to elevate your own, you’re going to appear boorish. For instance, a typical fumble artists make is to say things like, “I only use archival mediums like oils for my work,” which of course implies that acrylics, pastels, and other media aren’t enduring, which is factually untrue and puts down the work of your colleagues. Stop and think about tone and implications of all your written materials before you release them into the world. Absolutely, a tone-deaf body of words can be a huge liability for you.

Tagline: Maybe you might also like to concoct a defining phrase, slogan, or “tagline” for your studio. It’s not necessary, but it can be a handy thing to have for your marketing promotion that can really convey your brand and mission with simply a pithy phrase. Basically, a tagline distills your entire artistic Vision and creative mission into a catchy phrase that becomes the defining blurb for your art and what it’s all about. As such, it should also instantly identify what you do with your art and who you are as an artist. For instance, I’ve chosen “Celebrating the Spirit of Equus” as my tagline because that defines exactly what I do with each piece I create. Put some goodly thought into this as it should be wholly distinctive to you and your vision. It should not be derivative or copy any other tagline out there. It should also speak for your art and reflect your brand’s personality and selling points. It should also be short and concise, memorable, clear, and authentic to you, so give it some good thought. 

For example, perhaps one of the most famous taglines is Nike’s “Just Do It.” There’s also McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It,” the Milk Council’s “Got Milk?,” DeBeer’s “A Diamond Is Forever,” and well, you get the picture. Literally by hearing just the tagline, you know what’s being talked about…that’s the goal. For example, here are some possibilities as inspiration, “Whispers of the Soul, Translated into Art,” “A Palette of Emotions, Painted to Perfection,” “Unleash the Power of Your Imagination,” “Where Perfection Meets Passion,” and on and on. Things like that. Once you’ve created yours then, it should appear with your logo and studio name wherever possible, so people come to associate it with you specifically.

Brand Identity: Your brand, across the board, needs to look like it all came from the same design philosophy. See, the trick with branding is that cohesiveness is the trick for being recognized. Simply put, the more consistent the “look” of your branding, the faster it’s going to become associated with you. Whatever it is you put out there then, it should still be recognizable as coming from you. So be mindful not to deviate from your core materials which is all the more reason why they need so much thought and care because they are your overarching theme for all your future promotions.

Finding Your Focus

Okay then…we know our brand mission and have all our materials compiled, polished up, and ready for deployment. So now what? Well, the next step is to “position your brand” out in the real world. Time to put it to work! What does that mean? Well, what’s this “target audience” I keep mentioning? Who are they? Well, that’s exactly the point, isn’t it? Who is the person most predisposed to collect your work? That’s your target audience. Well, for starters, we know they love equines, a lot. They also collect art, avidly. They have a certain income level that allows them to do so, too. Maybe they also have an educational or occupation background that influences their collecting? Maybe they also gravitate towards certain lifestyles or interests? Maybe they tend to be of a certain age group or gender, too? What are their niche interests? Like, are they big into ceramics, ARs, customs, performance showing, halter showing, chachkis, stickers, pins, etc.? Whoever they are, find your people. Understand demographics and metrics. How do we do this? Well, we do market research. 

Study trends, expectations, demands, and pricing in the industry. Study who is doing the most enthusiastic collecting on social media, at shows, and in your own collector base. Develop a picture of the type of person most predisposed to collect from you and then focus on that type of person with your marketing. Or find which galleries cater to that type of person and then develop a working relationship with them to get your work in there. Take out targeted social media ads, like on Facebook, to expand your base and get your work out in front of more potential collectors that fit into your target audience. Use social media to attract and engage your target audience, and post a lot, be consistent. It’s better to have lots of consistent, cohesive short posts than few and far between big posts, for instance. Think about email marketing, like an email newsletter, to collect and cater to your target audience, and you can even hold direct sales through it. Like there should almost always be a “call to action” to join your newsletter or mailing list in your promotional materials, or at least to visit your website.

Once you’ve found your target audience then, focus on them. That’s to say, all your marketing should be designed to cater to and engage them, and to find more within that demographic.

That said, also study the metrics of your newsletter, website, ads, and social media traffic because this allows you to better tailor your branding experience to hit your target audience more effectively. What are metrics? Well, they’re the tracked records of all the clicks, traffic, location, interactions, and completions rates of your videos that platforms offer. Indeed, most all platforms offer basic metric tracking so take the time to study the results from each deployment to better focus on your target audience next time.

 

Marketing Tools

There are specific portals at our fingers tips we can use to capture, engage, and inspire our target audience. Knowing how to use each one with savvy and imagination is one of the best skillsets we could ever learn for our working studio, so give it some good care and thought. What are these portals? Well, they’re things like our…

Website: This is the center of your marketing world where you showcase and sell your art, where people learn more about you and how to contact you, where you establish your brand, and unlike social media algorithms, it’s something you can 100% control. A great website will never be obsolete! It should have a great homepage which is your most important branding platform so make solid use of your logo, studio name, palette, fonts, tagline, and all that. Your website should also have a gallery or portfolio featuring some of your very best works so put some thought into what pieces you choose to display. In other words, don’t display just anything and everything, curate it with care so your gallery is a cohesive representation of what you do. And try to use current works, too, pieces that are representative of what you’re doing right now, what’s for sale right now, and where your work is going. 

The most important real estate on your website is the upper lefthand corner due to the way English is read so put your logo and studio name there, then navigation in the middle, then social media links on the right corner. Other important pages are your About page and your Contact and email sign-up page. On that note, sometimes a FAQ page can be helpful as well so that’s an option, too. Above all though, your website should look good and function well on multiple devices: desktop, tablet, phone, and laptop. In particular, it needs to look sharp and be perfectly functional on a phone as most people are using their phones nowadays. Overall, a great website leads the viewer where you want them to go without them realizing it. And above all, if your website is too overwhelming, they’ll just leave, so keep it as simple and straightforward and navigation-friendly as possible (remember…the least amount of clicks is always better!)

Newsletter: Email marketing has become a dynamic and popular way to connect to, collect, and engage your target audience. Indeed, it can be your sales lifeline because you can sell your work directly in it by funneling people to your website or social media. It should be stamped with all your branding with every deployment and be consistent and cohesive. Also think about providing value beyond just your news and sales. Why would someone want to subscribe? Sure, maybe they’d like to buy your work, but what else of value and interest can you offer them? And more specifically, how does that speak to you and your mission? 

Above all, keep your studio newsletters neutral, and free of politics, religion, or other hot button topics that will put people off. Never go off on a tear and never hold your peeps as a captive audience. And absolutely, your newsletter should never be tone deaf! Indeed, your newsletter may be all about you, but it’s also all about them as well! It’s a symbiotic balance that builds relationships that also promotes your work and drives sales. Mass appeal, inspiration, and positivity are your goals. And it should be focused on your work and the overarching themes of the equine and art, or in other words, focused on the topics that would interest your target audience. But also take the opportunity to show people who you are as a person so display your humanity and individuality. Fame and the artistic mystique so often cause people to strip our humanity from us yet through an effective newsletter, we can reinstate it back into our identity. Honestly, people want to know there’s a real person behind the art, and so a newsletter is a great way to convey our personhood to them. That being the case, your dispersed marketing should always have a call to action to join your newsletter so you can capture more folks who fall within your target audience demographic.

Blog: While some folks claim otherwise, a blog will never be obsolete. It’s actually very useful for artists by building community to gain a wider audience and maintain a social presence. It also fosters “thought leadership” by sharing insights, experiences, and expertise to establish brand authority and build trust and regard. It can also help with networking by getting your work in front of the right people who are predisposed to help you. Through a blog, you can also share news, upcoming events, and reviews that convey your works’ impact. You can also monetize it through ads, affiliate marketing, direct sales, etc. And think about repurposing existing content because you don’t always have to post new content all the time. But overall, a good blog can help you become recognized as an authority, information resource, and as a solid brand. On that note, treat a blog like how you would treat your newsletter, too, so the same rules of engagement apply.

Social Media: A great modern tool for the working artist, it’s a fantastic way to capture your target audience and hold an ongoing conversation about your brand with them and other artists. In this way, it’s a useful tactic to extend your brand, drive traffic to your website and newsletter, and build your reputation and exposure. You also get to build a community of fans and followers who are specifically interested in your work, share teasers and make big splashy launches of new work, and network with colleagues. In fact, many art collectors are now using social media for their collecting conduits so the stronger your social media presence, probably the more robust your sales. However, on social media you can also browse and study the work of other artists, keep up with trends and the pulse of this niche art form, get inspired, and flesh out any research. On some platforms, too, there are options for targeted ads like on Facebook that can be designed to find more of and focus on your target audience. But consistency is key on social media. Post often and regularly. Really, it’s much better to post a lot of little, short snippets than just a few long, ponderous posts. It often just manipulates the algorithms better. All that said though, it’s important to have separate, dedicated pages for your personal and professional focus. Never combine the two. But also remember that even if you keep them separate, there’s still cross-pollination that occurs, so be very mindful of what you post on your personal pages regardless, especially if they’re set to “public.” The fact of the matter remains that once you became a working artist you sacrificed your “freedom of speech” for the success of your studio. Or in other words, if your work isn’t political or religious in nature, rethink posting such things on your personal page. The rules of engagement for your newsletter apply here as well. So, stay as neutral as you can on your personal page, and absolutely neutral on your studio page (that is unless your art is fundamentally political or religious in nature). Now granted, there may come a time when you feel compelled to post a hot button statement on your personal page or in a comment, but just be ready to take the hit! You don’t get to rile people up and then complain about pushback. To be frank though, I’ve seen too many artists self-destruct a great reputation and experience a mass work “dump off” and lost collectors with a single bad post or comment. So just consider the consequences before you tap on your keyboard with every single post or comment, everywhere. Social media is a double-edged sword. It can slice through the distance between you and your target audience to connect with them, or it can slice right through your studio. Wield it with great care.

Video Marketing: Likewise, media like YouTube or TikTok or Instagram, which feature video formats, can be a great way to promote your brand. The same rules of engagement apply here as well and again, several short videos posted a day has a better return than long videos posted far and few between. But these formats are a great way to solidify your brand, share processes and progressions of your work, debuts and and unveilings, interviews with other artists or even your collectors, and bringing yourself into immediate “real time” as people will finally hear your actual voice. 

Above all, remember that Golden Rule of Engagement that should be applied across all your platforms: Stay neutral. This cannot be emphasized enough! Unless your art benefits from certain sociopolitical themes, leave all of that out of all your interactions. Stick to your art and leave your political and religious and other hot button topics out of it. Indeed, a single ill-conceived post can implode your brand! Over the years, I’ve seen it so many times: Collectors mass-dump models on the secondary market after some artist just had to say something incendiary that decimates their reputation and then their sales slump for years, often permanently. They can also become persona non grata in the community, essentially killing off their brand forever. The fact is that you and your art are one, you are your art and your art is you. Or put another way, you and your brand are one. You speak for it, and it speaks for you. So when you say something, always first think, “How will my words affect my brand and therefore my art?” Think of it as “brand cultivation.” In what way can we behave that reinforces and fosters a solid brand identity for years to come?

Sales Branding

But artist branding just doesn’t end there! Nope! You can brand individual sales, too! Yes! A new launch, a debut, a big splashy event or sale? Well, they may warrant their own branding as well! Referred to as a “campaign,” sales branding is a potent form of highly specific promotion. For instance, every one of my pins has its own branded campaign as do every one of my editions, a standard aesthetic applied across the board so you can instantly recognize it as officially my work and specifically as that work. In this case, sales branding, or designing a campaign, can be immensely fun and creative so don’t miss the opportunity to play around with it to reinforce your overall brand.

Ending Thoughts

Artist branding is the working artist’s best and most potent advocate who’s at work for you all the time. Really, your brand will speak for you even when you’re not around…it’s your stake, your claim, your flag in the big, wide-open world. So, design it with some thought and creativity, and most of all, with authenticity and honesty so people come to know the real you through it. Focus on your mission, focus on your target audience and optimizing content for them, and focus on your artistic vision. Do that and you’ll not only find your unique fingerprint, but you’ll adeptly plaster the world with it to help stake your claim and make your studio a wild success!

"A brand is a promise. A good brand is a promise kept."

~ Muhtar Kent

I would like to thank Heather Malone for her expert help in the writing this post! You made it the big ol' bite of great branding information it is now! Thank you, Heather!