In the age of the digital era, it is of the utmost importance for you to have a personal brand. It’s the difference in your personal brand that sets you apart from one person or the other, and is what can bring you all the opportunities you are aiming for. As artists, having a strong personal brand can often mean the difference between selling your art, and not having any clients. (This post is also for photographers, textile artists, graphic designers, just creative individuals in general).
In this article, I’m going to take you through all the steps that ‘you’ as an artist of any media can do the help build your personal brand.
Let’s start at the very beginning to help you build your personal brand.
What is a Personal Brand?
A personal brand is what identifies you as ‘you’.
It is how people perceive you, primarily online in this world of technology.
It is also how you set yourself apart as an individual.
Your personal brand is who you are and what you stand for as an individual and artist. This post is also for any creative individuals who want to build up their personal brand.
The greatest ones are the unique ones, you don’t want to be merged into the crowd of everyone else. I’m not talking about being outlandishly unique here, but having a unique personal brand that is different is what makes a lot of people trust you, and can allow you to build a strong reputation for yourself.
Your personal brand could be a website you’ve set up to showcase your skills, art and personality through, but it could also be your online presence; such as your Instagram, or Facebook profile. These are key in the world of personal branding. If you are trying to come across as a professional online, you don’t want to be posting photos of yourself having a party, or getting drunk and doing something stupid.
I’m going to take you through all the steps on how to build up your personal brand, and also how to clean up your brand so you come across as a highly respectable individual for whoever you are trying to impress.
What Does a Personal Brand do for you?
It is highly common for creative individuals to have a personal brand under their belt as they are often self-employed.
So having a personal brand if you are a freelancer is highly important, as well as it is if you are fully employed. (It’s not unheard of for an employee to be fired due to a post they uploaded on social media of them doing something stupid which could damage the overall brand of the company.)
As a freelancer, it is your personal brand that can often mean the difference between getting clients, or losing them. Your personal brand is key to landing work as a self-employed individual.
It is also the immediate thing that people think of when they hear your name.
As an artist creating a personal brand, you will want to make people know who you are, what you offer, and what you do differently compared to others. If you want to get commissions of your art, then you may want people to see you in a specific light, such as a caring individual who puts all their effort into creating the perfect bit of art for their clients.
Having a good personal brand is also crucial if you are trying to build your name as an artist, you will want a strong brand that people can know and respect. For example, if you are trying to have your art displayed in an exhibition or gallery; you will the owners and organisers to see your brand and know what you stand for. You don’t want to be sharing selfies, no, you’ll want to be sharing and showcasing your art in order to make a good impression.
How to Build Your Personal Brand as an Artist
Okay, let’s chat about exactly how you can build your personal brand as an artist.
Having a website portfolio is a must-have.
You will want a good way that people can see all your work in one professional setting. Having a good artist website can really help you with this. At the very least, you will want to have it set out with your portfolio of work, and then also a section about you that lets people know about who you are.
You also want to be sure it is a good quality site, one that demonstrates professionalism within you as an individual. This means having a good logo, good use of a colour scheme, and also a great layout.
It can often be hard to create an entire website yourself, and can sometimes be costly, so at Carter Art, we created a way for you to upload your entire portfolio for free and customise your URL as well so you come across as a highly professional and organised individual.
Click here to upload your portfolio for free.
Having a social media presence is very useful.
Having a good social media presence of your art is very highly recommended. We often see people that upload their art to their personal Instagram account, and it comes off as not so professional.
We suggest that you set up a whole new Instagram and Facebook account that is solely designed to showcase your art.
Share your story.
People tend to connect with someone a lot more when they feel they know them, and so this is why I suggest you share your story. Let your audience know how you got into art, what inspires you, and what you love to do. Just tell them about you, give them your story, and this will really help people connect with your personal brand as an artist.
On Carter Art, you actually have the ability to write and publish your entire artist bio for free, and have it link back to your profile or website.
Share the journey.
Following on from sharing your story, I would also strongly suggest you share your journey. This is different from your story, in the way that your story is in the past, and the journey is what is happening or coming up. So it’s a great way to allow people to connect more with you on a personal basis to make them feel as though they are on your artistic journey with you.
Write about your work.
Writing about your work is also very important. When you share your work around online, you always want to be sure not to just upload a plain image of the work, but rather share the story behind that piece, share what inspired you, how much you like it, and also the media and materials you used on that work.
Upload high-quality images of your work.
High-quality images of your work are so important, I can’t stress this enough. When you upload your images anywhere, you always want to be sharing the best possible image you have of your work. This is important because when people see your work online and if they see poor quality images of your work that is going to give them the impression that you don’t put any effort into sharing your work, and you just don’t care very much.
I wrote an article about How to Take Great Photos of Your Art
