Branding : The Importance of Name Recognition
by Jennifer walling

The business of art is still a business. You are selling yourself, the artist, as much as you are promoting your artwork. As with any business name recognition and branding is a must to help insure your foothold in the industry. Linking your name, or your art company’s name to the product is of the utmost importance. You need for collectors, gallery owners, workshop attendees and book buyers to not only recognize the name but to be able to instantly connect it with your art.

Now it should be noted that as artists you can even build branding for the artist, the art company which represents the artist as well as specialized lines within the artists volume of works. It is all a matter of promotion and balance to achieve branding in this manner. Think of Laurel Burch or Mary Engelbreit as examples.

The three important parts of creating a brand are the name, the tag line and the logo. This trio should work together cohesively to bring the product style to mind in anyone who sees or hears it.

The name, is an important choice and should not be rushed. You do not want to change this down the road, so really think about it before making a decision. You can stick with just an artist’s name, as a good portion of artists do. Or you can create a company name which will represent you. This name should be creative and telling a bit about your style of works. But try not to be too trendy or outrageous , remember this will be a lifetime name connected with your artworks.

Tag lines are short slogans that accompany your name on things such as letterheads, business cards, resumes and the like. They can be used to further expand the explanation of your art and style. This should work with your name to help sell your product, which just happens to be your art.

Try to avoid using things like landscape artist, fine artist, watercolorist, and those type of emotionally unconnected tags. You want something to resonate and build an image of your body of work. Save these description for inclusion in your bios, statements and other promotional pieces.

Instead, try something that sparks the imagination. Paw Print Press for an animal artist. Ethereal Aesthetics for works of sky scenes, sunrises and sunsets in various places. NOT just another face in the crowd for a portrait artist. Be clever and apply that same creativity you use in your art in your tag line.

Logos are the small image or font use that accompanies your name and tag line on all your promotional materials. Often this image is easier to recognize or remember than a name or tag line for people. Make sure it integrates with the name and tag line and is representative of the look and feel you want your art to be portrayed as having. This is also something that will need to have along life to wear well over the years as it will become synonymous with your works.

Keep the image clean and simple. It will often be used in a small format though sometimes in larger one as well. It will need to reproduce easily and cleanly. A good test is run it through a copy machine. Again make it stand out but do not create something too detailed, complex or trendy that will become tiresome after time has passed.

Branding becomes more important as an artist starts to sell their works and become collected. You want your works to be easily found. Use your name in conjunction with your company name. If you are on the web try for both as domains and forward one to the other. Include the name, tag and logo on all your letterheads, bios, statements and promotional pieces. Over time people will begin to recognize them and connect to you and your art, setting you apart from the rest of the artists out there.
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