Are you ready to grow your business? Sell more art? That’s good because this page is going to show you exactly how to do that by teaching you how to create a successful brand for your art business. And I’ve even broken it up into 7 easy steps. Take as long as you need working through this. Bookmark the page and come back if you must. Take your time and I promise that learning how to create a successful brand will be the game changer for your art business.
Ready? Let’s go!
#1. Think about your ideal customer
If you could choose who would buy your artwork, who would it be? Would it be individual buyers? Would it be art collectors? Galleries? I want you to think about who, if you could choose anyone on this planet to be consistently buying your artwork, who would it be?
Do you have this customer in your mind? Good.
Now, you’re going to take yourself on a journey in their shoes, and you’re going to ask a whole bunch of questions about this ideal customer:
- Who are they?
- How much money do they make?
- How often do they buy art?
- Where do they live?
- How much do they have to spend on art?
- Where do they typically hang out (online, in person, etc)?
- Do you they use social media?
- What is something that attracts them?
You should go through and answer all of these questions, but don’t stop at them! Ask yourself as many questions as you need to be able to understand EXACTLY who your customer is. This will allow you to move on to step 2 and have it be effective. This is the basis as to how to create a successful brand. You have to know who you’re trying to sell to.
#2. Think about your goals
So you want to have or do have an art business. And I’m willing to bet that you started this business for a reason. Any brand you create for your art business has to take that into account. So you need to think about why and where you started, and more importantly, where you want to go.
- Did you just start this business because you like making art? Or do you want to make a living off of this?
- Are you trying to sell only digitally or in conjunction with in-person avenues?
- What kind of art do you make? Is it small or large? Oil or watercolor or printmaking or acrylic or something else?
- How big do you want your business to become?
List at least two goals that you have for your business and at least one reason for why you started your business before you move on to step 3.
Trust me on this. Spending extra time here defining who you are as a business will make everything easier.
#3. Choose a brand voice for your art business
You should have a pretty good idea of both who you are as a business and who you are trying to sell to. If you aren’t quite sure on those, spend a little more time on steps 1 and 2 before you move on. I guarantee that any time you spend there will be well worth it as you’ll be rewarded with a more successful brand for your art business.
This step is all about starting to define how you present yourself as a business. This is where you lay the groundwork for all the publicity and every interaction you should have as a business. You have to come up with how your voice comes across in your business. This section will help you figure out exactly how to do that.
Key voice decisions:
- formal vs. causal: Where do you want the way you write and the way your business sounds to fall on the formality spectrum? For an analogy, is it black-tie wedding dress code or an afternoon movie session in a blanket informal?
- joking vs. serious: How much do you want to be able to joke around with your audience? Do you want to post dad jokes on your social media? Or do you feel more comfortable sticking to a more serious marketing approach? It’s important to note that many people think that you have to choose formal and serious or joking and casual. That’s just not true! While it may be a little more challenging, you can absolutely take a formal joking tone, or a serious casual one.
These are the two biggest decisions, but they aren’t the only ones. The remainder of the decisions revolve around your personality and how much of it you want to shine through. Just make sure as you are developing your voice that you don’t lose that human element that makes your business well, yours. Otherwise it won’t matter that you learned how to create a successful brand, if it sounds like it’s being run by a robot no one will be interested.
#4. Choose a color palette
A really easy way to indicate to your customers who you are as a business is through the colors that you choose to use. Colors can send subconscious messaging about things that you stand for, or it can simply make you seem more familiar and recognizable across platforms.
(As you go through this process, it is absolutely okay to end up with repeat colors on some of them, just make sure you also have a variety!)
Your absolute first step should be some color research. I like this site for researching meanings of color. While it shouldn’t make your decisions for you, it should inform them. If you only sell bright and super happy nostalgic paintings for example, you probably shouldn’t be using only red in your color palette. Gather 4-6 colors that have meanings that you feel are compatible with your business.
The next thing you should do as an artist is go look at your own art. Do certain colors come up more often than others? Is all of your art black and white prints? Pick out 2-3 colors that you find come up the most frequently.
If none of your colors are one so far, you should consider selecting one “neutral” color that either has a good meaning or you notice comes up at least occasionally in your art. Or if all else fails, you can just pick one. Good neutrals include white, shades of grey, black, navy, and browns.
Finally, consider what colors represent YOU as a person. After all, this is your business, and you want a little bit of you coming through. Whether it’s your favorite color or one that has special meaning, think of at least 2 colors that represents you.
Narrowing it down
Alright, now you should have:
- 4-6 colors selected by their meanings
- 2-3 colors pulled from your art
- possibly 1 additional neutral
- 2 colors that represents you
Obviously, we’re not going to use all of these colors on your brand because that would make things confusing. What we’re going to do is narrow it down to fewer colors and then I’ll walk you through how to assign different colors to parts of your brand.
Take a look at your colors. Do any overlap? Did you pull any colors from your art that also represent you? Did one from your art have a matching meaning? If a color showed up on more than one section, take note of that color. Write it down.
Next, you are going to select one (1) neutral. If you selected an additional neutral in the previous steps or you only have one neutral you selected, you can skip this step. Just write down the neutral and move on. If you have more than one possibility, you are going to compare the neutrals and pick your favorite. There doesn’t have to be a good reason for it, just pick one. Do you have it? Good, write it down.
Look at those two colors you chose as representing you. Choose one of the two and write it down.
Alright, you are now going to choose enough colors to get you to exactly four (4) colors. You already have at least two(a neutral and a personal connection color) and possibly more if you found overlaps in your colors. Try to select mostly from colors you pulled from your art and supplementing as needed with those you chose by their meanings.
Putting it together
You should have it narrowed down to four colors. You’re going to be assigning those four colors to one of four positions:
- main color
- neutral color
- accent color #1
- accent color # 2
Obviously, your neutral color will be your neutral color. The others are kind of up to you, but I would recommend choosing a color that either represents you or popped up in your art or you selected multiple times in the first part. And then assign the other two how you want.
The main color will be used for things like the color of your icon, headers and large colored sections on flyers, etc. The accent colors will be used for creating pops of color and the neutral will be used to balance out the colors.
Write these colors down somewhere you won’t lose them.
Pro tip! Choose a specific hex shade (#00000 for example) and record those. It will make sure you get exactly the same color no matter where you are using it.
#5. Choose a signature image or icon
Now you’re going to choose something that you will use to represent your brand. All good brands have a super recognizable icon (Apple, Google, Instagram, Nike, etc.). As an artist learning how to create a successful brand, you’re going to need one too. Don’t over think it, this should just be something that represents you and your brand and that you can utilize to make yourself instantly recognizable. You might already have one. If you do, great! You can skip the rest of this section.
If you don’t already have one, here’s some ideas:
- A certain piece of art (if you choose this, make sure it contains some of the colors you chose for your brand!)
- Your own image. Most artists are their businesses, so you could use a professional head shot of yourself or yourself at an art show as your signature image
- A logo that gives the same kind of vibe as what you’re selling. It may not directly represent you, but it feels cohesive with the rest of your theme.
In summary, don’t overthink it! The odds are that you already have or are using something that could be your best logo or signature image ever. And if you don’t like it, you can always change it later. But for now, the most important thing is to pick one icon, image, or logo, and use it consistently to make your business recognizable.
#6. Make a cohesive theme
This is the final step in creating your brand, ensuring that you have a cohesive theme. Decide on things like fonts and styling. It doesn’t really matter what you choose as long as they are 1) readable and 2) consistent.
Record all of these decisions somewhere that you will remember, so that the next time you go to design a flyer or business card, the theming is right there and it will look consistent.
Bonus tip! You can even create your own templates of flyers, business cards, posters, etc., so that when you need one for an event, you can simply select one from your gallery. That way, your publicity will always look recognizable!
#7. Apply these choices across all platforms
It’s not going to matter much that you’ve just learned how to create a successful brand for your art business if you don’t apply it. You could have the most killer theme ever but if you don’t use it, it isn’t going to do much. Here’s a list of a few places that you should check to make sure they match your brand:
- Flyers
- Business cards
- Emails
- Social media profiles
- Social media posts
- Website
- Artist statements
Now you know how to create a successful brand and you (hopefully) have created your own brand as you’ve followed along with the steps!