Branding Your Art

Posted on 09. Feb, 2010 by Ash in Articles

Learning how to brand your art is part of being a successful digital artist. With so many technologies & softwares available in the digital art field, one might be tempted to have a huge art portfolio with so many different styles. I think its perfectly fine to experiment and learn new technologies, but if you are considering in making a living out of digital art, you would want to eventually settle with a style that would make you stand out of the crowd. You have to learn how to brand yourself and make your art truly YOU.

Understanding Yourself

It’s crucially important to first understand yourself, this is the first step. Creating digital art is a personal journey. Before you can be able to have a certain style or niche to your art, you must first learn about yourself. You have to think about who you are and how do you see yourself different than the other artists around you. We are all born different than one another, so the hard part comes in trying to find how different we are.

What sets your art differently than others?

As an artist, you must start to think about your audience. What is it that you are trying to pass on to them? What kind of influence do you want your art to have on them? Try to be focused. By focused i mean to be unique in what you do. So many times i check online portfolios and i see artists that have a gallery of completely different art styles and approaches to their art. Their art doesn’t have any taste and it seems that their whole portfolio is about experimentation, nothing fully complete. Thinking from a client’s point of view, this kind of artist won’t necessarily stand out to me. A portfolio of a successful digital artist is the one that has a unique approach in portraying his/her art. The art is usually all different (and may be even done by different softwares) but somehow you can tell that they are all done by the same artist. This feeling of associating art with it’s artist is KEY.

Looking Back At Your Artwork

Start by laying out your artwork in front of you and see what bonds them all together. You must begin to find a connection between your art and give it it’s own identity. This is called ‘Branding Your Art’. So whenever you start to think of creating a new artwork to add to your portfolio, start considering how this new artwork will add something new and at the same time be instantly YOU. How would the people instantly recognize it as YOU? All famous digital artists somehow have a touch to their art that sets them apart. Whether it’s the quality, choices of color, or even style, choose an aspect of your art that will continually make you different than the artists around you. If you are considering to make a living out of digital art, you would want your art to be different than all other competitors out there who are actually, whether you know it or not, are competing for the same job.

Eventually, people would want to come back and see your artwork and clients would want to hire you because you are exceptionally different. They pay you because you bring something different to the table, something that very few artists can offer. I am not talking about giving the same theme to your entire art portfolio or altering any messages behind it, but instead try to make your art an extension of who you are. Think of all the great masters in traditional art history and how they have so many different artworks portraying different messages, yet each artist can be recognized by his/her painting. That is what i would encourage you to start doing. Learning will be something that you will always be part of when creating digital art because you have to be up-to-date with the latest technologies, but at one point you have to decide on what your art will be recognized by. How would you want people to remember your art? All these are questions that you must start asking yourself.

Presenting Your Art

I can’t stress how important is to present your art. Even with online portfolios, digital artists who have personalized portfolios are usually the winners. The way you present your portfolio is as important as your art itself. You have to place your art in a grand setting, a setting that would make your art glow. Many clients hired digital artists, who might not had the best art, but definitely knew how to present it. Presenting your art, whether it’s online or in real life, is important because it ties in with the very first point mentioned above about understanding yourself. This is what you should start thinking about. If you really love your art, you would want to present it the best. The way you present your art shows a lot about how much you value it.