I’ve penned and spoken thoroughly about branding. I do not contemplate myself to be a branding pro by any stretch, but as I have worked to develop branding for Xanadu Gallery and RedDotBlog.com, I have figured out rather a bit about the branding approach. I have also uncovered how significant branding can be when you are generating a relationship with art prospective buyers.
In today’s post, I would like to address a branding concern that comes up very frequently in romance to branding for artists:
Should really an artist use his or her very own name when building a brand name, or is it a great notion to make a enterprise name and manufacturer around that name instead?
The most frequent form of the concern I hear is irrespective of whether it is okay to use the artist’s studio name instead of just employing the artist’s identify.
I can fully grasp where the question is coming from. There is anything very alluring about generating a organization name and applying it for branding reasons. I remember the excitement my spouse and I felt when, in 2001, we made the decision to open a gallery. It was a lot of enjoyable pondering about how the gallery would be organized and how we would consider to make it various from other galleries. We assumed about the variety of artwork we would have, the site, the format of the gallery and about a million other items you have to imagine about when you are opening a new business enterprise. We distilled all of these feelings into a small business system and began functioning toward getting the gallery off the ground.
At some level, we decided it was time to come up with a identify for the gallery, and, incredibly, the naming system turned out to be 1 of the most agonizing areas of the total launch system. A name is so critical, and at the time you find a identify and have signals and letterhead created, you are rather a lot caught with it. Naming is a little something you definitely want to get proper.
I recall paying times brainstorming about names. We initially believed about what we did not want to use. We resolved working with our name or final identify, as some galleries do, wasn’t going to get the job done. My past title, Horejs, is each unpronounceable if examine and unspellable if read. With that out of the way, we started off thinking about everything else we could contact the gallery. We need to have come up with hundreds of names, and sorting by means of all of them was a authentic chore. Finally we landed on one particular that we imagined was great. It distilled into a one phrase precisely what we wished to convey through our gallery identify: “Quintessence.” “Quintessence Gallery.” It experienced, we assumed, a pleasant ring to it.
We questioned our lawyer to sign-up the title with the condition corporation fee. By some cosmic coincidence, a person had registered the actual title various weeks previously. What are the likelihood that we would have imagined of the very same name for a gallery at just about particularly the very same time a person else?
Of study course, now I am very joyful that we did not stop up with the name – it does not audio practically as excellent in retrospect as it did at the time, and can you think about how expensive a indicator with 19 letters would be!?
Now we experienced to go again to our list of names and test yet again. I desire there was a good story about the flash of inspiration that guide us to Xanadu Gallery, but the reality is my mother-in-legislation observed the term “Xanadu” on a personalized license plate and reported, “How about ‘Xanadu’!?” The identify stuck.
As soon as we experienced a identify, we obtained to do the job on emblem layout, stationery, business enterprise cards, and our site. It was a great deal of enjoyment, and setting up Xanadu’s brand has been an endeavor of appreciate at any time given that.
That is a long way of stating I can fully have an understanding of why an artist may possibly choose to name her studio and then think about setting up a brand name all around the studio name. It’s enjoyable to employ your creativeness in coming up with a title in its place of employing the one particular your mom and dad caught you with, and, let us deal with it, “Last Prospect Studio” has a lot more pizzazz than “Jane Smith, Artist.”*
*(my apologies to any artists named “Jane Smith” who are looking at this short article – it’s a perfectly wonderful name!)
Unlike other firms, as an artist, you are your brand name
In spite of this, I’m heading to strongly propose that you construct your branding all-around your identify, instead than around a studio name. Compared with other enterprises, as an artist, you are your model. When collectors see your perform, they are going to feel a link to you, the artist, even if they have never ever satisfied you. Artwork is a pure sort of interaction – your eyesight is heading by the viewer’s eyeballs, straight into his brain, and it is likely to stir an emotion. The link is going to truly feel quite personalized, and that collector is going to want know your title, not your organization title.
Art is one of the very last points a human remaining can get that has not been engineered by a marketing committee and mass-created in a factory. Making use of your title is likely to assistance convey this information.
Mainly because you are your brand, I endorse maintaining the highlight on your self. Use your identify on your playing cards, your brochures, and your portfolio. Try to get a website URL that includes your title. The much more your potential buyers see your identify, the a lot more they’re going to bear in mind you.
Can you develop a enterprise name to use in addition to your name? Positive! There is no rationale you just can’t have your cake and take in it much too. I would recommend that you use the studio or small business title in subordination to your identify. You could incorporate it below your title in your promoting components, as a sort of subtitle.
There may possibly be causes that you would want to disregard this advice. If you are not concentrated on producing just one-of-a-kind will work and have a creation studio set up where by workforce are assisting you crank out work, a studio title could make more feeling. This is primarily accurate if the organization might one day be offered to someone else.
A further exception to the rule would be if your title is impossibly extended or elaborate. Even then, I would propose considering about switching your identify or developing a pseudonym all over which you can construct your manufacturer.
Do you have a studio title you use instead of your specified name in advertising? What designed you make your mind up to do so? Did you believe about using a enterprise title for internet marketing and then come to a decision not to? Why? Share your experiences, ideas, views, and random ramblings in the opinions below!
