Hey Artists! It’s time to get serious about your career.

Your art is one thing; your brand is another. And the two are not necessarily related.

Your art may be amazing in its own right, but if you don’t care about branding it, no one else will.

KEEPING IT PROFESSIONAL

If you want to maintain a professional artist brand, you have to think like a professional artist. That means:

* You must maintain a website that’s specifically geared toward showcasing your work and building your brand.

* You must regularly engage with fans or patrons on social media. (It doesn’t matter if you hate Facebook or Instagram – if it works for your audience, use it.)

* You must maintain an online presence on any site where other artists are congregating. This includes online galleries, forums, blogs and more. And it includes offline events like conventions, festivals and openings. (Yes, you can network with other artists at openings; they aren’t just for buyers.)

* You must promote yourself through all available channels – including in person at gallery shows and events as well as through more traditional media outlets such as magazines and newspapers. (This doesn’

Artists are always looking for the secret to success, and there is no secret. There are only hard-won lessons.

While there are a great many books on how to be a professional artist, most of them don’t say much about branding. It’s the missing piece of the puzzle for artists.

Branding is not about creating ads or logos or even product design. Branding is about defining who you are and what you do in terms that people will remember.

You can have an effective brand without ever using it in public. And if your brand is working, you may never need to say anything more than “My name is (insert name) and I’m an artist.” But branding is not just for you. It’s also for your team and everyone who works with you or has contact with your work at any time.(image:http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F9fjKgW8LpU/V5U6wqj3qFI/AAAAAAAAI0Y/1Rsjj0uX7lM/s1600/artbox-blog-banner1.png)

Tone:professional

You’ve decided to be an artist. Good for you! That’s a really great decision. Now the hard part: how to stay an artist.

As an artist, you need to remember that you’re selling something. What are you selling? Art! (Duh.) But also yourself. In some cases, you’re selling your art and yourself as a package deal, as a brand-name artist or studio.

All of this is bad news if it makes you uncomfortable. Making art is supposed to be fun! If it’s not fun anymore, stop doing it. The art world doesn’t need more people who aren’t having fun—it has plenty already (and I’m one of them!). But if the idea of branding and marketing makes you feel sick, or like you’re selling out, then I have some good news for you: You don’t have to do it! Plenty of artists never do any branding at all and they still manage to make a living from their art—it’s just a lot harder than it needs to be.

I’m not saying that all artists should market themselves; I’m saying that all artists need to think about marketing themselves because if they don’t, no one else will do it for them. If you’re not

There are lots of reasons you might want to blog about your art. Maybe you just want to tell your story and give people a chance to get to know you and your work. Maybe you’re looking for a way to show off some of your work, or demonstrate your capabilities. Maybe you need a place to post your resume. Or maybe you’re hoping that once they’ve heard what an awesome artist you are, people will buy something from you.

Whatever the reason, blogging is a great way to keep track of your art and share it with the world. As long as you have an internet connection, there’s no reason why you can’t start a blog today!

I think the idea of “branding” has been taken too literally. It’s not that your work is so special that it needs its own unique brand, like Coca-Cola or Apple.

Everything you make starts out new and is shaped by the ideas of other people who see it. That process never ends – it’s what art is about. The point is to have a good idea of how to keep your work from being too easily distorted or misunderstood by the inexact ways people talk about it. It’s possible, but it takes some effort.

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This blog tries to give artists practical advice on things they can do — right now — to help shape how their work gets seen. I’m a professional artist myself, and I’ve been thinking about these issues for a long time. But I’m also an engineer, so I tend to write in a language that’s more like instructions than an artistic manifesto.

The first thing to think about is what kind of artist you are. Are you a hobbyist or are you serious? Maybe you’re a painter, photographer, sculptor, musician or writer. Maybe you’re a designer or even a performer. What is it that you do?

The main thing you need to know, which I learned the hard way, is that there are a lot of people out there who are just waiting to call you an amateur. They’re like vultures. They’ll swoop in on a moment’s weakness and pick away at your self-confidence.

The first time someone called my art amateur, I was so embarrassed that I started to doubt myself. But then I realized that they were trying to hurt me by making me feel bad. And I decided to turn their insult into a compliment by embracing it. Now when someone calls my art amateurish, I tell them thank you for the helpful feedback.