The Cloud Gallery - Artist Tony Schaefer - Articles

Do you need an Artist Brand? I don’t really know, but at this point I am open to trying out anything that might give me access to a wider audience. I think it doesn’t take a lot of time and I feel you don’t have too much to lose by getting it set up.

Branding is mostly tied to marketing and selling stuff. While selling my art would be great, it’s not my guiding concern, otherwise I’d be painting small, detailed still life. At least that seems to be what is selling, at the time of writing this.

What I like about all the artist branding information is that you are always being asked to question who you think you are and who your audience is. In order to get a handle on where you are in the art marketplace, I have some things to try. Let’s break it down.

1) What’s your niche Interest? (for me this would be “A Course In Miracles”)

2) What’s my Subject? (no longer “spiritual” because of all the baggage that is associated with it. Yet my subject would fall into “esoteric”, “mystical” and “transformational”)

3) What’s my Style? (Symbolism or Abstraction)

All this will go together with these questions: What do I Value? (For me this is communication and transformation) How’s my Attitude? (I used to be very cynical, toward the art world and being successful but that has changed. I’d say “open” but I have to work at staying that way because I usually prefer my own company. This can change and should be checked from time to time. What’s my Passion? (Awakening and spiritual transformation) What’s my Purpose? (I like to question the nature of reality and beliefs systems) Think of Six (6) words that Describe You. (helpful, happy, inquisitive, open, care free, trustworthy). Once again these can change over time and you can adjust all of the above anytime. Remember this is for YOU not your customer. It’s meant to help you focus on how to find your audience, so you can best direct your energy.

Let’s look at some practical stuff that you can do or may need to put into place, so you can start reaching a worldwide audience.

Just to give you some idea about what I have in place. First, a website (√). It is set up to accept payment for my artwork (√). I have social media accounts, twitter (√), facebook (x) I refuse to use it any longer, ello (√), behance (√). E-mail List (√), I use Mail chimp to send out updates to my mailing list.

In terms of creating your Artist Brand, keep it simple and uniform. I only use one font (Georgia) for everything. I have a dark website (Charcoal Grey) which isn’t great for reading but I feel it’s better for looking at art. Your logo for the website and as a signature for emails should also be simple and have good contrast and also work at large and small sizes.

This is my new logo. I am using binary language to express the digital nature of this medium and it reads “The Cloud Gallery”, it’s meant to add another dimension to the logo. OK, so it isn’t THAT simple but I think it is a better expression of what I am trying to say. I like to change this every now and then but I guess a good brand and logo should stand the test of time, but for me a brand doesn't need to be permanent but it’s good if it reflects who you are as an artist.

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