Personal Branding for Creatives: Tips from a Designer

Branding for creatives is about a lot more than creating a logo or choosing a beautiful color palette. It starts with clearly defining why you’re in business, who you’re in business to help, and what you want to help them accomplish.

For creatives, this creative process is a deeply personal journey that aligns your vision and personality with your business goals. Whether you’re a photographer, artist, or another creative professional, I’ll share how you can build a personal brand that not only stands out but also resonates with your target audience 🎨

The Foundations of Branding for Creatives: Defining Your Why, Who, and What

86% of people prefer an authentic and honest brand personality on social media. To connect with potential clients and make them trust you, creative professionals need to cultivate a strong brand identity that reflects who they are and what they stand for.

When people see your personal brand as genuine, they’re more likely to resonate with you on a deeper level. Most importantly, there’s no one like you. This authenticity also differentiates you from other artists and creative professionals, helping you attract clients who resonate with your true self. This ultimately leads to more meaningful and fulfilling work.

To create personal branding that authentically expresses who you are & your core values, you need to define your why, who, and what. It’s essential to do this before starting to design your logo, choosing your fonts, and creating other marketing materials.

Your Why

Why do you do what you do? What is your deeper purpose, beyond the obvious need to make a living? If you want to build a successful personal brand, you need to define your “why” – the driving force behind everything you do. It doesn’t have to be something unrealistically big (ex: “I want to change the world!”). It just has to be true to your authentic self and personal experiences.

Try asking yourself the following questions:

• What passions drive me to do what I do?
• What unique skills or talents do I bring to my work?
• What values are important to me?
• What kind of impact do I want to have on my audience’s lives?
• Why did I choose to do what I do instead of something else?
• How does my work make me feel?

As a creative professional, your unique value proposition is often your personality and authentic vision. So, dig deeper into who you are as a person and why you do what you do so you can reflect that in your creative branding.

Your Who

Next, you need to clearly define your ideal audience. It’s helpful to understand their demographics (age, occupation, location, etc.), but you should focus more on understanding who your target audience is as human beings. What do they want? What do they struggle with? How does your work help them? What do you want them to feel when they come across your personal brand?

Your visual identity is your way of communicating with your audiences and online communities. Color improves brand recognition by up to 80%, but before you create your color palette and other brand assets, you need to make sure that they’re speaking to your target audience and resonate with them.

When you work with me to discover your brand, this is something that we cover in our Brand Strategy Workshop 👋

Your What

Finally, define what you want to help your clients achieve. This is your mission and the promise you make to your clients. It should be specific and actionable, giving potential clients a clear understanding of how their lives or businesses will improve by working with you.

How does your work make a difference? What kind of outcomes can your clients expect? What is the transformation that you offer? While your services and products will evolve over time, your purpose will stay the same.

The Brand Identity Design Process

Your personal brand identity is the collection of all visual and brand messaging elements that create a specific image of who you are and what you stand for. 

It includes everything from the logo, color palette, and typography to your message and overall visual style. Whether you’re a photographer or an artist, your creative branding should create a cohesive and visually appealing look that attracts loyal clients.

The Elements of Your Visual Identity

Brand identity design typically involves creating the following elements:

• Primary Logo: The main visual symbol of your personal brand.
• Secondary Logos: Variations of your primary logo for different uses.
• Submark: A simplified version of your logo, often used for smaller applications.
• Brand Icon: A unique symbol that represents your brand.
• Brand Colors: A set of colors that represent your brand.
• Brand Fonts: The typefaces you use in your communications.
• Brand Elements/Patterns/Illustrations/Backgrounds: Visual elements that add personality and consistency to your brand.
• Business Card: To share with prospective clients.
• Brand Guidelines Document: A comprehensive guide to how your brand should be presented across all mediums (website, social media platforms, etc.)
• Marketing Collateral: Other promotional materials like brochures, social media graphics, and packaging that reflect your personal branding.

When I work with creatives, each branding process is different depending on your industry, target audience, and business goals. You can learn more about what my standard brand design package includes on my services page! 😊

The Role of Personal Taste and Inspiration

As a creative, your personal branding process is different from that of a big corporate brand. While it’s undeniably important to keep your target audience and business goals in mind, your personal taste and inspiration are powerful tools that can make your brand identity more unique and help you grow a loyal following.

Balancing Personal Taste with Client Needs

When designing your personal brand, it’s essential to strike a balance between what you love and what will resonate with your clients. This is how you ensure that your brand feels authentic to you while also establishing credibility and attracting the people you want to attract. Balancing who you naturally are with what your wider audience is looking for is how you find your unique voice!

Finding Inspiration in the Creative Process

Whether you’re working with a designer or creating your personal branding yourself, it’s helpful to browse for inspiration to inform your brand vision. Pinterest, websites & social media profiles of other creatives, visual arts & history, or even nature can all help you get ideas for graphic design and how it can look on different platforms.

Creating a Cohesive Brand Experience

When it comes to personal branding, consistency is key. It takes 5 to 7 impressions to produce brand awareness, so your brand must have a cohesive website, social media presence, online portfolio, and other touchpoints to resonate with your audience and build you a positive reputation. When someone interacts with your brand, it should feel clear, streamlined, and consistent!

Documenting Your Brand Guidelines

Once you craft your personal branding, it’s helpful to create a brand guidelines document that outlines everything from your logo usage to your tone of voice in communications. You can explain how to properly use your logo in different contexts, the exact colors to use and how to apply them, ways to pair your fonts, and more.

Having documented brand guidelines is helpful for you as a business owner, but it’s also a great way to ensure brand consistency if you ever hire a personal assistant, a social media manager, or someone else to help you with your marketing.

Curating Your Customer Journey

Consider all the touchpoints where people interact with your brand. This includes your website, social media profiles, email newsletters, and any physical products you produce (for example, if you’re an artist who creates live wedding paintings). Going from one point to another should feel seamless and consistent!

• Website: Make sure that your website design consistently reflects your brand identity and update it regularly to keep your target audience in the loop on your availability and the latest news.
• Social Media: Use your brand colors, fonts, and imagery style consistently across all platforms.
• Email Marketing: Make sure your emails reflect your brand’s visual and verbal identity.
• Packaging: If you sell physical products, your packaging should be an essential part of your brand experience.

A curated customer journey is a sure way to sign your most loyal clients yet! 🤩

The Importance of Storytelling

So far in this article, we’ve been focusing on the visual identity of your personal brand. However, branding for creatives also includes brand messaging and storytelling that highlight your purpose, values, and unique personality.

Your messaging should complement your visual style so that all parts of your identity make sense together. For example, if your brand visuals are earthy and sophisticated, your brand messaging shouldn’t be overly bold and loud. On the other hand, if your branding is colorful and bright, consider matching it with playful and catchy messaging!

Evolving Your Personal Brand

You grow as a person & professional, every day, and your personal brand is not static, either. As your business changes, your brand may need to be refreshed or even rebranded to stay relevant and aligned with who you are.

It’s expected that your brand will need regular refreshes over time, such as website tweaks and color updates, especially if you create new services or products. If you make significant shifts in your business, such as changing your target audience or rethinking the concept behind your brand, you’ll likely need a comprehensive rebrand that reflects your evolved brand vision.

Examples of Personal Branding for Creatives

Devin Tormey Art

Devin Tormey is a live wedding painter based out of Massachusetts, serving couples in Boston, New England, and all over the United States. She captures and creates heartfelt, handcrafted, heirloom-quality live wedding paintings for her clients to celebrate their unique moments. We worked together to create earthy yet sophisticated personal branding and a Showit website to connect with higher-end clients and grow her business.

Barefoot Royalty Photography

Barefoot Royalty Photography is a wedding, elopement, and couples photographer based near Savannah, Georgia. The creative behind the brand, Christine, works to capture the romantic and madly in love. We worked together to create high-end, romantic, and coastal-inspired personal branding and Showit website to highlight her unique style and attract more clients.

Native Landscapes & Gardens

Native Landscapes and Gardens is a landscape and garden design company in Cleveland, Ohio that provides clients with sustainable, eco-friendly designs that incorporate easy-to-maintain native plants. We worked together to create a brand identity that communicated sustainability and harmony in a sophisticated way that inspired trust in Native’s target audience.

FAQs

How do you brand yourself as a creative?

Branding yourself as a creative is a deeply personal and intentional process that requires multiple steps. Before you create your visual identity elements, such as your logo and color palette, it’s essential to get clear on the foundations of your personal brand. Begin by clearly understanding your “why” – the passion and purpose behind what you do – and identify your ideal client so you can speak directly to them. Then, design a cohesive brand identity with a unique logo, color palette, and typography. Weave your authentic personality and story into your creative branding and make sure that you use it consistently across all marketing channels.

How to do branding as an artist?

To brand yourself as an artist, you need to blend your unique artistic vision with strategic marketing elements. Get clear on why you create art and what you want people to feel when they come across your brand. Reflect your vision in your branding elements, such as your logo, brand colors, and fonts. At the same time, your visual identity also needs to speak to your target audience and establish trust with them. If you don’t know where to start, browse my portfolio for inspiration because I often work with artists and creatives.

How can I turn myself into a brand?

Branding yourself as a creative can often be a strange process because it can sometimes feel like you’re putting a facade between yourself and your audience. You need to align your personal and professional identities into one cohesive vision and then reflect it in visual elements like your logo, color scheme, and typography. That said, creating your personal branding and making it reflect your authentic story can feel confusing and hard. If you want support, learn more about my brand and website design services!

Ready to Create Your Unique Brand Identity?

Branding for creatives is a deep and comprehensive process that involves talent and skill. While some creatives prefer to do it themselves, working with a brand identity and website designer gives you a much more professional result. Learn more about my services to get started!