Personal Branding: how would you describe your Ideal You

[Chip Valecek]

I have always said "Creativity is my Passion" and with that I do anything I want as long as its creative

[Jason Bowen]

@carriecopa haha thats great. You tell yourself you should be open to other things within art but I think that should be an under thought if the option comes up... maybe? haha

[Randy Smith]

Thanks, Simona, Your question has given me a lot to think about and also to realize what a poor job I have been doing at communicating who I am and why I am asking someone to spend time to look at my work. But after thinking about this for a while, it seems logical to me that my personal branding must also include those qualities that will appeal to the person or persons willing to trade their cash for my product/services. In my case, that is an agent or art director who has found my work somehow and has paused to take a look. I would think my “anchor statement” doesn’t need to just include the type of illustrations I do or want to do. My portfolio has gotten their attention. I need to provide the information that is music to their ears. What would I like for an art director to tell another art director about his or her experience with me? Seems to me those things should be in my anchor statement. Maybe something like dependable, able to meet deadlines, mature, easy to work with, accomplished, and maybe something like “the most patient and understanding dude I ever worked with.” An example? “An accomplished illustrator that communicates well, who understands you are in charge, but one who is not timid in expressing ideas, an illustrator who will give you more than you expected.” Just thinking out loud.

[Alicia Spilde]

I want to bring a smile to those that look at my illustrations. The real world is such a heavy place, and anything to bring a little joy is what I want to put out to others. I like to illustrate things from life but with a fun/humorous/sweet twist.

My statement would be something like: "Illustrations that lighten reality."

[Nathan]

hehe, something I can help with.

Firstly, we all know personal branding is important (so we've been told)...but why?

Before you start to reach out to people and tell them why you are worth hiring/buying from, you need to be clear who you are:

• What makes you and your work unique?
• What value do you bring to the world?
• Why should the right people care?

This message should be clear, and it needs to be consistent. Whether its

• On your website
• Within your social accounts
• Any books and prints you make
• Any conventions you attend
• Any interviews you give
• When you reach out to people

When coming up with your personal brand you want to be able to make it as easy as possible for the rest of the world to spread your work. For your work to spread, your personal brand needs to be Remarkable. That is people need to be able to remark on your work/brand. IE. 'Worth telling others about.'

A personal brand is designed to make it as easy as possible for other people to describe what you do. People are going to talk about what you do anyway, however, if you aren't clear in your message, they will get it wrong, half right, or wont get it at all.

If you aren't clear on what you do and what makes you unique, how do you expect others to?

So in short, the way you should think of a personal brand is:

• What people say about you and your work when you are not around
• What people can expect from your professionally
• What people come to know you for.

The reason people say "create an anchor statement" is one sentence is easier to remember (and share) than a whole convoluted story.

So how do you come up with all this. Here are some things you should ask yourself:

• What is your background? List unique professional talents, insights, defining moments in your life, what you respect in others, unique perspectives you have, expertise, what people come to you for advice about.

• What are your values? List core values, what you are passionate about, beliefs, loves, hates, character traits that are important to you, what you stand for

• What is your body of work? List what you have already created, what you are proud of, what you have learnt, stories/messages you want to tell, themes/genres etc that show up, what do fans know that are going to get, what fans will never find, unique attributes, why they should seek you out over others

• What is your legacy? List what people can be sure of when they hire you, why you want to be known for, your impact on audiences, unique value, where you want to be in five years.

Go through all these and write and go into as much detail as possible. Start to look for patterns and repititions in what you write. List down the patterns and repetitions. What are the themes of the repititions and patterns. What is consistent throughout what you have written?

Hone all this down till you have a small group of words and phrases that sum you up. Bring it all together to create a susinct sentence that you want other people to use to describe your and your work.

How does it feel to you? Does it feel right? If you think there is something missing, then go back and fine tune things. Once you are happy with it (or if you are a perfectionist - 90% happy with it) then you are done. You have your "anchor statement". Your personal brand in a nutshell

[kaitlinmakes]

I wonder if at first it's like finding your style - first you just do the thing and post and then go back and reflect on your posts to see what's coming forward naturally - and then work to punch those small things forward.
But a lot of you here are tried and true illustrators, so it's a different game for you or is it? It sounds like a nice wine night to go and sift through old work and posts to see what personality is coming out and to try and verbalized it - or a fun art friend day where you both examine each other's work and talk about the themes you see - man, art friends are the best - looking at you @burvantill
I would LOVE to hear @Will-Terry @Lee-White @davidhohn and @Jake-Parker 's "elevator pitches."

[kaitlinmakes]

@nathan
This is so great!

[smceccarelli]

@nathan This is an absolutely awesome process! I will go through this and see what I can come up with! Career hopping make it ever so complicated, but I do think your process will help to extract elements from each career that make me me in the illustration world....
And while we’re at it, do you have any tips what to do with an ancient Linked-In profile, heavy with a large professional network (600 people or so) in a career you’re no longer in? How do I recycle it to use it in my new career? Like I have almost 100 endorsements for medical research....That´s going to be so confusing for ADs if I start building my network in that direction....

[smceccarelli]

I think I got it...or at least a good first stab. Here my prospective anchor statement and the reasons behind each word:

What´s interesting for me is what I decided to leave out. I left out that I also work as Art Director. It´s in a completely different field and the word „professional“ should be enough to tell people I know what art directors want.
I kept „cultures“ in at the moment, though it´s an odd word....but being a TCK (third culture kid) and living in an extremely international environment makes up a big part of my personality and the way I approach art - so I decided to leave it in. Also, I like the alliteration. I could add something about working for global clients, but maybe it´s not needed. I left out any reference to science and my previous career. Although my agent thinks non-fiction is the right fit for me, I’m not sure I really want to box myself there. And to be fully honest, art, history, storytelling and social phenomena interest me much more nowadays. I left „writer“ out, because I haven’t sold any of my writing yet...so it wouldn’t go with „professional“.

English usage question. Can you only say „get a kick out of....“ or can you just leave it like this?

It does sound true to me...maybe a bit clunky, but workable? What do you think?

[burvantill]

@smceccarelli said in Personal Branding: how would you describe your Ideal You:

English usage question. Can you only say „get a kick out of....“ or can you just leave it like this?

It translates just fine in English.

[jimsz]

I’m sorry, I think a lot of this is simply artists trying to be artsy and playing a role.

I used to know an artist who worked for a world level studio as head of one of their divisions. His whole “statement” was that he liked to draw.

Maybe in fine arts an artists statement may mean something (and I am not convinced of that either). To me, if I look at a website I never read the statements, can the person draw and do I like their art. But then again, maybe I am simplistic!

[smceccarelli]

@jimsz I think your perspective is perfectly valid. Yet, an artist working at a studio would not need any branding because he`s either not looking for clients or his clients come to him in virtue of his experience and legacy. Branding is not something you declare to the world in any way - it’s something you keep for yourself and use it to inform the way you present yourself and your work. And presenting yourself is something that you need to do if you want to get anybody interested in paying you for your skills and creativity.
All the successful freelancers I know have a consistent face...behind which there is some kind of implicit or explicit self-awareness of who they are and what they like doing, even if they never express it explicitly (though many do).
For artists that are just beginning to move their steps in the freelance professional world, it can be difficult to settle for a specific identity. It definitely is for me: I’ve done too many different things within and outside art. So this exercise is just to help me think over how I want to be seen.
It certainly doesn’t work for everyone, but I do feel I need this and I appreciate the conversation!

[Nathan]

@smceccarelli looking great. I think you can refine your first sentence a bit more to make it clear what you are about. Something like "I'm a professional children's illustrator who loves to explore color, global cultures, and storytelling."

You can still include the concept behind coffee that you explain, however, I think it might be too vague to present within your brand...

Again, come back to other people saying the above sentence about you. If people say, oh he likes coffee, its more about the coffee rather than the concept of working hard, hitting schedules and balancing it with a social life that you were trying to convey.

Regarding LinkedIn, I don't really have enough experience with using for completely career changes to give advice, however, if you create a new forum thread (so not to derail this one), I'd be more than happy to brainstorm

[burvantill]

@smceccarelli
I believe that it is a smart marketing tool to know oneself and how to portray that self to potential clients. I think that this has nothing to do with art and everything do with business. I’m glad that you started this thread. Your breakdown of your “first stab” has helped me wrap my brain around what is needed in the brand.
I’m also thinking that in addition to portraying what/who you are that it serves as a mission statement as well. A chance to keep from getting stuck or stagnant. Always growing. Maybe... these are just the wandering thoughts of a tired mind.
Here is my first stab;
I professionally illustrate for the minds of children and the minds of adults who see with a child’s eye, striving to be outrageously captivating.

[smceccarelli]

@burvantill I love the „outrageously captivating“! I interpret is as a mix of being original and unexpected and yet appealing or „approachable“ as my agent would say...is that the thought behind?

[smceccarelli]

@nathan Thank you so much for the feedback! I understand that what coffee represents for me is by no means what it means to other people, so away with it. I like the „global cultures“. I think that fits well to the fact that I feel completely out-of-place in the local illustration world (partly because I’m not a Swiss native, partly because I studied in the US, and partly because they are a whiny bunch).

[burvantill]

@smceccarelli YES!!
It’s also something like a reminder for me. Lately I’ve been taking stock of my work, trying to find what’s sets me apart or makes me stand out and realizing, not much. So I ask myself what do I need to do? My first mental gut reaction was, be outrageous. Shock people. I do that for fun all the time in my personal life, so it shouldn’t be too hard to apply that to my art. And stupid me why haven’t I been doing it already? I’ve been playing it safe. The U.S. is FULL of people who are easily offended (California is full of whiners too, mostly on the coast ) and as a smart business owner you don’t want to go around offending people. But I think I am capable of toning it down and being appropriately outrageous. We’ll see. I should make a t-shirt for myself that says “appropriately outrageous”.

[chrisaakins]

@smceccarelli this thread is fascinating. Thank you for creating it. After reading all this I am finding that I have not decided on enough things to even begin to take this step. I am still exploring my artwork to decide what I want to do. But I really appreciate seeing those a few steps ahead of me clear the path forward. I am very late coming to the art scene. I was always a natural talent, but I ran from art in my youth because I was told I would be a starving artist. I pursued education instead and have loved it. I entered back into it as a teacher. I feel like I got part of my self back that was always missing. I am finding that I still have a lot to learn but that my instincts are good, even if they need refining. But enough about me... Sorry!
I really like how you refined your statement. I am not sure the coffee translates to hard work, but I like the personal touch of it. It makes you sound fun and engaging, that you enjoy life. Is this more for a personal mission statement? Or is this about what you put on your website/portfolio? As an AD what were you looking for?

[smceccarelli]

@chrisaakins That´s a cool career in itself. And teaching could be your strong point...that’s something I struggle to embrace (tutorials, etc... I’ve tried but I’m still very unconvinced).
The reflection is only for myself. I’m not going to write this on any wall, though maybe it will affect the way I re-write my bio or craft my short profiles.
I just feel the need to re-define my direction and refine my self-promotion for next year - and the year-holiday seems the perfect time for this.

I’ve been doing my first trade book this year and massive amounts of educational work (as in: educational book illustration for school books, etc..) but I’m still not in the position to leave my day job. That´s quite normal and fine, but I wonder if I can accelerate things a bit. Maybe there are activities I should drop (writing?). Maybe there are others I should initiate (licensing?). So I just wanted to facilitate a self-reflection exercise and maybe come out of the New-Year´s hangover with a fresh promotion strategy...

[Teju Abiola]

@jimsz I think you might be doing yourself a disservice. Branding is like a mission statement or statement of purpose; it describes what you are, and is helpful in clarifying what is actually important to you and then work you do. For that guy maybe the most important thing was that he likes to draw, and since you said you only care that artist draw well, I'd have thought that would be a perfect statement for your preference.

I don't think artist statements are artists trying to be artsy, and I think you might have read some bad ones, if they didn't clarify what the work meant. Query letters to publishers, book introductions/prefaces/forwards, and director's commentary's in film do a similar thing as artist statements. They give context to the work and clarifies the artist's intent. Since most—if not all art—made by the artist with the intention of trying to communicate something other than technical ability, I've found they explain a lot about why the work even exists or why the create at all.

I'm working on my thesis project and am required to write an artist statement, which I never had done for anything before, and having to really explain myself to others clearly has helped me unify my work and bring clarity to myself as to what I'm even trying to accomplish.

It helps explain what you are, what you do, and why you are doing it. I'd give writing one a shot, if I were you. Trying to distill what you are as an artist into a concrete statement is an interesting experience I feel can only benefit an illustrator.

It's also kind of like a cover letter too, now that I think about it.