Artist As Brand Part 5 - Declaring My Name!

Originally posted at ShadowScript: The Art Blog of Angela R. Sasser

My reading of Greg Spalenka's Artist As Brand continues with section V.  Declare Your Name - Taglines, Blurbs, Business Cards.

Spalenka gives a plethora of examples about how a business name can say a lot about you, but also cautions about being influenced by your 'tribe' to change what your identity represents.

I experienced this exact thing when showing off my logo from this workshop to my family.  They all saw a shrimp or a squid.  I'll admit to an aquatic vibe to my logo, but I still feel it represents me very nicely.  I won't be changing it any more than it takes to bring it more towards a wing/cocoon/seed vibe.  Feedback can be helpful, but it can also be dangerous, especially when you respect the critiquers!  It ends up being more about pleasing them than your original idea, if you aren't careful.

A more serious example would be my past experiences with being cautioned away from the book cover industry by very embittered artists I respected.  These artists were my 'tribe' and they were so very detrimental to my development.  Stick to your core beliefs!  This is all about having faith in your ideas and skills.

Next up, taglines.  I've never really had one before and I feel that has been to my detriment!  My 'Angelic Shades' name was a catch-all I started years ago for all of my art, but now I realize that using it this way just made it a very unclear brand with an unclear target audience.

Now, it seems I've splintered my business into several brands, all which I can link back into some form or fashion to my core virtue of 'unlocking potential through discovery'.  Here are the taglines I came up with for them:

Angelic Shades Studio (My Art Nouveau and angelic art brand)
Creator of Whimsical Art Nouveau and Angelic Art for Classical Souls.Angelic Artisan (My masks and leather crafts brand)
Revealing the Being Within through Masquerade.

Angela Sasser Art (Fantasy covers and character art brand. This brand will possibly combine my fantasy author identity as well, should I ever choose to publish any stories.)
Exploring Humanity through Mythic Visions.

The Muse's Library (A new brand I'm working on inspired by this workshop!)
Creative Resources for Artists by an Artist.

Thinking about these concepts has helped me better understand what I'm attempting to do with my varied areas of interests and creative output.  (You guys remember that CRAZY Vision Board I did).

Somewhere along the way with this workshop, I realized yet another facet within Angelic Shades and that is my passion for providing resources (reviews, stock art, etc.) for other artists.  I've finally given this passion a name in the form of The Muse's Library, thanks to this workshop.  More on that later!

Other useful info included in this section:

• Strategies for engaging people in conversation that extends beyond "I draw stuff" (aka. your 30 second elevator speech/blurb). This is especially useful if you're bad at small talk, like most artists I know, including myself!
• Tips for creative and unusual business card design.