Building your brand as a creator in 2021

[BrambleberrySquirrel]

How do you manage your brand as a creative person online? The idea for this thread is to share what works for you, get some ideas from others and share some constructive advice with each other.

Post:

• Your branding strategy
• The reasoning behind it
• What you'd like to add or improve on for 2021
• Any tips you have for newbies

You can include links to socials, watermarks etc as examples of how this strategy looks for you.

My branding strategy

Right now I post all my art on social media under my artist name "Brambleberry Squirrel". All my art whether its comics or not is signed with the same watermark. However, my comics are also under the umbrella "Golden Acorn Comics", which is the name I use for my Patreon, Tapas and Webtoon accounts. There are images and text on those pages making it clear that Brambleberry Squirrel (me) is the creator behind the comics brand though. In addition, my social media pages say "Creator behind Golden Acorn Comics" in the bio.

Reasoning behind my strategy

The reason I have my personal brand as an artist and a separate branding for comics is just to plan for the future. I'm planning on making more comics beyond just the one I'm working on at the moment. I'd also love to have the option down the road to work with other artists, writers etc on projects and have Golden Acorn Comics be sort of an independent studio name we could publish under. I've put a good amount of thought into it, but honestly have no idea if I'm doing this right. Any tips or constructive criticism would be appreciated.

Examples

Here's my newly updated watermark. This goes on all my art to avoid misappropriation/theft and to help people find me if they want to see more.

Here's a link where you can see all the ways I engage with people online: https://linktr.ee/Brambleberry_Squirrel

How I'd like to improve my brand for 2021

The one thing I'd like to add to my online presence for 2021 is some kind of art gallery/portfolio separate from social media. This would be a place where I'll post only my best finished work while I keep sketches and WIPs for my socials or behind the scenes patron exclusives depending on what projects they are from. I'm not sure what platform would work best for this though. In my case it may end up being Fur Affinity, just because of the particular niche my art fits into. But, their site seems really dated and not nearly as clean and easy to navigate as I'd like. If you have a recommendation for something like this please share it.

Tips and tricks

I'm pretty new to art, so my experience is limited. But here's what I can share.

• Sign your art please. I see so many artists who don't bother to sign any of their art at all. Every piece of art you make, even fan art, is a chance for you to build your brand and add members to your following.

• You can make a custom watermark brush in most digital art programs very quickly and easily. This way you can have a recognizable and standardized signature that only takes a moment to add to what you create. This helps you be more recognizable and can help you avoid people claiming your work as their own.

• You can download brand asset pngs for social media sites for free on their respective websites. This is another small detail you can add to your art along with your social media handles that makes it easier for people who like your art to find more of it and support you.

• Post your sketches and WIPs on social media on a regular basis. Even if they are very basic or rough, people who like your art are interested in what you're working on. They like to see how it's made rather than just seeing it magically birthed from the aether. Some of my most liked posts as well as ones that have gained me the most followers aren't even completed pieces. This also give people a reason to come back to your account later so that they can see how your projects are progressing.

How do you manage your online presence as a creator with an eye towards the future?

[EEdwing]

I like your watermark, but I know that there's another company that uses the same watermark as yourself called Bramble berry soaps, and whenever I read bramble berry that's the first thing that pops up in my mind. Just thought I would bring it up.

[TheGentleArtist]

• My branding strategy is to have everything I create be under my pen/artist name; so I put my art signatures down on my artworks and comics. This is the same for Deviantart, Ko-fi and etc.,

• The reasoning is to show ownership and avoid any kind of theft. Plus, visibility.

• Examples (I have changed around how I do my signatures. Before this, I just typed my signatures out on a different font):

  
  
  

• I do like to improve on: being more interactive in groups, taking more initiative on my plans, my art, my online presence.

• Some tips I learned:

• Put your signature close to your artwork so it is harder for it to be cropped out

• Make sure your signature is legible and memorable.

• It is best to be cautious when doing color digitally; most devices aren't able to catch certain colors separately and just mashes them together; so if you have a two or more monitor setup, switch between each one when you do a neat color combo.

• It is good to have a schedule.

• Push your color values.

• To find the right prices when you are going to start your commissions, make a base price then look how long it takes you to draw the types of art you offer. This helps so that you don't sell yourself short or go too expensive.

[BrambleberrySquirrel]

Thanks for the tip! I ran across them when I was naming my fursona/picking my pen name. Their branding images aren't anything similar to my watermark even though we share a similar name. I've looked over all their brand assets and don't see anything with acorns or squirrels in it thankfully. I'm thinking that since they make soap and I make furry art we probably won't run afoul of each other or get people confused. Then again, maybe I should start making squirrel shaped bars of soap just to confuse them lol.

This is definitely an important part of making your own personal brand that you should look out for. You don't want to be encroaching on someone else's territory, create a situation where people confuse you for another creator, or pick a name/brand image that is going to cause you legal headaches down the road.

[BrambleberrySquirrel]

Oh checking colors across multiple displays seems like a really smart idea. What do you mean by "push your color values" though? I'm not sure I understand.

[TheGentleArtist]

I got that from my art teacher. She told me that while I was making one of my pieces dark since the setting was during the night; she said to push my values so that I make it much darker than what I had it originally where it was still bright. It helped to show the light and shade element at a much greater degree.

So, that's what I meant with "push your color values.'

[BrambleberrySquirrel]

Ah I see what you mean. Yeah sometimes I go for subtle value differences and then discover that while to my eye there’s a big difference to non artists or people who just haven’t been staring at the piece for hours it’s not a dramatic enough distinction to catch the eye.

[BrambleberrySquirrel]

Thanks for linking this related topic. I’m just pasting the questions you asked there in case anyone can help you with them in this thread since they’re similar.

QUESTIONS!
What social media do you guys use for your comics?
Do you follow the progress?
Have you bought advertising, and was it useful?
What do you think is a reasonable goal of growth for 3 months with weekly updates?
Have you given up on any social media accounts, and after how long?
Any tips and advice?

[BrambleberrySquirrel]

So writing all this out and reading some feedback from you guys has already helped me get a bigger picture view of where I want to take things. Golden Acorn Comics as a brand name has been abandoned and I'm consolidating my brand down to one name, Brambleberry Squirrel. It's less confusing for readers, lets me keep my watermark, and doesn't tie me down as much. More flexibility is good. I'd still love to hear more about how the Tapas authors manage their brands and online presences though. This stuff can be so complicated that I almost want to figure out how to hire a temp social media manager just to sort it all out.

[Llyrel]

Oh, this is an interesting thread
I went through a "rebranding" fairly recently, about a year ago or so. Truth to be told, not much thought went behind the choice of my nickname: Llyrel was a name I made up for a RPG character I never got to play. It seemed to be available on most social media platforms I used, so I went with that. Had to use "llyrel_draws" as a variant in some places (like Twitter and Instagram), but other than that, I try to keep my nickname consistent everywhere I go, so that my stuff is easier to find.

I... don't really watermark my stuff. As my professor in Uni pointed out once, watermarks don't really do much to prevent theft: anyone who knows their way around Photoshop or any other digital art program could easily edit your pic to remove the signature, unless you make it so big that it covers a good chunk of your artwork (like it happens on sites like iStock and such). And honestly, even that wouldn't stop people from tracing your artwork. What I do instead is only upload smaller versions of my artworks: pictures are never larger than 800-900 px in height or width. My originals are usually much bigger than that, and all in print quality. If someone were to steal my art, I could easily demonstrate that I have the bigger, print format originals. I should definitely consider adding at least a little signature for people who want to find more of my stuff, though

As for my social media presence, I post my art mostly on Pillowfort and Instagram, these days, plus a few more places.

• Pillowfort is more of a personal blog type of thingy: you get my artworks and artwork WIPs, but also photography, resin stuff and other artsy things that aren't necessarily drawings. Given the more private nature of the site, it makes more sense for me to use a more relaxed approach on there. I also promote my comic on PF, though honestly what's been more successful on there are my watercolor pieces... even got to sell a few prints on Redbubble thanks to the Pillowfort people!
• Instagram is what I use for my finished or almost finished pieces. I try to join memes/challenges/events when I see one that I like and I use it to post teasers from my comic. Not sure how many people from Instagram actually click on my comic, but the posts themselves seem to do pretty well XD
• Deviantart is where I pretty much only post fanart nowadays. I've got a couple of witchy illustrations featuring characters from my comic, but I market them as "tarot card illustrations" rather than "OC drawings", since I never really had any success with my OCs on there XD the place is kind of a wasteland nowadays and only a few people still seem to care, but eh, I've been on the site for 13 years now and I'd feel bad deleting my account.
• TikTok is what I use to post WIP and speedpainting videos. I'm not an actor and English is not my first language, plus I refuse to show my face on there, so speedpaintings are all you're going to see XD I don't update often, so I don't have -huge- numbers, but so far I'm happy with the number of views and likes I have on there.

I also have a Carrd with links to all of my social media, my Redbubble shop, Patreon and comic. I used to have a Linktree before, but I think Carrd looks nicer and I LOVE how it lets you have different sections for each category: I can have a whole "page" dedicated to my comic with a proprer summary and links to all sites where it's being hosted, instead of just a list of links, and I think it's amazing.

So far, the biggest suggestion I can give beginners is:

Take your time to study each platform you decide to join, see what's popular and how to make it work for you. Try to figure out which is the best time to post, what are the popular tags people use, the kind of content people want to see on that particular platforms. Some platforms work better for fanart (Deviantart, Tumblr), others mostly care about consistency (Instagram), entertainment or tips and tricks (TikTok). Some platforms are better suited to talk about personal content (Pillowfort, Tumblr to a certain degree, your own personal Facebook page) while others are better used for professional stuff only (Twitter, your Facebook artist page). Also... picking a theme and sticking with it might be a good idea. Don't use your Instagram art page to post food pictures, don't suddenly turn your comic promotion Twitter into a place to rant about the season finale of your favorite series (it's okay if you've been using a more personal approach since the beginning, but if you go from art promo only to completely unrelated stuff... it might be a little trickier). People want to know what to expect from your platform, and if you're inconsistent with the type of stuff you post, attracting a following will be more difficult.

...Phew, that was long! Hope it helps in some way