Artist Branding: Be A Halloween Costume
A bonus post! Week FIVE of our January Branding Challenge.
Our January Branding Challenge was supposed to wrap up last week, but I’ve gotten so many comments from group members requesting more visual branding development work, so welcome to a bonus week of The Branding Challenge.
For those who want to join in, it’s far from too late! Sign up as a paid subscriber today and get access to all of the January Branding Challenge coursework (and upcoming weekly coursework!)
If you’re looking for more hands-on help and community support, please consider joining the DYL2M private community for only $30/month. Want to go through all of our workshops to build your strongest possible music career? Members are joining and beginning DYL2M work from the beginning all the time and working their way through our courses with community support, so don’t hesitate to jump in and go at your own pace.
A Visual Brand For Your Music
For the purposes of this exercise, we’re going to focus on the following areas:
Personal presentation (think makeup, hair, attire)
Assets (think merch, album art, social banners, videos, etc.)
By this point in the Branding Challenge, you’re probably burnt out on hearing me talk about simplicity and clarity. But it’s important, so get over it.
Much like your brand identity, bio, brand voice, etc. it’s essential that your visual identity be simple, clear, and solidly anchored in who you are as an artist, your creative pillars, and your artist archetype.
And because brand familiarity is created over time, it’s also essential that your visual identity be more or less repeatable, which means we should be choosing ways to represent ourselves that feel good (so we want to repeat them) and are easy enough to achieve that we’re able to deliver on them consistently.
Become A Halloween Costume
I don’t know where I first read this, but it’s been said that you know when you’ve got a good artist brand if someone can dress up as you for Halloween and be easily recognized.
On a foundational level it’s easy to see how being recognizable has many benefits. But it can actually be way more transcendent than it sounds. In the documentary Supermensch, someone (I can’t remember who) describes a story of a label scout going to see Alice Cooper in concert in NYC. Alice Cooper at this point had been unable to secure any traction with labels, but the scout showed up at this concert and saw that the kids at the show were dressed like Alice Cooper and his band, with the eye makeup and the leather, etc. He, of course, signed the band, immediately recognizing the economic potential of an artist whose visual identity expands to the fans and informs their self-expression and lifestyle.
This is kind of a cold, capitalistic perspective on this phenomenon, but artists have an opportunity to present themselves visually in a way that creates real resonance within their fan community, helping fans express truths of their own cultural or generational experience, building a strong sense of belonging that has many far-reaching benefits.
As a quick aside, having a strong visual identity doesn’t mean you need to always look the same, but I think effective artist brands use one look or similar looks for a given era/release cycle. Now, let’s look at how to build an iconic look.
So What Do You Wear?
Many times when artists are designing their looks, they feel like they need to reinvent the wheel or add a million little details. I think what’s more effective is to paint with broad strokes.
Color blocking is a great strategy, for example, using repeated distinctive colors. Think Sia’s wig or Chappell Roan’s bright red hair. Or who could forget the breakout red and white look of The White Stripes when they first came on the scene. Picking and sticking to colors can be cheap, easy, and incredibly effective.
Another great strategy can be to pull from existing looks from the past. Chappell Roan does this incredibly well, pulling inspiration from NYC ball culture and French harlequin makeup (in a ball culture way). The reason this works well is because you’re able to present imagery and colors that audiences are sort of familiar with even if they’re not sure from where, exactly.
I also like finding the things that make you stand out and emphasizing them. Have tattoos? Get them on your face. Blonde hair? Make it platinum. Bad sight? Get gigantic glasses. Do you look basically uninteresting? Get an iconic wig or robot masks or a mouse head. Are you messy? Smear red lipstick across your face. Make it completely obvious to anyone who takes a single second to glance at you. Become a character.
Find Repeatable Visuals
This is kind of less sexy, but once you figure out how you’re presenting your physical self, the only other thing you need to do is provide complementary visual assets that further drive home the message and energy of your visual artist persona.
Depending on how visually inclined you are, this can be extremely simple/utilitarian or a fun project.
Are you starry-eyed and pensive and shy? Scan old blown-out photos from estate sales and create a visual world of nostalgia and quiet feeling textures. Only photograph/record yourself in vintage sweaters. Use a typewriter font. This isn’t rocket science.
Are you bold and austere? How about all black and white and electric blue (like your hair) and all caps Helvetica? Only photograph yourself in/around neon lights.
Is your vibe sun-drenched and retro? You know what to do. Come on, let’s go.
It really doesn’t have to be that good in order to stand out as long as it’s deeply connected to the truth of your music and it’s executed consistently.
My advice, especially to artists who are at an early stage in their career, is to pick something that’s going to be accessible and affordable. The less you have to rely on external help to get your brand across, the better. (I think this goes for most aspects of your music career, btw. As a developing artist, done good enough is almost always better than done perfect but a month later than you needed it or done but super expensive.)
As someone with basically no visual communication skills, I put in a little bit of effort to understanding basic design principles and taught myself to use Canva and if I can do it anyone can.
Let’s Get To Work!
Ready to dive in and build your visual brand identity? Great, I’ve got step-by-step exercises below to help you do just that!
Join as a paid subscriber for just $5 and enjoy weekly music career development exercises as well as all past exercises!
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