An important first consideration is determining who your customer is.  What types of products would they use on a regular basis?  Are there trends you are seeing amongst peers in what they are carrying around and using?

When starting your journey, it’s important to learn the difference between fully custom and promotional products.  Promotional products are meant as giveaways or marketing tools, whereas fully custom merchandise is intended to either be sold or, if still intended for promotion, to represent your brand more faithfully by having more control.

Promotional products take an existing item, such as a water bottle that has a logo put onto it within restrictive, set sizes.  Fully custom merchandise allows the control to design it, and print it exactly how it’s been envisioned, while offering a level of customization that makes it more unique.  Well-designed products can serve as a tactile manifestation that represent your identity and serve as an extension of your brand.

Either option can be effective.  The question is, how would you like to be seen and represented?  If choosing promotional product options, look into items that could really be used.  We’ve all gotten mountains of cheap promo products at events that never made it out the door.  An item that gets thrown out right away is not serving you well and can be a waste of time and money.

There is no catch all solution for everyone, but there are some constants to take into account.  We put so much time into developing our aesthetic, but often rush how we convey our message in other mediums.  Adding merchandise to what you offer can be a positive and supportive side of your journey, but it takes energy and planning to execute properly.  Good, well thought out, quality merchandise will always rise above the noise.  “Artist” can mean a lot of different things, so let’s try to break down some ideas or approaches based on some broad ranges.  Art oftentimes has to be adapted or adjusted to fit a new medium for merchandise.  You may approach painting in oils vs acrylic with a different mindset or approach, and executing good merchandise requires the same thought process.

Traditional Artists

If you are a painter or traditional artist by trade, it can be tough to find products that represent your art properly.  Your style and medium can influence what options are available that are capable of faithfully representing your work in a direct application.  A painter may investigate offering high quality giclee prints, screen printed posters, notebooks, coffee mugs or full color tote bags.  A sculptor could investigate making items such as enamel pins, pvc keychains, or other items that still convey a physical form beyond a flat, printed item.  Unless you are looking to adapt your art to spot, solid colors, a lot of product options could be limited to items produced in cmyk.  If you’d like to make t-shirts, you may need to use DTG (direct to garment) printing as opposed to silk screen printing.

Digital Artists

If you work in digital mediums, such as vector or raster images already, creating merchandise can be a lot easier.  Each product will have specific requirements to adapt to, but if your art already exists in these formats, finding ways to convert them is much easier.  Digital artist’s options are vast and can easily include desk mats, acrylic charms, enamel pins, shirts, patches, tote bags and more.  It’s easy to find templates online or minimum specs needed within the digital realm.  If you work in vector and want to make an enamel pin, seeing that the minimum line weight for metal lines in a hard enamel pin is 0.3mm can be as easy as adjusting stroke weights to work.

Galleries & Dealers

I’m sure you’ve exited through the gift shop more times than you can count, and the items often found within a museum gift shop can focus more on the general public than an artist trying to focus their branding.  Items such as coffee mugs and tote bags are staples at gift shops, but instead of choosing a stock tan tote bag with the gallery logo on it, what if you were able to add in your brand as a sewn in woven tag, do custom-colored handles and print in full color?  Which one sounds more interesting and visually appealing?  There are options to go beyond the expected and the pricing is typically comparable.  Making custom coffee mugs can also be taken a step further if you can justify an initial larger order amount of a few hundred pieces per design.  Adding printing on the handle or to the underside, etc. can be little touches that make your coffee mug stand out.

Some great examples we’ve seen work well in a gallery or museum is when they are able to make pins based off of a specific exhibit’s work.  Meow Wolf is a great example of a museum store that hits all of the branding checkmarks, while representing the vibe of the exhibit.  Depending on the work you have on display and licensing, it can be trickier to incorporate merchandise based on an artist’s work, but it can be an exciting way to integrate the exhibit into a gift collection.

If you are catering to higher end clients as a dealer, it’s good to think about matching the quality of the items you make to be on par with something they’d use.  No one shopping for expensive original art is needing a $0.30 pen with the gallery name on it.  Look into higher quality options that will align with your customer better.  A quality product that gets used will easily deliver 10x more impressions than a cheaper item that goes unused or discarded.  A higher end product that is given out less often can still provide more value than a cheap item given to everyone.

Ultimately, it’s important to focus on the way you’d like your brand to be seen and represented.  Spend time thinking about your brand story and then execute it, using good quality merchandise to support your vision.  As creatives, we need to give similar attention to the way we are perceived and represented.  How can you build up your footprint? You can do it by creating strong, supportive, intentional merchandise that is true to your mission.

_______________________________

Author’s Bio:

Greg Kerr is the Owner of Alchemy Merch, which creates custom merchandise for creatives and companies. Alchemy has made over 4 million custom products for artists, brands, and creatives in all fields. Greg guides artists and corporate clients through the process of creating quality custom merchandise that helps them achieve their goals of increased brand awareness, customer loyalty, and more. Alchemy eliminates the pain points of sourcing materials, production, quality control and design that most people encounter when making promotional products versus investing in custom merchandise. Prior to expanding his business and evolving it into Alchemy, Greg founded Pin Game Strong, making custom enamel pins for artists and corporate clients.  

Art and creativity are in Greg’s blood. He is a musician and performs in a heavy hardcore band. He first started creating merchandise for brands while touring with his punk rock band in the early 2000s. The belt buckles he made for the band caught the attention of other musicians and soon turned into Greg’s first foray into custom merchandise. 

Greg earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Digital Art from Temple University.  

All images courtesy of Alchemy Merch and Greg Kerr. 

The post Using Merchandise as an Effective Art Marketing Tool appeared first on Art Business News.

Just as there is a process of creating a great piece of art, there’s a process to building a great art career. Just as every piece of art is unique, so is the career of any artist. A crucial element of making it as a professional artist is knowing how to gain a following and market yourself and promote your work.

There’s no one set path to making a successful livelihood out of your work as an artist, but there are certain strategic actions you can take to that will make presenting yourself to potential patrons much easier. These actions require putting together materials that you can take to galleries, museum boards, patrons, and companies to make sure you and your art stand out from the crowd. The most crucial of these materials for artists turning professional are:

• Artist Bio
• Artist CV
• Artist Statements

This short guide will take you through the process of putting together a bio, CV, and statements that are sure to elevate your platform as a professional artist.

Artist Bio

The purpose of an artist’s bio is to connect an audience with you as an artist. A good bio will grab the attention of potential clients and give them an impression of what sets you and your art apart from the crowd. Your bio should include highlights of your art career and explain a bit about yourself as an artist. Here are some foolproof guidelines to keep in mind when creating your artist bio:

• Length
• Format
• Style

Length

A short artist bio is preferable to a lengthier one, as it will make a greater impact and stick better with clients. If galleries or clients are sifting through multitudes of artist bios, their time and attention spans will be limited.

For this reason, you want to make sure you communicate as much as possible about yourself and your work as concisely as possible. Every sentence matters, and you should only include the most important highlights of your career, making sure to avoid superfluous information.

Format

Potential clients will appreciate an artist bio that is not only informative but attractive too. If your artist bio is to be posted online, there are lots of free resources that even the most novice of internet users can harness to create impressive and professional websites. A clean, well-designed website where potential clients can check out your work and easily access your artist bio will ensure you and your work make the most professional impact.

Style

A good artist’s bio will be impactful and memorable. A good way to achieve this is to have a strong hook in your opening line, making sure to grab your readers’ attention. As your bio needs to be read by a diverse audience of people, it’s best not to get too technical. Getting feedback from both artists and non-artists on your bio is a good way to ensure that it’s suitable for all audiences.

Artist bios are typically written in the third person and detail the intention and experience of the artist. Some artists also opt to throw in a bit about their personality, to add color and individuality to their bio. As each artist is unique, so should each bio be, but that doesn’t mean you can’t refer to other artists’ bios for stylistic inspiration. 

Artist CV

An artist curriculum vitae is a resume that formally details the academic and professional experience of a working artist. This should include any formal post-secondary education, residencies, exhibitions, and awards or accolades that you have.

A reader of your CV should be able to quickly and clearly scan through the contents of your career and gain an immediate understanding of your previous professional experience. A well-organized CV will go lengths in convincing potential patrons that you are the right fit for the job or exhibition at hand.

Note!

It’s important to point out that presenting a resume as an artist is a practice far more common in the international market, and not as prevalent in the USA. For artists based in the USA, however, creating an artist CV may still be useful, especially if applying to international galleries, residencies, fairs, and exhibitions.

Artist Statement

As a professional artist, the primary mode of communication between you and the public will be your artist statement. An artist statement is very concise and is used to position who you are as an artist. An artist statement answers the who, what, and why of your career as an artist. Who are you as an artist? What art do you create? Why do you make the art you do?

Before writing your statement, gather your portfolio and study it carefully. What do you see connecting your artwork? How do they reflect upon your perspective and intention as an artist? These are the central questions that should be answered in your statement. Before you write, you can check out statements written by other artists to get an idea of what’s appropriate to include, and different writing styles you can implement.

This short guide serves as an introduction to creating the perfect materials to accompany your break-out into the world of being a professional artist. With a unique and carefully crafted bio, CV, and statement, potential clients everywhere will be dazzled, not only by the art, but by the artist too!

Author bio: Alex C. Porter is a career guidance expert currently working with CraftResumes, where you can view the writer’s profile. He has years of experience working with emerging and established professionals to ensure they maximize their potential in the jobs market. At the moment, Alex is lending his expertise to those navigating the professional art world.

The post Short Guide on Crafting Your Artist Bio, CV, and Artist Statement appeared first on Art Business News.

But, what happens if you fail to get the people to engage? In that case, you need to improve your social media strategy. Here are 6 tips to help you as an artist engage your social media audience.

Let’s take a closer look.

1. Share The Process of Creation

People who follow you on social media already admire your work. If you want to give them something special to truly enjoy, show them how you work. “Behind the scenes” of creating a piece of art will make people feel:

• special
• included
• invited into your world

In addition, they’ll feel like they’re getting to know you and your art better. Share videos or images of how you create a piece of art from beginning to end. Try a time-lapse video for extra excitement and fun.

2. Story Behind the Work

Storytelling is another strong tool artists can use to engage their social media audience. It implies sharing the story behind the piece of art and telling people about:

• the inspiration to create it
• its true meaning
• the secrets it holds
• the reason you made it

Once again, you’ll be letting people step into your world and give them a reason to connect to you and your work. This will inspire them to comment, share, like, and communicate with you more freely.

3. Live Videos

Everyone would love to have a face-to-face meeting with their favorite artist. Luckily, social media gives you the chance to connect to your followers using live videos. Live videos can be perfect for increasing engagement. All you have to do is:

• announce it in advance
• set a goal or purpose of the session
• invite people to join you

You can discuss your upcoming events, talk about your latest work, and answer questions from followers. This will bring you even closer to them and help you create a stronger bond with them. Therefore, use live videos whenever you have a good reason to do so.

4. Master Classes

Your audience isn’t only made up of people who love and appreciate art as viewers. There are those who are artists as well, and look up to you or see you as a role model. To increase engagement with that part of your audience, you might think about offering educational content such as masterclasses. Make an IGTV, Facebook, or YouTube video and teach them about:

• improving their painting
• being more confident with their art
• different techniques
• quality art equipment and tools
• anything they’d enjoy

These online workshops and training can be extremely valuable to your followers. They’ll be able to learn from you and advance as artists themselves. And in the process, you’ve made them even more loyal to you.

5. Promote Your Work

Your work is what makes you the artist you are. Social media serves as a space where you get to promote your work and show it to the world online. Presenting your work is what will get your followers engaged. All you need to do is:

• post images and videos of your latest work
• ask for feedback
• read the comments and answer them

Make sure that you truly embrace what your followers are telling you and pay attention to their perception of your work.

6. Be Social

Finally, there’s one last tip we want to share with you and it’s a big one. In order to get your followers to engage with you more, you need to reciprocate. They need to see how social, interested, and open for communication you are. And any time you are communicating, make sure that everything you write or post is proofread and accurate. That means that you should:

• answer their messages
• respond to their comments
• thank them for their support
• respond to every action they make

This way, you’re showing them that you welcome their engagement and, in turn, you inspire them to keep up the same way.

Final Thoughts

As an artist, it’s up to you to motivate your followers to increase their engagement towards you via social media. Use the tips we’ve listed above to start improving your relationship with your followers and we’re sure you’ll see the improvement sooner than you expect.

Author’s bio. Daniela McVicker is a passionate digital marketer. Daniela is interested in everything related to SEO and blogging. She contributes to Essayguard and other websites where she shares her experience and helps marketers make their names in the online world.

The post 6 Tips for Artists to Engage Their Social Media Audience appeared first on Art Business News.

Positioning yourself and your art is not usually an artist’s strength. Self-promotion is something that makes many artists—especially the more sensitive and introverted—extremely uncomfortable, and the marketing side of the art business is often avoided like the plague or hastily unloaded to someone else whenever possible.

But the fact of the matter is, no one is ever going to care as much about your success as an artist as you will. You know your art more intimately than anyone, and therefore have a bird’s eye view into the power and meaning of your art. However, articulating the things you intuitively understand about your own work is not so simple. In fact, it can be downright daunting.

You need to be able to break your work down simply into a succinct and accurate snapshot of who you are as an artist and what your art is all about—and you need to be able to do this for a variety of different audiences. Your explanation of your work should speak to curators, gallerists, and collectors as well as to the average person who may not be well-versed in “art speak.”

The Elevator Pitch

There is a common concept in the business world known as the “elevator pitch.” This is the notion that you should be able to pitch yourself, product, business, etc. in the time it takes to make an elevator ride—about 30 seconds. Sound impossible? It’s not. Once you’ve got a formula in place for how to best describe yourself and what you do, you’ll find talking about your art becomes much easier and you’ll see the positive results in your career as your professional communication skills increase.

The Importance of Pitching Yourself

As an artist, one of the primary reasons we create art is to articulate something that cannot be said any other way. We set about creating a manifestation of an abstraction—a thought, a feeling, an idea, an experience—and believe that the work should speak for itself.

And all good art does. Art that transforms, inspires, and enlightens says so much more than we could convey by words alone.

So why must we speak about it? Why not let the art speak for itself?

Because for art to do the transformative work it’s meant to do, it needs to get in front of human eyes. And in order to get in front of human eyes, it needs to get past the gatekeepers. And the gatekeepers have business plans, curating strategies, marketing statistics, and a bottom line. Not to mention a host of other artists who are also constantly vying for their attention.

Use your elevator pitch to hook the interest of their rational minds and let the power of your art do the rest. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you can skip the important step of pitching your work to the ears of those who can make a difference in your career.

Developing Your Elevator Pitch

So where do you start? Art is such a vast subject and your journey as an artist so complex, knowing where to begin can be the hardest part. Let’s walk through a few components to get the ball rolling:

1. Find What is Essential

What is the primary factor about your work that if left out, would leave you feeling as if your work had become lifeless or had lost meaning? What is the essential element that compelled you to create this piece or collection? What is the thing you most want people to see and understand when they look at the artwork? This essential component could be the driving force around a particular collection, your entire philosophy as an artist, or a single significant piece.

Spend some time brainstorming about what your essential element is until you can sum it up in a few sentences. This is the nucleus of your creative vision and lets the listener know who you are and what you are about without a lot of flowery language.

2. Don’t Make Things Up

Speaking of flowery language, if you are asked something about your art that you’re not sure how to answer, it’s okay to admit you don’t know. Creating art is an innate, intuitive process; it isn’t meant to be as comprehensible and analyzable as a table of data generated by automated systems. It is far better to be honest about yourself, your process, and what your art means to you than it is to create a word salad of hyperbole in the hopes you will seem impressive. Authenticity trumps illusion when it comes to making an impact with explanations of your work.

3. Focus Beyond the Visually Apparent

Anyone who is looking at your work will be able to tell what colors you used, what textures are there, and so forth. When you are talking about your work, you don’t want to simply point out what is right in front of their eyes. Try to add something to the experience by offering them something they can’t get from simply looking. Give them a behind-the-scenes look at what brought this art to life.

4. Avoid Hyperbole

While you do want to express the authentic process and meaning of your art, you don’t want to get lost in your own sense of poetry, expounding on the ethereal to the point of completely losing your audience. It can be easy to get carried away, using language that is meant to impress but may have the opposite effect of making you appear pretentious and disingenuous.

5. Keep it Positive

Some artists may feel a tad embittered by the necessity of focusing on the business side of art when all they want to do is create. As a result, they can fall into speaking about their art irately because they resent having to explain themselves and their work. This approach is not likely to make you many friends—or sales either. While the idea of the “difficult” or “dramatic” artist has been ingrained in popular culture, the art world is a world of professionals like any other and building a reputation for yourself as being belligerent, angry, or difficult to work with will harm you much more than help you.

6. Practice Aloud

It may feel silly, but practicing aloud can tremendously boost your confidence and help put you at ease when it comes time to talk about your art. The goal is not to memorize a script or sound overly rehearsed, but to have thought through and practiced your primary speaking points so that they can be spoken easily, accurately, and with confidence.

Conclusion

Talking about your art is something you will likely be required to do many times in the course of your career. However, it doesn’t have to be daunting or frustrating. By spending some time thinking through what the essential elements are to your work and your artistic philosophy, being authentic, avoiding negativity and hyperbole, and practicing until your language flows freely, you will be able to talk about your art confidently to any audience who views your work.

Author Bio

Alia Sinclair is a writer, poet, musician, and Editor-in-Chief of Patchwork Mosaic, an online magazine for creatives. She is an avid art enthusiast and lives on the West Coast with her ever-increasing library of books.

The post How to Talk About Your Art appeared first on Art Business News.

However, to successfully advertise your art on a website, blog, or social media page, it’s essential to craft innovative descriptions for every piece, making it inviting for visitors to purchase your creations. When trying to sell your art, the more information you provide to potential clients about a particular piece, the easier it is to convince them to make a purchase.

In this article, we’ll be sharing some surefire pointers on how to write fascinating art descriptions for your artwork that will boost sales.

Define the Inspiration behind Your Art

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but when it comes to selling that picture, it may require more than a couple of words to convey your message to the buyer. How you describe the muse behind your art can elevate the appeal of your designs. There are no set guidelines for product descriptions, but a general rule of thumb is that it needs to be alluring.

Begin with describing the source of your inspiration, be it a historic event, a person, a unique experience, or just something that appealed to you. Don’t just reference being inspired by an event, explain how that experience influenced your design, from shadow play and lighting to your chosen color palette. Describe how it impacted your perception of pigments and color as an artist and influenced the tiny details that are significant to the artwork as a whole.

You can explain why you choose a specific texture or the particular aesthetic you were aiming for and how the color palette helped you achieve the finished product. Let the words flow, and you can make adjustments to the final draft when you’ve arrived on the desired emotion you’re aiming to convey.

Include the Bare Facts

Once you’ve covered the inspirational aspect of your artwork description, it’s time to focus on more factual details. For this, place yourself in your customer’s shoes and consider the kind of information you’d wish to acquire before finalizing a purchase. This would include most of the physical details, such as:

• The accurate dimensions of the piece
• Materials used in creating the artwork
• The kind of procedure involved
• Explain the delivery process/method

The good news is, you can follow this formula for all the art listings that go on your website or blog with minor tweaks depending on the piece of art. Consider every possible detail that the customer would like to know and explain it in a clear description, so there is no ambiguity or confusion.

Finally, create a Call to Action (CTA) to motivate the desired response from your potential clients; at the end of the description, encourage them to directly reach out to you for any further questions or queries.

Use the Right Keyword (But Don’t Go Overboard)

Before you begin to draft the perfect description for your art piece, it’s recommended to pick the most suitable keywords or phrases that customers may use to search for art like yours. People often choose to skip this approach, but search engine marketing is possibly one of the most cost-effective marketing methods today. This requires you to do some keyword research, so you know the right terms to include in your description before the piece goes up for sale.

Once you’ve selected the appropriate key phrases, you can scatter them throughout your product description, as long as the text makes sense. The ideal frequency would be 2 to 3 times maximum. Exceeding that limit would classify as keyword-stuffing and can blatantly risk your Google rankings, as well as turn away any potential clients.

When optimizing your art descriptions, you can also seek the expertise of a digital marketing agency or a marketing expert. Their experience and knowledge of the industry might save you from errors in boosting SEO; they will elevate your art description technically so that maximum potential clients view your work.

Add an Inviting But Searchable Product Title to Your Creation

The right keyword is not only incorporated in the body of the description but the title of your art piece as well. When considering a title for your artwork, it’s important to include a keyword that relates to the context of your art. You want the title to describe the finished product and for viewers to be able to understand the image through the title. This is especially important when selling your art online since most art collectors or buyers search for pieces using specific keywords. Therefore, if your title does not consist of the relative keyword, it could affect your chances of being found online. The search engine algorithm will naturally skip your artwork if it lacks the appropriate keyword, and your piece will not show up in the search results.

Your descriptions may fall on the wordier side, but that’s okay. You may address the different aspects of your artwork and the creative process as eloquently as you wish. Just remember, you want your story to succeed in capturing the viewer’s attention and prompt them to seal the deal. With beautifully written descriptions, your sales will never have to suffer again. Play around with words and be sure to express your journey as an artist in a way that resonates with collectors and helps them emotionally connect with your artwork. 

In a Nutshell

In the end, it’s essential to be equally creative with your words as you are with your art. When you’ve got a compelling story to tell within your description, it’s guaranteed to grasp the attention of art enthusiasts and collectors. People look for something with feeling, and if you manage to effectively deliver a powerful message, there will always be a shower of praise on your doorstep. Keep creating compelling descriptions for your artwork, and you will never be out of commission again!

Author Bio: 
Arslan Hassan is an electrical engineer with a passion for writing, designing and anything tech related. His educational background in the technical field has given him the edge to write on many topics. He occasionally writes blog articles for Dynamologic Solutions, a software house in Pakistan.    

The post How to Write Art Descriptions That Will Sell Your Art appeared first on Art Business News.