Self-marketing for artists: How do I become a brand in art?

For Diana Achtzig, personal branding, or self-marketing, is the first step towards becoming your own brand. The focus is on self-promotion and digital visibility. Equally important, however, is expertise about your own art: educated collectors and buyers want to discuss art historical backgrounds and the creation process during sales conversations. According to her experience, those who do not convince here must expect lower prices. On the other hand, those who argue skillfully may sell several works to a collector at once.

The Most Important Points in Brief

• Personal branding means: You make yourself a brand, with a clear concept for your art.
• Your resume and an idea book help you find this concept.
• A network of galleries, curators, and press brings exhibitions and reports.
• Expertise about your art strengthens your position in sales conversations.

How to make yourself a brand is also explored in the article Self-Marketing for Your Own Personality.

Self-marketing begins with an honest look at your resume. Here's how to proceed:

1. Print out your resume: Lay all the pages side by side on the table. Alongside your professional positions, there may already be art projects and exhibitions listed.
2. Evaluate: Consider for each point whether you have positive or negative memories of it. Circle the activities that brought you joy in red. This creates an initial self-image that shows a direction.
3. Exclude: If you find it difficult, cross out everything that no longer fits you.
4. Alternatives for young people: If your resume is still short, a list of your internships and hobbies can help.
5. Keep an ideas book: Write down ideas about art, wishes, hopes, and dreams daily or paste them in.

Afterwards, refine your concept step by step: For whom do you create your art, who is your target audience?

A brand in art requires continuous press work. Therefore, it is worth getting to know the right people: gallery owners and curators for group and solo exhibitions, as well as journalists for newspaper articles, blog posts, video interviews, and podcasts.

You can collaborate with a gallery or market yourself. Without a gallery, you handle their tasks yourself, and then you lack the time for painting, sculpture, or photography. A gallery, on the other hand, brings its press and media contacts, which you would otherwise have to painstakingly build up. How to get into a gallery is explained in the article How do I get into a gallery as an artist?

Ideally, specialist journalists and bloggers write about you, or you get video interviews and podcast appearances. What is said about you there remains accessible online for a long time. Diana Achtzig therefore advises taking a close look: If it is emphasized that you do not have a completed art degree, the label "autodidact" can permanently stick to you. In her experience, autodidacts are often taken less seriously in the press.

Her advice: Find press people and bloggers who are sympathetic to your work, or gain a solid foundation with a degree in fine arts and art marketing.

At state art colleges, access is often difficult due to age limits and many applications. An alternative is distance learning courses at private art academies, which can be taken alongside a job. In Berlin-Biesdorf, the Achtzig Kunstakademie Berlin offered by gallerist and lecturer Diana Achtzig offers studies in free art and painting, as well as exhibition opportunities and art marketing with press contacts.

According to graduates, there is an in-person appointment once a month or every two months, with homework in between that is repeatedly corrected. At the end, students write a thesis on their own art topic.