Commercial Photography for Artists and SME’s

Marketing for Artists & Craft workers.

Like many small business a website and a business plan are essential for those starting up, there are many who want to follow their passion and become an artist, or craftsman. Great but unless you have a private income, a private trust fund, or a great pension, you need to treat whatever your passion is as a business.

Your passion and a few friends support can be a great start, but your art has value and its very important to get advise and guidance , stating the obvious but it seems that especially creative types are the worst, they often just want to produce great art.

A gallery may take you on but that is often the most difficult thing to achieve.

Sadly you are the artist and you need to market You! And your work, preferably both as people buy from people and love to know the story behind the art.

Facebook, Instagram and Tick Tock are platforms that you can use to create a following, sites like Etsy and many others are designed to help you make money, but before everything, they are making money for themselves, with $Millions involved why not.

Making money from art has always been difficult, just think of Van Gogh,with  one sale in his lifetime, he would maybe also struggle today if he started ?

There are many experts in this field, some great marketing people who can help you, but it all costs.

However it is possible to do it all yourself but it should include some great photography.

(I would say that wouldn’t I). Whatever you produce, it is never going to make money unless the work can be seen, marketing you and your work is an essential part of artistic practice, look at the ones who are doing well, what have they done?

Producing great art is only part of the process.

You have to be visible!!!

A good website that is ‘off the shelf such as Wix or SquareSpace is a great way to start, but if you are not great with tech, get a web designer to help. It doesn’t need to have whistle’s and bels, but it has to be functional and work on all devices especially smartphones

Images of your art, should ideally be produced by a competent person, a professional ideally but someone with a decent camera and some knowledge, as website are so technically able, quality of image is essential, an iPhone is not quite there yet, especially with such things as paintings and illustrations, ideally the work should be copied with professional lighting, and with a colour fidelity check shot on a lens that doesn’t distort.

If you are selling original one off’s it may require a batch shoot to ensure consistent quality and to make it a cost effective process.

Then there is the portrait of the artist, it is certainly something that has to be strong, it is after all your brand image?

A great portrait and ideally an environmental portrait in your studio is a great opening image for the home page, again a smart phone image is not ideal.

I would certainly suggest a portait shot in your workspace, ideally with the art in evidence, would be a great start, Headshots for ‘artist’ statement or just more material for social media, a small image of you can feature on marketing material such a postcards, or mini posters.

You as the artist are much more involved with the art, but a portrait of you helps connect your audience and potential clients with the art.

Videos and still images of you making your art are also part of the story, the communication that shows potential clients, you put in the hours, you are the artist producing the artwork and showing your skills.

If you expect to sell your work for hundreds, if not thousands of pounds, you have to communicate why it is worth that amount, because you put in the hours and you have the concept and skills to deliver a unique work of art!

 

Featured artist : Andy Gill – Potter and educator,  – Instagram