When you first started writing, drawing and posting your webcomic, you may not have given the idea of branding yourself as a creator much thought. You just wanted to CREATE a comic, tell a story, make people laugh, express yourself through sequential art. Maybe the idea that this could be a financially profitable business if handled correctly, never crossed your mind. Don’t get me wrong– it wasn’t supposed to be first priority. In fact, I would go as far as to say this was probably the best way to start a new endeavor like a serial comic; it allowed you to fully focus on perfecting your craft and left the business and promotional headaches for later. Well, for you maybe later is now.
What IS a “Brand”?
You may think of a logo, when I say brand. Or maybe a font or select colors, or even a message. Well, a brand is an all-encompassing representative of a product, including all of those things. That product can be tangible… like a line of sneakers, or a service… Like a tax accounting, or something artistic like a band, an animated tv series, or a comic book. A brand should give potential customers a general “feel” of what to expect from that particular product. It can be very obvious and direct, such as an all-natural food item featuring a leaf or wheat stalk in the packaging design or logo. Or it can be more subtle, using colors and font style to give a hint of the personality of the product, like the bright and cheery (red and yellow) yet casual McDonalds logo. The goal is for the branding materials to speak to the customer without any explaining.. Maybe not the finer details, but (for example) a shopper may see a clothing line’s logo and be able to determine “upscale & luxurious” or “casual and affordable”. This philosophy should apply throughout the entire branding process, with consistent use of colors, fonts, copy-writing, and imagery. I try to remember Disney theme parks and how their #1 goal is to never ruin the experience for their customers; that means sticking to the branding no matter what!
Here’s another great read about branding, compared to identity and logo… And how they all work together!
Branding: Your Comic
In drawing countless comics and honing in on your concept, maybe even piecing together tag lines and elevator pitches, your comic’s brand is probably already being developed just be being as immersed in your comic as you are. One of the biggest hurdles is logo creation. This could be difficult if you don’t have a graphic design background, so if that is the case, you may want to reach out to a designer you know or maybe a fellow comic creator who has experience in the graphic arts (there’s a lot of us). If you want give it a shot yourself, remember these 3 tips:
- It must work and be identifiable in black and white, and color
- It must reduce well (think of it fitting on a business card!)
- It must FEEL like your comic; convey some aspects of your comic’s atmosphere and personality, through colors, fonts, style, additional simple imagery/icons, but you don’t have to go overboard. Less is more; a heavy-handed logo can be just as damaging to a brand as an amateur thrown-together logo.
Check out your favorite Webcomics and study their logos. Some of the best ones decided to keep it simple, but you recognize it when you see it, even if just a portion of it, and it instantly reminds you of what you like about the comic itself. That’s the sign of a solid logo. Also, see this great article by Chris on the Anatomy of a Logo, or this one on logo design by Blambot.
But branding goes beyond just a logo. It’s the website design, which becomes the storefront that fades back and allows the product (comic) and it’s logo to shine. It’s how you design and layout your promotional materials like business cards, postcards, books, and more. Even how you set up your convention table space can be another outlet to show off solid branding. It may feel repetitive to keep using the same elements all the time but to the outsider who is just being introduced to your comic, cohesive and consistent branding is key to a good first impression. You can refer to some of Ken’s Brand-Aid articles to get some other great ideas, or even his 8 simple branding tips piece.
You comic’s brand is also it’s core message. Straying too far from the concept, targeted demographic, or characters’ personalities can also hurt your comic’s brand. Seamless consistency is key!
Branding: YOU as the Creator
I think it’s a natural progression to start out using your comic’s brand as “your” brand. Especially if it’s all you have done thus far and all you’re known for. And if your plan is to only do one comic and ride it out until you retire it and move on, you may be able to keep using your comic’s brand to represent you as a creator. However, most of us branch out. We start doing commissions at comic cons, wind up writing or doing the artwork for another project entirely, or offer other related services like design, video work, photography, or software programming. Suddenly, you are MORE than just a comic, and that’s when you should start thinking about using the same branding techniques you did for your comic, and develop a brand for YOU.
This may be a bit more difficult than branding just your comic, which can be broken down into a couple representative adjectives and genres. What you want to create is an umbrella brand that will “house” all of your creative endeavors and services. Depending on just how far out your services and talents stretch, you may even want to separate your own brand into different “umbrellas”, to be less confusing. Some aspects of a professional brand to consider are:
- What is it you do? List everything out, in categories if possible. Organization and proper hierarchy is important to nail down before you start this process.
- Is there an over-arching trait to your professional “style” that applies to everything under your umbrella? For instance, are your products always kid-friendly and cute? Do you have a more mature/adult style? Is your Illustration style very consistent across the board, and how would you describe it? Start collecting adjectives that describe the bulk of what you offer.
- Who is your demographic, as a creative professional? Will your identity, logo, and overall brand be able to convey #1 and #2 above to the common man in your demographic?
Again, you can start out with a logo design, and allow the branding applications to branch out from there. You may need a portfolio website (or maybe a Tumblr page?) to be a hub for everything you work on, using the same consistent design elements as your logo and conveying any umbrella styles that apply to all underlying products. Consider social media as well- your twitter handle, Facebook pages or groups, google+ pages and/or profiles; the more they match and stay consistent, the more professional your brand looks. Plus, you are easier to track down and your followers can find you on different social outlets. Like I said, so much more than a logo!
The Benefits of Having an Umbrella Brand
- You will have an identity to represent YOU overall, including but not restricted to, your comic. As other products (comics, freelance, group projects) come and go, your brand will remain the same providing some consistency.
- Having this identity to use for things like invoices, portfolio websites, business cards, an email address, and social media tie-ins displays your organizational abilities and professionalism to potential clients and customers.
- It provides a much more streamlined way of presenting yourself at a comic con or other event, especially if you are showcasing multiple different product lines, or even just supplementary items like prints, buttons or t-shirts that are not under your comic’s brand. As you can see below, without an umbrella brand, showcasing multiple products with no connection can be confusing and it divides what could be united about you as a creator.
This is no doubt a big decision that takes a lot of work, but an important one. If you think this is a reasonable step for you to take, plan in advance when and how you will roll it all out.
You should be proud of your first impression, and that’s all about carefully planned presentation.
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Dawn Griffin is the resident “crazy chick”. She likes steak, Cleveland sports, video games and oh yeah, comics. She spent her formative years either playing street basketball, pitching, or drawing comics and submitting them to syndicates. Once she –accidentally– discovered the world of webcomics, the syndication route became a pointless hurdle. After all, “Crazy Chicks” do things their *&%$ selves. Dawn is the mastermind behind Zorphbert and Fred, and you can find her portfolio site HERE. She can be easily bribed with ice cream.
So, would this work with a pen name?
If you brand yourself using a pen name instead of your legal name, does that cause problems?
For that matter, how would you use a pen name and protect it and yourself?
I use a pen name to brand my work under Jynksie. Per the U.S. copyright office, the rules are as follows: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl101.html < this is one way of doing things.
Branding yourself under a pen name is rather quite easy, you can actually do a DBA [doing business as]which allows you to use any fictitious name you want to build your brand/product/service off of. The DBA will not only brand your pen name, but it will protect you copyright wise, because all the places where your legal name and your pen name need to be for DBA, cover the bases. You cannot copyright a pen name or even trademark it, so the name you use offers no protections in respects to the mere copyright of your actual body of work. Pen names are merely a branding tool and as a self publisher, you are going to want your legal name all over it in the places it matters.
well said, Jynksie, and some helpful info!
Pen Names are different than an umbrella brand (like for me, my umbrella brand is Dawn Griffin Studios) in that it provides anonymity. It protects your name, identity, and main brand. For many who choose to use a pen name, it’s for one project specifically. My DGS brand is all-ages and kid-friendly, but if I ever wanted to do an adult/edgy project, I would do it under a pen name– which means a whole new branding process, logo, copyright, etc.
To make it official, start at the copyright office link, as Jynksie shared. All I’m saying is it may not be needed.
You are right Dawn, it may not be needed. I found this link and I think it does a fantastic job of explaining how simple pen names and self publishing copyright can be.
http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/2013/01/02/copyright-and-the-pen-name/
Without naming a name, I know of an individual who creates a very racy comic book series and also creates eye burning adult illustrations. He is set up just as you are, but where you use “Dawn Griffin Studio’s”, he uses “[Pen Name] Studios” and all his work is branded under the alias pen name. If he used his real name, his employer could find it if they googled him and I’m pretty sure if an HR person found his work, they’d think twice.
This would be the example I had in my mind when I was suggesting pen names can be branded for anonymity purposes based on content they create as a whole. If your entire umbrella of creativity isn’t something you want attached to your personal identity, then this would be one way it gets done. Whether its a norm or an exception, I wouldn’t know. I haven’t taken the time to determine who’s really who in the self publishing world.
Nice article Dawn, I’m sure to be rereading/referring to it more than once! I have been just putting my comic out there, thinking that would be so much more interesting than my name. As I progress though, I now wonder if I should step out from behind the curtain a bit, maybe starting with adding an ‘about me’ to my site.
Lots to think about, thanks again!
Rich
I was very reluctant to use my name, as I figured “If anyone has heard of anything, it’s my comic”. But with as many projects and freelance as I have now, I truly AM so much more than my comic… and I want to be known as such.
Thanks for reading and good luck along your way! An “About me” page is a great way to peek out from behind that curtain, Mr. Wizard. :0)
Great article Dawn!
This topic is something I need to think about a lot these days. I am planning to have my own website to promote myself as a graphic designer, but I want to promote myself as a cartoons creator as well. Nevertheless, many marketing “gurus” suggest that we should promote ourselves as experts in one area, not as a “jack of all trades”.
Ohhh…. life is soooo complicated! :p
it is a complicated matter. I took a long time trying to decide what to call my umbrella “company”. It used to be Griffin Productions, but that sounded like some sort of film & video company. Studios can too, I suppose, but I think it leans more artistic. I didn’t want to be JUST design or JUST illustration, so using “art” or “design” was too limiting. “Graphics” made me think more of the production side– printing and sign making. Plus, the term had to blend well with my name.
Like Geoff says– it’s all about the customer base and how they find you. I have clients who think of me for designing logos… as well as clients who think of me for caricatures. My website speaks for itself– and what I can do. It may not be perfect and some would say I need a design site and a separate illustration site (so as not to send mixed messages) but thus far I haven’t had a problem.