This blueprint will provide you everything you need to know on artist images, and help you create yours. Before diving into that however, let's start from the beginning, what is an artist image?
WHAT IS AN ARTIST IMAGE?
An artist image is basically something that helps you be recognized, or something people know you for. This is brought about by doing a combination of things consistently.
For example, Elton John wears what one could deem extravagant glasses, Michael Jackson wore a single flashy glove, and 6ix9ine has colourful hair.
That is only a part of their image, (and what we deem 1/10), but something we already associate to them.
You will find out later in this blueprint too that an artists image is much beyond their appearance. We have identified 10 categories that work in coherence with each other to create one, solid, known, bulletproof image.
WHY DO YOU NEED ONE?
We say why do you need one, rather than do you need one, because to be completely honest with you, it is a necessity. Every artist, whether you know it or not, has their own image.
The industry is saturated with talented artists, and unfortunately the industry ignores them… In order to stand out from the rest and gain some exposure on your music, is to have a unique image that also relates to the music you make, so as to provide consistent messages.
HOW CAN YOU DEVELOP YOURS?
We recommend looking at our marketing plan guide prior to this and carefully answering each question, as it will make determine your image a little easier.
In order to pinpoint your artist image, there is one specific question you need to ask yourself, which is:
What do you want people to know you for, (that also relates to your music)?
It is a loaded question, because the answer to that one question will shape literally everything, including the 10 categories outlined next in this blueprint.
1. Your style / appearance + signature item
2. Your personality
3. Your associations / affiliations
4. Your designs
5. Your character
6. Your character arc
7. Your uniqueness
8. Your story
9. Your vision
10. Your intentions
These 10 categories are in no particular order, but without further adieu, let’s dive into the first one.
1. Your style / appearance + signature item
This is usually the first thing people will see when they look at you, and therefore its importance is critical to shape their perception of yourself.
Our recommendation is to pick one noticeable thing, that will always be apart of yourself. We define this as your signature item. Whenever you’re performing, doing press events, or posting on social media, you will always have this. It can be your hair, (such as continually having different hairstyles, or always having the same hairstyle no matter what), or a funky hat, or pink pants, a necklace, literally anything, as long as it is noticeable.
When picking this, it does not have to be extravagant - that is a misconception. Don’t bend yourself out of shape over trying to think of the perfect “thing.” It is much more important to just be consistent with whatever you decide on.
Also note, this is not something that will necessarily get people to listen to your music, or follow you, especially when starting out, but the more you do it, and the more of a following you build up, the more heads you will turn.
For example, if you wear pink pants once, no one will comment. If you wear them twice, no one will care. If you wear them 100 times though, now the audience is interested, because they will feel as if there is a reason behind it. Like, why pink? What is the meaning behind it? Or they just want to see if you’re wearing them again.
You can even start conspiracy theories about it (which spread like wildlife on the internet), resulting in more exposure brought towards yourself, and more people talking about yourself (but that is most-likely further down the road). It is however critical to implement now. Plant the seed now with your signature item, and watch the results grow over time.
Your signature item is not just all you need however. You also need to decide on an overall style, which you will always dress in. For example, if you dress classy, always dress classy. If you dress raggedy, always dress raggedy.
It does not have to be that cookie-cutter though. Your style could be wearing things that simply do not match. Your style could be a clash of styles. Again, it does not matter, as long as you are consistent with it, and it relates to your music.
Questions to help you determine your style and signature item
When determining your signature item, is there anything already associated with yourself? Or something people distinguish yourself by?
If not, look at the 10 most recent pictures you posted on social of yourself, and see if there is anything in common. We say “posted” and not just last 10 images of yourself, because chances are when you post an image, you ensure everything in it is top notch, including yourself looking your best. You may subconsciously be portraying something specific without even knowing. If you still cannot find anything, you can completely pick something at random, but remember, this will always be apart of yourself, so ensure it is sustainable
When picking your overall style, ask yourself “what would you like people to say about your ideal style in one word?” We say ideal, because you might not have been wearing it yet, for whatever reason, but let’s assume for a second, there is no limitations, and that you could wear anything, picture yourself wearing that now, and what is the first word that comes to mind? Classy? Elegant? Sexy? Sophisticated? Whatever it is, that should be your style. Broad enough so that you have a range of clothes / accessories to wear, but precise enough to the point, whenever someone looks at you, that word should come to mind.
Note: It goes beyond clothing too, and includes hairstyle, makeup and even posture, but that is also included in other categories.
2. Your personality
Your personality is something that an audience should be able to quickly identify, even after only a minute of yourself speaking (if they haven’t already from your style).
For example, if you do a 10 minute interview, after someone watches those 10 minutes, you want them to feel as if they know who you are, (and not just from sharing information about yourself), but rather exclusively through how you present yourself, personality wise.
Unlike your style, your personality cannot be anything, for the reason it will not work. You will not be able to keep up a personality that is not truly who you are. In addition to that, portraying someone you are not, will also take a toll on your mental health.
Furthermore, as you grow in popularity, people will continuously expect that false persona, which is completely unsustainable and unhealthy.
You are unique, and you are beautiful, and your personality is at the heart of that. As a result, we strongly recommend that you stay true to yourself.
If you are serious, continue to be serious. If you are quirky, continue to be quirky. Your audience will connect with the honesty, wholesomeness and genuineness you are projecting.
Questions to help you determine your personality
When no one is around, or when you know no one is watching:
How do you feel?
How do you act?
What are you missing
What do you enjoy?
3. Your associations / affiliations
These are things that you associate yourself with, including people, brands, charities and viewpoints. Ever heard of the phrase, actions speak louder than words? That’s exactly what your affiliations do.
As a result, they provide yourself with a perfect opportunity to bring publicity to yourself; good publicity if you associate yourself with the “right" people/brands/businesses/views in the minds of others, and bad publicity if you associate yourself with the “wrong” people/brands/businesses/views in the minds of others.
There will always be a “wrong” choice in the minds of someone, and so while you should not make choices based off what others think, there are more socially accepted choices than others. At the end of the day though, it is up to you as to what you want to do.
In general, the safer the association, the better publicity you will receive, but the smaller it will be. The more bold you are, the worse the publicity could be, but the bigger wave it will make.
If you believe in all publicity is good publicity, you therefore may want to be a little more bold in those who you associate yourself with. While that is completely your choice, just know, while it may bring in more fans and more revenue, it will bring in a lot of hate too, and may take a serious toll on your mental health.
Our recommendation is to just be true to yourself, no matter what.
Questions to help you determine your potential affiliations
What brands do you refer your friends to, without any compensation?
What types of people do you associate yourself with on weekends (or when you are away from your professional obligations)?
What are your views, values and morals?
4. Your designs (fonts, colours, filters)
The designs you choose for your social pages, your merchandise, your album artwork, and anything else will also shape your image. This includes fonts, colors, filters and other effects/tools.
They all have their own meaning, and can actually say a lot about the image the you portray. Therefore you need to dive deep into the meaning behind each, to ensure they “match” the vibe you hope to give off.
One thing to note is that filters can separate yourself from your fans, (such as a black and white filter), and therefore unless you want to be mysterious, it may not be the best choice.
Questions to help you determine your potential designs
Look at the meaning behind colors, fonts styles, effects, filers, etc, and after doing so, ask yourself, "what is my brand personality?" Match the colors, font styles, etc that match your ideal brand personality.
5. Your character (revealed over time)
Unlike your personality, (which should be easily identified by others), your character is something that cannot be seen right away, but rather it is revealed over time.
Your character is who you genuinely are, and often only reveals itself through adversity, challenging times, or big events, bold statements, or public announcements.
One thing to note however is that nowadays attention spans are just a few seconds and as a result, how your character appears can be influenced heavily through PR campaigns (even if the artists intentions are not genuine).
For example if over the last three years, an artist has had several run-ins with the law, publicly said some controversial comments and other frowned upon, or illegal remarks, their character (or true colours) would not be admirable in the minds of many.
However, a solid PR campaign can be created, in which that same artist volunteers their time, or donates to charity, etc. to appear genuine, noble or honorable.
Due to short attention spans, and also many loving a feel good story (which we will get into more later in this blueprint), artists are able to manipulate their audience into believing they something they are not.
Which honestly, can be good if you need a reset. Sometimes your character is defined by one mistake you make, and so you can often reverse that with a well though through PR campaign.
Anyway, we went on a little bit of a tangent there, but the point is that your character is revealed slowly over time through your affiliations, through how you respond to adversity, through your charitable contributions, through what you stand for, or fight for, etc.
What is the character you would like to be seen as? A villain? A hero? An environmentalist? Something else?
Questions to help you determine your character
When you leave this world behind, what do you want to be remembered for?
What problem are you most passionate about solving in this world?
How would your friends (who have known you for a while) describe you?
6. Your character arc
This is the progression you want to make, or anticipate making over the years as you progress, and gain more of a following.
A character arc is something that in general the western music scene has ignored, however its popularity in South Korea, and more specifically in the genre of k-pop is massive, (which is one of the many reasons k-pop is one of the fastest growing genres worldwide).
Many signed k-pop artists play roles, just like your favorite character in a movie. Throughout their role, they have a planned character arc, in which they bring their audience through a wide range of emotions throughout their career, as they develop as “characters.”
In essence, they could be considered actors playing a role, that also happen to be extremely talented musicians.
When looking at your character arc, you do not need to plan anything, as it is something that will happen naturally, however from a high level point of view, you can highlight certain milestones (or checkpoints) you hope to reach at certain stages in your career.
In highlighting these checkpoints, be sure each one evokes a certain emotion, so that your audience follows you along on your journey, through a roller coaster of emotions.
You may be at the beginning of your career, and not even sure of that yet, if so, no problem. You can also create your character arc through the music you release.
One general and very broad example could be “playing” a hopeless romantic during a tough breakup, by releasing a song explaining how you thought they were the one, and are now in dark spot in life. This could be released around Valentine’s Day, when emotions are generally more at the forefront of everyday life.
This and yourself could then evolve into being a warrior, and loving yourself, through releasing a new song with an inspirational /vibe, that is upbeat, around the beginning of summer, when everyone is looking forward to something, such as time off, a vacation, etc.
By doing this, you have now not only brought your audience through a roller coaster of emotions (in which they feel apart of your journey), but also developed right in front of their eyes, leading them to believe they know you on a personal level.
With that being said, that is really only a “character arc” through your music. It would still be recommend to think about you character arc as the person behind the music.
Questions to help you determine your character
What are your current flaws? Do you want to work towards overcoming them?
What would your ideal self (the person you want to grow into) do that your current self does not currently do?
What emotions would you like to express / want people to feel? Do you want that to change? If so, into what emotions?
7. Your uniqueness
This is the one thing or combination of many things that makes you, you! In business, this term is called your unique selling proposition.
It is what makes yourself unique from others. For example, there are tens of paper towel brands, but they all have a unique selling proposition. There are brands that advertise as being the most absorbent, brands that advertise as being the cheapest, brands that advertise as being the best value, etc.
While each brand will ultimately do the job, they all distinguish themselves from each other to gain market share.
Relating it back to music, there are millions musicians, and so to gain traction, you need to be different, and find your unique selling proposition.
While categories prior to this will help, (and especially when they come together to create your image), which may in itself become your unique selling proposition, every musician, (and every person is unique). As a result, continue to brainstorm your unique features and see if there is one you feel comfortable with including as part of your image (either directly or indirectly).
Questions to help you determine your uniqueness
What do your close friends or family say is your most valuable trait?
What do you feel most confident about?
What are you most proud of?
8. Your story
This allows you to give another reason for people to support you, through sharing your story, of who you are, how you got to where you are today, and why others should care.
This is one of the most underrated aspects.
You may have already noticed it, but stories / backgrounds on individuals are always given. Whether you’re watching a singing competition, a sports game, or a movie, the background on the contestants, players, or characters is given.
This is in part do to, 1) stories being easier to follow along to (rather than just being hit by stats /facts, or disjointed pieces of information), and 2) stories connect better with others, and either make someone root for them, or against them.
One thing to note is feel good, underdog, or comeback stories typically do extremely well, hence Hollywood makes countless movies on them every year.
Anyway, people love seeing others defy the odds. It provides themselves a sense of inspiration and enjoyment through living vicariously through the “underdog.”
As a result, look back at your upbringing and how you got to where you are today. *TRIGGER WARNING*
Did you build it from the ground up? Were you left on your own? Did you start with only one dollar in your pocket? Did you grow up with the pressure of your parents wanting you to be a doctor, or a lawyer, or work a stable corporate job?
Be genuine with your story, and only share what you are comfortable with others knowing, but also know that your previous hardships, and you overcoming them, could inspire many others.
Questions to help you determine your story
What is the biggest challenge you overcame?
How did you overcome it?
What did you learn from it?
What is your next goal you would like to achieve?
9. Your vision
This allows yourself to share what you seek to accomplish with music, with your following, and with your clout.
People buy into visions, more than they buy into products, or even songs. Therefore, sharing the “why” behind your music is absoutely vital.
We can guarantee you already make music for a reason, and with a goal in mind (which is your vision). That could be that you want to inspire others through your music, or spread a message through your music, or literally anything else.
Whatever it is, share it, because it will provide hope to others, which in today’s world is needed more than ever. The more people that align with your vision, the more momentum it will gain, and the more people will share it (and your music).
Questions to help you determine your vision
What are you working towards everyday?
What issue are you working to provide a solution to?
What keeps you up at night that you want to change (think big picture)?
10. Your intentions
Intentions are are often hard to show, however with that being said, people are really good at determining when someone is being genuine or not, and as a result your intentions need to be aligned with your image.
Do not try to be deceptive. It will only hurt you in the long run. Furthermore, the more genuine you are, the more that will come across, and the more people will connect with you for that.
In essence, wear your heart on your sleeve, be yourself and be honest with your intentions, whether that be with your music, promotional campaigns you run, or anything else.
Questions to help you determine your intentions
Why are you doing what you are doing?
If money, fame, clout or anything else that made you recognizable, or allowed you to do it full-time (for a living) was non-existent, would you still be doing it? If so, why? For what reason?
THAT IS ONLY THE BEGINNING.
We understand this was quite an extensive blueprint, but what you just did, (through figuring out those 10 categories, and the image you want to portray), while important, is only just the beginning.
Now, you need to implement it 24/7. Every piece of content you release, every appearance you make, every interview you do, and every song you create should encapsulate your image and portray that clearly to your audience, to distinguish yourself from the crowd.
Next thing you know, (when done properly), you will be attracting press, getting more features, opportunities and followers, because you’re no longer just another talented artist getting ignored by the music industry, you’re now a prominent artist, a prominent figure, with your own brand, your own identity, and your own vision!!!
People now know who you are, what you stand for, and everything in-between, which will 100% lead to your success in the music industry.
REVIEWS
We also offer reviews on your artist image. Therefore, we strongly encourage you to thoroughly go through each category in this blueprint, draft up a document and then send it to us for a review. We will not judge, but rather provide our thoughts on if we believe your image is 1) strong enough, 2) consistent enough, and 3) unique enough. As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us either!