Finding your unique style for your creative business

Do you feel like you have a unique style for your business that is all your own? Perhaps you had a clear vision form the start, or like me it has evolved and changed over time just as you do as a person? Do you feel it’s entirely and fully ‘you’ or perhaps you still trying to discover that?

Why is having a unique style important?

So, why is a strong visual identity important to building a successful brand? Recognition of your brand by your target audience is vital, you create the ‘want’ factor because of its uniqueness – how do you create in a way that no-one else does? We all have a uniquely different view of the world, and it’s translating that into our visual identity – be it illustrative or photographic or sculptural or something else entirely. It can be helpful to start right at the beginning, looking at what we like to show physically, emotionally, visually. It’s a combination of those three factors that cohesively form your whole look and feel. Your essence.

Top Tips for Defining and Creating your Unique Identity

1.       Step away from the comparisonitis. Stop looking at people you admire’s work for a while. Humans (as a general rule) instinctively feel the need to ‘fit in’, which leads us to often copy or repeat what others in our niche do. This is normal, but it can be tricky to then forge your own unique identity within that. Try getting your inspiration from artists outside of your industry instead.

2.       Fill a Pinterest board or physical collage with anything and everything you love, just NOT anything that is the sort of product or service you provide. Focus on colour, texture, feeling and emotion.

3.       Next start to look for commonalities – subject matter, colour, words, music, places, medium (pencil/photography/paint/film/sculpture). Do you like abstract or realistic imagery, bright and bold, soft and muted?

4.       Colour – look for repetition of colour – what do you tend to pick out often. Are they warm, cool or neutral shades?

5.       Your brand message really needs to come into play here too, what are you trying to say with your imagery and your visual identity? Images are all a form of communication, of story-telling – and only you will have your own unique ‘voice’ in the way you combine imagery and words – you don’t need every post to be a sales pitch.

6.       Try to set aside the fear of non-conformity and imposter syndrome. The little voices that say ‘what if no-one likes this’. When we create, the idea of putting things out there and people not embracing it is one of the hardest things to deal with as an artist or creator. This is whey it must have meaning for YOU first and foremost. As long as you love it, love the process, then it matters less how other people perceive it. But often, if you create with soul and heart. THIS is what drives the connection.

7.       Find time to create just for yourself. With no business goal attached. This is often when the magic happens!

8.       Take your time. Finding your own style isn’t going to come from one webinar or one course (or one blog post!). It is a process. It’s taken me years to develop my own style.

Translate your passions into your identity – it should be at the core of everything you create. And if you want some in depth help from me do get in touch, book a 1-2-1 coaching discovery call below,