What Should You Name Your Art Business
If you are artist or a maker, one thing you’ve probably wondered about is what you should call yourself. Should you use a brand name or your given name? Or maybe find a word to describe your art? Or find something clever and catchy that you can call your business?
What you are choosing to use as your Instagram handle and website URL is not a small decision. The fact is, people don’t remember things. They don’t remember names, they don’t remember handles. If you are trying to market yourself to the world, you need to think about ways you can be more easily remembered.
My first tip: Think Long Haul
When you are making your decision about switching your handles, is that it’s very important to think long haul. People do change their business names and even their personal names but it’s never easy and it’s important to count the cost of a name change. The main thing is that people won’t be able to find you.
If you already have a consistent social media handle and a matching URL, and an audience, changing your name is a recipe for confusion.
But if you’re just starting, you have a bit more leeway to play.
My second tip: Create consistency
Do your best to create synergy in your online presence. In an ideal world your URL website and all your social platforms and your legal business name will be the same. This makes it easier for people to remember you and easier for people to find you, which is kind of important if you are trying to build a business.
My third tip: Use your own name
This is mostly for fine artists, but for artists I do have a preference for using your given name. I think it’s more professional and identifies you as an individual, which is important as an artist. If you have hopes to create a business that is bigger than you and not associated with YOU as a founder, like Rifle Paper Company or Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, then a broader name is great.
If you chose not to use your name, I would advise a title that is broad enough so that you can change your offerings without too much trouble in the future. For instance “squirrel art dot com” might be a bit limiting.
For most artists, it’s more professional to identify yourself by your name. In most cases, a gallery or a museum will prefer to work with a “person” rather than a business organization.
Two Questions I hear about using your own name: What if my name is very common or what if my name very unusual? I have a friend named Amy Anderson. There are A LOT of Amy Andersons. She is a photographer, and she went through MANY different potential URLS and handles until she found one that wasn’t taken.
Conversely, your name might be hard to pronounce or spell. That makes it harder for people to remember or find you, which is what we’re trying to avoid. So if you want to avoid your given name for those reasons, or others my 4th tip is to consider a pseudonym
My 4th tip: use a pseudonym
Ralph Lauren’s original name was Ralph Lifshitz. I’m not making this up. Lifshitz does not bring to mind a high-end clothing brand! Reese Witherspoon’s first name is actually Laura. John Legend was born John Stephens. It doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?
So maybe there’s a word or name that you have personal resonance with, and you can build your brand around that!
My 5th tip: make sure you’re legal
In the world of small business, you can create something called a DBA (doing business as). You don’t actually have to change your real name legally, you just file a DBA with your state and boom, you have a business name. You can put that name on your business banking account, and it will be associated with your EIN number or social.
My legal name is not Josie Lewis. My DBA is Josie Lewis Art, LLC, and my legal name is none of your business! Josie Lewis is my maiden name and I kept it for business purposes. But I have a secret second name which I rather enjoy. I like keeping that little bit of distance between the ME Josie and the brand Josie.
My 6th tip: Don’t worry so much about it.
Honestly, I know it can be really hard to land on “name” and it feels like a big, important decision. But names, like logos and fonts and bios, are just supporting elements of the big story, which is YOU and your art! Plenty of people with unusual or funny business names become famous, household names and we don’t even think about it.
Get my guide, Pricing Your Art Made Easy!
