The Business of Art is an annual one day conference put on by Arts Partners of Central Illinois. It is designed to connect entrepreneurial artists with business professionals who can help them navigate the world of business. Through seminars and networking, The Business of Art assists artists of all disciplines with establishing and enhancing their businesses. The 2020 conference was recently held at Bradley University on Saturday, February 8th.

Among the 30+ speakers involved in presenting sessions at the conference, Lettering Works’ owner Chelsie Tamms, led two sessions: Are you on brand? Authentically Branding Your Passion and The Art of Pitching Your Art Via Email. While the branding session has been taught by Chelsie at the conference for the past three years, the direct email outreach session was new this year.

Chelsie’s session on authentically branding your passion covers the basics of branding and creative passion projects. The top five takeaways from the session are outlined below:

1. Focus on your why. Understand the difference between what you are doing and why you are doing it. Focus on marketing and sharing your why, as it will help you build more meaningful connections and not make your offerings into a simple (and replaceable) commodity.

2. Always build identity from truth. Embrace who you are as a business and artist. Understand your value and unique offerings and don’t be afraid to share authentically who you really are and what you can offer. Businesses that try to be something they are not will often reach the wrong customers which can result in a dissatisfying experience. Businesses who are clear about what they offer and why can find the right people to sell to and build genuine and lasting relationships.

3. Extract the essence. What three words would you choose to describe your business? These words must represent the core essence of everything you do as a business. Once selected, they can be used as a tool to apply across your entire brand and materials to ensure you are sending one cohesive and intentional message.

4. The keys to developing a strong brand are communication, intention, and consistency. You must communicate clearly what you are looking for otherwise no one will understand what you are trying to do. You need to be intentional about the words you choose and message you send because there is a good chance that someone may only interact with your brand at one touchpoint (i.e. your website or a single print ad). Being consistent throughout all of these materials is key to ensuring you build an understandable and trustworthy brand.

5. When looking to strengthen your brand, you have three options: doing it yourself, working with a consultant, or hiring the work out. Depending on your skill level, interest, and budget - a different combination of these options may be best for you and your business. While this applies to branding, it truly applies to most tasks involved in business ownership.

If you are an artist, musician, maker, author, and/or creative entrepreneur in the Central Illinois area and didn’t attend this year, be sure to plan on coming next year. While this conference offers incredible resources for early-stage businesses, there are also many advanced topics that are presented by noteworthy speakers and professional artists who are successfully making their art their full-time careers.

We are offering all artists a special rate on our one-on-one brand consultations to bridge the gap between the conference’s packed day of information and taking action to strengthen your arts’ business branding. To take advantage of this offer, send a message to Chelsie and mention you heard about this special through the Business of Art.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Chelsie Tamms is an award-winning lettering artist and designer based out of Chicago. She is the owner of Lettering Works, a branding studio that connects businesses to their audience through creativity and strategy. With over 10 years of practice of lettering and design, Chelsie is passionate about craft and intention. When she’s not designing, she can be found eating ice cream, traveling internationally, or starting a new passion project.