How We Collaborate with Creatives
Bess creator Christy Mack has worked with all kinds of creatives from painters, musicians, choreographers, dancers, filmmakers, architects, interior designers, poets, illustrators, sculptors, costume makers, writers, photographers, and composers to mixed media and sound artists.
She’s also worked on behalf of museums, art centers, art councils, public art committees, galleries, and chambers of commerce to present artists and exhibit their work.
“My experience has shown me creatives need brand identities to establish their presence. These identities function to capture the artist as well as the message of their art. It’s how creative people achieve their maximum impact both as individuals and as part of collaborations because who they are becomes clear and well defined — and their work understood. It’s why I’ve made supporting artists in creating their brand identities a component of the studio’s work.”
about brand identities
What exactly makes up a brand identity for an artist? It’s a common question.
Christy likes to think of it this way: A brand identity has two main components that merge to become the container for how the artist presents themselves and their artwork.
The first component is their story and CV, told in words, and the second component is a visual representation of who they are as an artist; a look and feel that expresses in the form of a logo, color and typography and accompanies the words.
The components work together to create an easily recognizable, holistic identity much like you see in familiar brands like Apple, Airbnb, Levis, Adidas, Sonos, Alaska Airlines, Starbucks, Nike, and Coca Cola. These brands have logos, colors, fonts, and stories they use consistently, making them recognizable and easy to interact with as you know quickly who they are and what they stand for. It makes these companies memorable too.
Bess can achieve a similar impact working with artists on their brand identities without being corporate about it. We stay creative and true to the artist.
“A brand identity is how an artist presents themselves and their artwork – in person, in print and in digital space – consistently and repeatedly to the world.”
our process
Bess derives a creative’s brand identity from their history, work and aspirations. Christy starts by talking with artists to capture their stories and study their work. She then moves onto creating the visual portion of the artist’s brand identity – a logo typeface (the artist’s name in a particular font) or logomark (a symbolic image or icon to represent the artist). Christy also defines a color palette and selects fonts that become part of the visual identity package.
Through Bess, Christy helps creatives migrate this brand identity to their website, social media, print collateral (think business cards, postcards, posters, brochures, and more) and any place they exhibit their work. Christy also authentically integrates artist identities into any collaboration they are a part of.
“When artists invest in establishing a brand identity and creating content and experiences around it, they can more easily build their creative communities and get their work seen, heard and acquired. They also set the stage for becoming integrated into larger, broader arts and cultural collaborations that are a natural fit for their work.”
identities in action - a hint to what’s possbile
As co-founder and co-creator of Art Moves Project (AMP), a public art initiative, Christy developed not only the brand identity for the organization, but she made sure every one of the more than 25 commissioned artists that were part of AMP’s collaborative projects were presented in an authentic way, including architect Lara Dutto.
“As an architect and artist, it was a privilege to have Christy capture and share my work. She has incredible storytelling skills and is a beautiful photographer too. Christy is so well thought out and has the right balance of listening and contributing without taking over when developing both the vision and content for artistic projects. This is important for artists and is really tough to do.”
what’s next
Ready to create, or refine, your creative identity? let’s talk
And — check out some of our past work here. We followed our own process to create the Bess studio identity too. Read all about it here.
