The Value of Branding

The autumn is here, the beasts are all finally at school - the littlest started this year, and has had a two week lead in period, which has felt like it's taken forever!  He's all settled and happy though, which is the main thing - and I have literally been up to my eyes in crochet.

I just wanted to take a moment write about the value of branding.  I know it's horrible and commercial, but if you want to make money from crochet, you really have to think of yourself as a business, and not someone just sitting around making things.  If you don't think of yourself as being a professional with something to offer, no one else will.

I say this from experience, I'm not just shouting from a high crochet horse.  You'll know about my instagram fixation by now, and one of the reasons is, that it really made me define my aesthetic.  That's not to say I only make one sort of a thing, but I now only photograph and represent things in one, consistent way.  Having a clear, defined 'look', has then fed into all the other ways I visually represent myself.

This in turn has led to work coming from all sorts of places I never imagined.  People now trust that I'm an actual crochet designer, not just someone sitting in my sofa, covered in wool and the cat, eating grab bags of tortilla chips and watching day time tv.

So what do you need to do?
1. Find inspiration from other people - who's look do you like?
2. Pick a look you can stick to, and you like.
3. Make sure everything you have matches - blog, facebook, business cards, instagram
4.  Stick at it - if you like it, other people will too, don't lose heart if you lose followers, the like mindeds will come to you
Ta daa!  You've made yourself into a brand x


All the pics below are of different objects, but the clean white background and use of negative space give them a sense of cohesion.