Photography Branding 101

Some real ideas on branding:

1. You are the ultimate brand

The first thing to consider is this: know that you are your own ultimate brand. Use your first and last name, and promote the hell out of yourself. The more shamelessly you could promote yourself, the better.

2. Being self-centered is more honest

Traditional morality and ethics say that to be self-centered and self focused is evil. Note how the word selfish is synonymous with evil.

However, if your goal is to become all that you can be, it is all about you. Your photos, your ideas, your philosophy. The more opinionated you are without having to quote others, the better.

3. Choose a color

Very practical ideas: to best brand yourself, choose a color you want to become synonymous with. Choose a color you like, and a color what you feel best represents you.

For example, think about the color Tiffany blue, how Ferrari is red, how Lamborghini is yellow, etc. Also one of the best things I learned from the Phil Knight biography, shoe dog, is how he figure it out to make Nike sneaker boxes bright orange, to have them pop out of the shelves.

Arsbeta.com as green. ERIC KIM as crimson red. The spartan 300s as having the iconic red cape. Even the 300 film sequel, the heroes all wore geyser blue.

Even when you think about iconic cars, the Mazda Miata is being red. The Subaru WRX is being blue.

Or when you think about sports teams, the iconic purple and gold for the Lakers, the blue and orange for the Knicks, etc.

4. On becoming an individual

What is it that we most lack? Courage for an opinion without having to cut somebody else. Lack in our sense of authority without having credentials. My thought is the best credential is the stamp of your own approval, your own opinion.

You know you’ve become influential when people are curious what your own opinion is.

5. Own your own platform

Build your own self hosted website, that what you pay a monthly fee for. Own your own first and lastname.com.

For example, I own erickim.com (thank you Cindy).

With platforms, invest that which is open source, and that what you pay for. For example, I paid $200 for this premium WordPress theme, and I built up my website with the open source wordpress.org. I pay around $300 a month to host this website.

And that is the best investment you can make, instead of purchasing hardware, pay for online hosting services. For example, I also pay money for my dropbox pro account, my pro Google Drive account, and also extra money for additional Apple iCloud storage.

6. How to create a distinct style

How do you get your photos to be recognized? A simple thought: stick with one camera, one lens, and one aesthetic for a very long time. Have people associate you with a certain aesthetic. For example, when we think about Daido Moriyama, we think of high black-and-white and gritty contrast photos.

And even with my own personal self, I best prefer high contrast black-and-white photos.