12 MORE Branding lessons from professional creatives that every artist can learn from

As creatives, it can be so helpful to hear what other creatives have learnt in their journey. It makes us feel less alone, helps us see how other people navigate the things we're struggling with, and saves us from making those same mistakes ourselves.

So when I interview artists and makers on this podcast, I always ask them the same question: What is the biggest lesson you've learnt about branding your passion?

And while those answers are helpful on their own and alongside each artist's story, I also thought it would be fun to compile some answers together and see what we can learn from the commonalities and differences between them!

So I've done just that and compiled the most powerful branding lessons from 12 incredible artists and makers who've built thriving creative businesses. From illustrators in New Zealand to designers in the US, these creatives have cracked the code on turning their passion into profit and they're sharing their hard-won wisdom.

Ready to discover what the most successful creatives know about branding their passions?

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Ruby Jones

Firstly, we're going to start with Ruby Jones.

Ruby is an illustrator based in Wellington, New Zealand, who likes to make art that shines a little bit of light on everyday moments and reminds us what it means to be human.

"I think I've learnt that if you do work that appears really soft and feminine and caring, people often think that you'll happily work for free and I feel like businesses often want to use that to their advantage. So I guess I've just learnt to be wary and to actually just remember to hold on to what your work means to you and not let people take you for a ride, if that makes sense.

Lame as it sounds, I think at the end of the day, remembering what the work is that makes you happiest and what you love making.

Because the minute you try and feed into what you think other people want or what the algorithm wants, I feel like you're just going to end up miserable, and I feel like that can also come through in your work. If you are not loving it, people can tell."

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Listen to the full episode or read the blog post here.

@rubyalicerose

rubyalicerose.com

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Daisy Braid

Next up, we have Daisy Braid, also known as DIY Daisy, who is a content creator, textile artist and author. Daisy is a self-taught sewist known for her colourful, creative style that combines handmade clothing with thrifted and second-hand fashion.

"My advice would be to spend time figuring out who you are. It's so easy to look around and see what everyone else is doing, and it's so easy to copy people or to be influenced by what they're doing. But I think if you want to have your own brand and you want to stand out and be unique in some way, you have to know who you are, like deep down inside of your soul. You have to always be yourself in a way.

It does take time to develop your own look, feel, brand and voice, and it just comes with time.

Mine has developed so much as I've gotten older and made more and met more people, and it doesn't come from just being all alone. You have to go and experience things. I think if you are trying to be yourself and be honest and authentic, then your brand all makes so much more sense to people. But if you are trying to look or create content or make the same things as other people, it will always feel like someone else.

You can evolve. Your brand might not look the same as it did 10 years ago. It's okay to evolve and change. Like if I still had my original logo, I would hate it. It's okay to change and try new things when you are working towards your brand. My branding feels so authentically me. It feels so much like who I am right now, that I think I could probably use this for the next 5-10 years and it would still work. I can change the colours, but I feel like this is going to be with me for a while and it's going to feel like it fits. It's okay to change and evolve."

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Listen to the full episode or read the blog post here.

@_diydaisy

diydaisy.com

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Meg Lewis

Now let's hear from Meg Lewis. A designer, comedian, and performer working to make the world a happier place with design, comedy, performance, education, novelty fonts, and so much more. Meg specialises in transforming serious corporate worlds into delightful intentional playgrounds.

"I think my favourite thing is to stop looking to see what other people are doing. I think we're taught so early on that if you want to do something, go out and look to see what the successful people are doing and then do what they're doing.

But my goodness gracious, that does not work. That formula works for them. It's not going to work for you. I have to constantly stop myself from looking at Pinterest, for example, if I'm trying to get inspiration, because then I am just as guilty as anybody. If I do that, I'll make work that looks like those other people.

Like talking about portfolio sites. I think what we all do is we go and we look like what is a portfolio, what does that look like? So we go and we look at other people's, and then we kind of just do that, but with ours, and that's another way in which we all just end up conforming and becoming the same person.

It's another way that we kind of just become beholden to trends, which, you know, trends exist in order to sell more things like trends exist so that we feel discontent with how we look and what we're doing with ourselves so that we feel like we're behind all the time and we need to buy more things to catch up. If we're constantly just looking at what everybody else is doing and just doing that too, we're just part of that trend following the cycle.

If we can figure out who we are that's separate from other people and find a way to communicate who we are as individuals visually within ourselves, and to communicate our personality and our lifelong points of inspiration that don't have anything to do with trends that are happening right now. If we can figure out how we can just create a career and explore that and share it visually with other people, then we can show the world that we are doing something unique and interesting. And we'll probably end up becoming the people that everybody else looks at and studies what we're doing, but they shouldn't!

We know that the people that are actually changing culture and actually catalysing this wonderful, beautiful change in the world, are doing things that are unique, that are refreshing and incredible and unlike anybody else. And the rest of everybody is just sort of trying to conform because they feel like they're not good enough. And that's so sad.

I think that that's my one thing, is to just try and find a way to figure out who you are outside of what the world's telling you you should be, or who you should be, and try to identify who you actually are. It's the world's hardest thing and most people can't do it, but try to be as loud as possible with whoever that is."

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Listen to the full episode or read the blog post here.

@yourbuddymeg

meglewis.com

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Jessica Hische

Next up is Jessica Hische. Jessica is a lettering artist working in branding, film and television, book design and advertising. She's also a New York Times bestselling children's book author and illustrator, and recently opened two physical stores in Oakland, Jessica Hische and Friends, and Drawling.

"I get real philosophical about this because of my feelings about personal branding or whatever, I dive super deep into sort of almost like spiritual stuff where I have no idea what happens at the end of this life. It'd be super cool if we all ended up in some happy place or whatever positive message is out there about what happens after you die. I mean, that'd be icing on the cake, but I do know that if nothing happens, the only thing that you have is the impression that you've left in the world. If there's no way to live on, because it doesn't exist, you will live on by the things that you've created, the things that you say about yourself, post about yourself, or create.

So I'm very conscious of that and I think that that's why I approach all this stuff with trying to be as genuine and true to myself as possible. Not everyone does that because they're able to really compartmentalise like who they are from who their work is, and they don't need those two things to be aligned all the time. That’s a completely fine approach.

For me, I just think that if someone was trying to get to know who I am as a person in the future, what evidence would they be looking at? And I always want that evidence to be a reflection of my truth, so I'm very curatorial about what gets said and whatever.

So my brand is like me. I just want people to know me. If people unearth projects that I've made or things that I've written or a post that I've done, I want them to feel like they're getting a sense of who I really am and I think that you can approach it from two ways in terms of branding your passions or passion projects.

But that's the approach that I have and I feel like it works for me and my values. Just do whatever feels the most true to yourself and what you want. If you're someone that does not want the world to know everything about you, that's definitely totally valid as well.

I just think of it as like if people meet me, does their expectation of me align with the real me and I want it to, and that's sort of how I approach it."

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Listen to the full episode or read the blog post here.

@jessicahische

jessicahische.is

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Elizabeth Hudy

It's Elizabeth Hudy time, AKA The Peach Fuzz, who is a loud mouth illustrator and crafty little bitch trying to make socialist business practices and resource sharing the new norm.

"The only way you will fail is if you stop. That is the one that I give most often because it's true! Eventually, statistically speaking, you will take off. You will.

Growth is supposed to be exponential. The more people that know about you, the more people that can tell their friends about you than on and on and on.

So the only way that that doesn't happen is if you quit chasing it. That's my big thing, is just you have to keep going. You have to know that it will get better."

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Listen to the full episode or read the blog post here.

@thepeachfuzz.co

shop.thepeachfuzz.co

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Eliza Williams

Now for Eliza Williams. Eliza is a multidisciplinary creative of DooLittle Illustrations who, like many of us, struggles to narrow down what she does. But if you happen to make her write it down in a form for your podcast or something, she will say that she specialises in illustration, animation, and design. Her work takes on many different forms, combining digital and traditional mediums to create a colourful little world to escape to and explore.

"Gosh, that's such a hard question! My number one piece of advice for people would be as cheesy as it sounds, be yourself and put the work out that you want to put out, and then people will come and people connect with that. I think that's the main thing.

As long as you're being yourself and being consistent. That's all. Just be you."

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Listen to the full episode or read the blog post here.

@doolittleillustrations

doolittleillustrations.com

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Ellie Compton

Meet Ellie Compton. Ellie is an architect and artist who runs a Christchurch based art studio called Maker of Chaos. She collects people's life stories and weaves them into chaotic and whimsical worlds of art that encourage imagination and discovery.

"I would first actually touch on what kind of language you want to be speaking in. When I say that, I mean if I was to think about how I want my brand to be portrayed, I want it to be like your best mate. I want it to be a bit sassy, a bit edgy, like fun, but kind and approachable.

I would probably suggest coming up with five or so words that are descriptors of how you would want to be portrayed or how you want someone to describe you and your business.

And then out of that, I think a lot of the design elements can kind of come, like, you know, your logo, whether you create it or someone else creates it, they've immediately got a framework of how it's going to be portrayed. Your colouring often will come from your art itself or your business anyway.

But yeah, I would start with the language. I would start and that kind of gives a whole personality to your brand, immediately."

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Listen to the full episode or read the blog post here.

@elliecompton__

elliecompton.com

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Itzel Islas

Okay, next up is Itzel Islas aka YayItzel. Itzel's work is inspired by Mexican culture, vibrant colour palettes and playful elements of everyday life. As a freelance graphic designer and illustrator, her mission has been to create a positive bicultural impact through design.

"The biggest lesson learnt, definitely try to be your most authentic self because it really resonates with that. I think if you're trying to, if you're pretending to be someone you're not or you're trying to follow certain rules, I don't know how, but people can tell. And so I just always try to encourage people to just be genuine with the work they do. Try to think of what makes you your middle school, high school self and try to go back and pull from that for experience and inspiration. I have found that that has been the biggest lesson for me of having people resonate with my work, and I think the other thing would be to be nice. Being nice has taken me so far. It seems like something so simple.

But just being nice and being patient because obviously growing a following or building a brand or getting anywhere takes a lot of work and a lot of patience and time.

It's taken me since I started over 10 years ago to be the designer that I am today. So I always like to remind people to try to be patient because nothing happens overnight."

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Listen to the full episode or read the blog post here.

@yayitzel

yayitzel.com

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Kassy King

Let's hear from Kassy King. Kassy is a multidisciplinary, creative dabbler of all arts and crafts and lover of colour and upcycling. She ran her own business, Kassy King Designs until early 2024 when she closed it down to focus on finding a healthy work-life balance and pursuing other professional aspirations.

"Don't let the noise of social media stop you from sharing what you want to share. I think it comes back to that authenticity. I don't know if you get those videos where they're like, do this and reach this many accounts.

Don't chase the algorithm. You'll never beat it. You'll never understand it. Even Instagram doesn't understand it. Post what you like and you will find your people.

Just be yourself. No one else can be you. You might sell the same thing as someone else. You might do a similar thing as someone else, but what the other person doesn't have is your personality."

Listen to the full episode or read the blog post here.

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Hayley King

Next up we have FLOX aka Hayley King, a New Zealand artist and business owner currently in her 20th year. She specialises in hand painted commissions, large scale murals, and producing seasonal luxury bag and personal stationary collections.

"That's a hard one. I think not to look too far ahead, take baby steps, and set some goals but not too many, just baby steps.

Also I think, in the beginning, prepare to do the mahi. You're going to have your fingers and some pies, and I think it's really good to keep doors open. I've always said to students that I've worked with in the workshops and this question comes up a fair amount, that it's good to keep doors open. For example, if you are studying fashion design, that doesn't mean you have to be a fashion designer. It's going to give you a whole bunch of skills that you are going to be able to cross over into pretty much any other artistic discipline you want.

So I just feel like you know, you don't have to have a career or a single career these days. Everything really crosses over and it's okay to put something down and start something up again because I feel like nothing ever goes to waste, certainly in the creative sector.

And I think that a lot of the skills that you can learn from one course can translate completely across a number of different disciplines. So, fingers in the pie, be prepared to do the mahi, and just write some goals and be kind to yourself."

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Listen to the full episode or read the blog post here.

@floxnz

flox.co.nz

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Sophie Holt

Okay, we are almost towards the end, but let's hear now from Sophie Holt aka Studio Soph, an artist and illustrator with a real love for clay. Born in New Zealand, but raised in the Netherlands studying graphic design. She returned to discover her roots and fell in love with the country all over again. Since setting up Studio Soph in 2015, she has been making a living, creating art.

"To keep playing is a big one. I've been doing lots of repetitive things, and I miss it. So I have to take my own advice and play with different materials and mediums and stuff. I found that's important. Otherwise it becomes the same thing every day. And be proud to share it!"

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Listen to the full episode or read the blog post here.

@studiosoph

studiosoph.com

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Kelly Spencer

Last but not least from our latest episode, we have Kell Sunshine aka Kelly Spencer, a muralist, letterer, and illustrator who spent 17 years creating vibrant work that celebrates the interconnectedness of all living beings. Her distinctive style features lush, retro inspired colour palettes and flowing curvaceous forms, often centred around soil sorcerers, protagonists that embody the earth's wisdom and magic.

"It's probably a cliché, and it's probably a cliché for a reason, but being your own voice. It's kind of the only way to be good at being a human, and it's kind of the only way to be good at being an artist is to not try and be someone else's voice, and that's freaking hard these days. Especially when there's a lot of noise, there's a lot of information available. Too available.

Always trying to come back home to that. Yes, I'd like to draw like they draw, but I don't, I draw like I draw. And just trying to always lean back into your own voice. I'm sure that you've had so many other guests say the same thing for good reason.

It’s just working out what is important to you and doing that. That's when I feel the most balanced. Like the pendulum swinging in the middle there. It's like, okay, this is me. This is what's important. And then you're fuelled by that and your best work will hopefully come out.

Not always though. Sometimes it's just shit.

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Listen to the full episode or read the blog post here.

@kell.sunshine

kellsunshine.com

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What strikes me most about these conversations is how every single creative—whether they're illustrators, designers, muralists, or multidisciplinary artists—keeps coming back to the same fundamental truth: authenticity isn't just a buzzword, it's the foundation of everything.

These artists have built thriving businesses not by following a formula, but by having the courage to be themselves in a world that's constantly telling them to be someone else. It’s about persistence, patience, and staying true to what makes you uniquely you.

If you found these lessons as inspiring as I did, you'll love diving into more creative wisdom in Episode 87, where I compiled similar branding insights from artists like Pepper Raccoon and Whitney Manny.‍