The Value of Integrated Communication as Artists
As artists, storytelling is at the crux of our craft. Visual storytelling is a powerful way to share ideas with the world and drive a point forward. Whether you’re working for a big company as a character designer, a storyboarder, or a freelance production compositor, like myself, communicating a clear message or emotion to your audience is the most important aspect of our jobs.
We heavily depend on visual storytelling to put our names out into the world, hoping to land the perfect job in whatever niche circle of the industry we believe fits us best. We try our hardest to use our portfolios to express the kind of person and artist we hope to be. But how can we ensure that the work we’re putting out there truly conveys a cohesive image of us as creative individuals? And how can we be certain that the right audience engages with it and receives our message?
As a compositor, my job entails taking different types of art delivered to me by different artists and putting them together. Ensure they have a sense of consistency to be seen as a whole composition instead of their various working parts. I find that the principles of integrated communication work in a very similar way.
To put it differently, integrated marketing communications is a strategy that binds a company or brand’s image together throughout its various platforms. Implementing this strategy to our branding as artists can help polish our image and increase the chances of getting noticed by the right people.
Let’s use this scenario as an example: An art director is looking to hire an illustrator for a new project. They go to the Instagram page listed on your resume. As they scroll through your page, they see that your artistic style might fit the role they’re looking to fill. However, when they go to your linked website, the work displayed is nothing like your Instagram posts; instead of more stylized illustrations, they see charcoal drawings and photography. The art director is now confused because they do not know exactly what kind of artist you are, so they move on to the next candidate.
It happens more often than you think, especially to younger artists looking to get a foot in the door. Artists want to show they’re versatile and capable of working in different mediums, but sometimes this message can get lost or misconstrued. To an outsider who doesn’t know you personally, it might look like you’re unsure what kind of artist you’re trying to be. By incorporating integrated marketing communications into how we portray our work online, be it on our portfolio website or our social media pages, we can be certain that no matter what part of our online presence recruiters look at, they can see a unified concept tying all your work together.
Don’t misunderstand me. My advice is not to post the same pieces across all your platforms. But let’s say you are looking to get a job as an illustrator; perhaps on your Instagram page, you post images of your completed works, and on your portfolio website, a recruiter might find “work in progress” updates, like how you went from concept to final draft. Maybe you even upload a clip of you working on certain pieces on your TikTok page. Integrated communications can help you achieve brand cohesion by using visual storytelling to show art directors and other recruiters exactly who you are through your work, making the different working parts of your creative process look like a whole.
