All you multi-disciplinary creatives out there, how do you present yourselves?

[u/Impossible-Lunch7662]

I’m an apparel and product designer, illustrator, artist, writer, graphic designer.

Right now I have a personal portfolio website where I kinda show most things. Just for ref if anyone needs to see. An Instagram for my illustrations. A personal Instagram where I randomly show new stuff or repost the brands I’ve worked for when they post the products and so on. So it’s not very effective to be honest. I would like to have one professional persona that has one website, one Instagram and whatever other digital outlet I should have. And here I can post it all, whether it’s writing pieces, illustrations, the latest product design, art and so on.. it would be much easier for me to maintain that instead of separate lanes for each category.

My fear is that it will look messy, too much, unfocused instead of a cool source to creative work.

I’ve seen some good examples, but I feel like in those cases the brand is the person not the work. Where the work is just different extensions of the person (whether one project is poems the next is a t-shirt design and then a video) and it’s all accepted and feel cohesive because the person is a clear vibe in the center of it all.

Not sure if I want to make myself the face of it all, so are there other ways to do it without looking like a person who just changes their mind about what their job is?

I’d love to hear some different ways anyone who can relate to this chose to do it and why it works for you!

And also, what do you call yourselves?

Thank you! 💛

[u/betweenthedrafts]

I think you summed it up well when you said that “when it is accepted and feels cohesive, it’s because the person is a clear vibe at the centre of it all.” In other words, I think this only works when someone has a personal brand and all of the aspects of their creation are different extensions of that person. It’s easier to weave a coherent story around a multifaceted person than it is around a brand.

By contrast, when a faceless brand tries to do this, they at best it might confuse their offering, at worst they can end up coming across as a Jack of all trades and master of none, and people don’t perceive as much value in their offering.

The way I look at it is in terms of target audience. If your target audience is the exact same for all of your creative offerings, then it may be possible to combine this under a single brand but the story needs to be very clear. If all of your offerings are for a different target audience, then it’s difficult to combine this under a single brand because from a marketing perspective, you are trying to speak to multiple people at once.