The term “brand” is really a fancy word for reputation. It’s usually associated with large corporations like Nike and Starbucks, but it can be applied to an individual as what is called a “personal brand.” Let’s look at a few artists from the 20th century who built strong personal brands.

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso had a very strong personal brand. Of course, he didn’t call it a brand. He probably thought of it more of his reputation. He did such a good job honing his personal brand that his name is synonymous with Cubism.

Salvador Dalí

Salvador Dalí gave a lot of thought to his personal brand, from his appearance to his wild parties to his writing to his paintings. He was the ultimate poseur, and I don’t mean that in the negative, wannabe sense. He was purposefully flamboyant with his cane, long hair, velvet jackets, and of course his famous mustache. His art was famously strange, too, with burning giraffes, melting clocks, rotting donkeys, and obscure (or not-so-obscure) sexual references. And some kind of odd crutch fetish.

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol is probably the only other great twentieth-century artist to match Dalí’s flamboyance. He really sort of pioneered the linchpin artist thing, with his Factory where he essentially acted as a Creative Director over drones who churned out his silkscreen prints. His background in advertising was probably a huge factor in his understanding of branding. It certainly played a role in his aesthetic and the way his work was produced.

Damien Hirst

Another artist with a “factory” of his own since he subcontracts out a lot of the manual labor is Damien Hirst. He has a reputation for making insanely expensive works that get people talking: a tiger shark in formaldehyde, a human skull encrusted with diamonds. He’s associated with really out-there high-concept works of art. The way he works is not new, though: artists in the Renaissance ran “factories,” too. The Master would do the line drawing or the important details, but his apprentices would do the heavy lifting for him. Except Michelangelo, ever the renegade, who fired every assistant he ever had and wound up doing everything himself.

It is more important now than ever for artists to create a distinctive brand. If anyone can do a little bit of art (whatever art is; it’s a pretty fluid concept) they can easily throw up a website and gain a following. You don’t even have to be a good artist. Damien Hirst is evidently not a very good painter, and even Dali’s paintings are not technically sound. What those artists offer is a combination of shock value and tricky concepts. For what it’s worth, shock value goes a long way, even today. The key is that an artist has to do something memorable. (I suppose shocking things are more “memorable.”)

What are you doing to create a distinctive brand for yourself?