Branding?

[Peter Blair]

Do any of you who sell their work use a brand?

My loose definition of a brand is something that identifies the work as yours. May not be the dictionary definition . . . .

I did read that Scott H has developed a finial that identifies his work and DC I believe has a style that says it is his, these just a few that come to mind.

My question is more related in my case, as to how I sign or don't sign my work.

A few months ago my sales representative suggested that I should develop a brand of my own, now I don't sign my work but 'brand' it instead of my signature.

I think this may work at least for me as I do lots of different types of art (some of which really doesn't have room for a full signature but usually I can find a place to hide my 'brand') from carved walking sticks to whittling knives and of course the different items that I make on my lathe. Obviously not in the same league but I can't help comparing it is the 'paw' print that is found on all Boyds Bears.

What say you? Was it a good or bad idea to go away from signing my work?

Additionally, if one does choose a 'brand' how important would it be to copyright the 'brand"?

[Eric Holmquist]

You actually would want to register your Trademark

[Mike Cruz]

Yeah, I would say that if you are going to make a Trademark sign, like that pawprint, to signify that a work of art is yours, you'll have to register it (or at least ought to) and that could/will cost a load of cash. That said, if you sell enough, or charge enough for your art, it may be worth it. For me, it isn't worth it. That said, I sign everything I do, except pens and small things like that...

[Darren Jamieson]

I can relate to the branding issue only because after I sign and date and put the species I usually look at it and think it looks sloppy. As far as what you chooose to brand with, be carefull some people take that sort of thing very seriously. The courts are tied up with that stuff all the time.

[Peter Blair]

Thanks for the replies and the recommendations. I, like Darren often looked at the bottom of a piece with my signature, a number and the species and thought it looked messy and or crowed. Now all that is there is a small number and my Brand. Looks clean and neat.
I have searched the net without a lot of luck as far as finding someone using a similar brand but it is difficult to search for anything other than text so I could have missed it. I should have said at the offset that I am in Canada and it seems to me that there is much less court activity here than south of the 49th.

[Rick Markham]

There's a few things I would consider, I've talked to several professional artist about how they developed a signature etc. The first criteria is that your signature should be easily recognizable, consistent and easily read by your customers. There's a personal touch to a hand signed piece, it's very hard to get away from that. A brand is an excellent way to do that, I would however, seriously consider including your name in some shape or form with the design. Just a design could suggest that there may be more than one maker, and that's ok if you are alright with that. I developed a pretty legible signature for my work, one that I am 90% happy with, but I am not 100% happy with it. I think in time, it will develop (Like my work has) into something that I am happy with. My signature that I use on my work isn't my legal signature (chicken scratching) but one that is a mixture of printing turned into a script look. I think I probably signed my name about 2,000 times on paper to develop it, applying it to wood (with a dremel engraver) is an entirely different thing, and takes it's own kind of practice. That being said, I recently purchased two "pipe makers" steel stamps (which could be used as a brand if heated) for some harder to sign work. I'm not sure I am entirely happy with them, and will continue to sign my work when I can.

[Scott Hackler]

I started out with a "Hand made by Scott Hackler" branding iron that also has a changable date. I ended up having a couple problems with it. 1st, it does not work on a concave survace (bottom of a vessel), 2nd, the bottoms of a lot of the stuff I make are too small for the branding iron and 3rd, I find it less personal than a hand signed piece.

I think a lot has to do with the type of turnings you do and where you sell them. If I was a craft fair seller, I would likely be churning out bowls and platters and selling them for $15-$50 and the branding iron would be appropriete for a utilitarian piece...IMO. I am not interested in that audience so the pieces I usually am going toward are more of the wood art type. Something you'ld sell in a gallery....maybe. So to me asking $350 to $2000 or more for a wood art piece, deserves a hand written signature.

Now like a lot of folks (Dr.'s writting prescriptions!), you can't read my legal signature. So what I have been doing is printing my name with an archival pen or (usually) use my high speed piercing tool to carve in my printed name.

I like the idea of a makers mark or trademark, but honestly if I didn't write or carve "Scott Hackler", noone would know who the heck made my pieces. Maybe after I get "famous"! Of course that might require selling something!!!!