What is creative direction, and how can it help your music career?
As an indie artist you’re expected to do it all, and I know from my experience as a freelance motion designer that that can get overwhelming very quickly.
However, having a strong creative direction and a solid plan behind it can actually save you time when it comes to promoting your music. It’s the ingredients that go into every marketing asset, every video, every post and every decision you make. It can help you decide on marketing and promotional strategies, so you don’t end up wasting time on things that don’t work.
Having a good creative direction allows your content and assets to be easily repeatable and repurposed, so if you’re looking to take some of the mental load off, keep reading!
To begin with, there are some key considerations to keep in mind. For simplicity, I’ve broken it down into a few broad sections.
Target audience
This might sound obvious, of course you need to know who your audience are, what has this got to do with creative direction?
However, you should try to think a little deeper about this. Is your music similar to Taylor Swift? Look into the types of people who listen to her music - what are their hobbies and interests? What apps do they use, and what beliefs do they hold?
You can use this information to influence your creative visuals, tailoring them to the right audience.
Artist persona / world building
Most artists will tell a story over the course of their career. This could be intentional, with little easter eggs for fans to find, or it could be as simple as your growth as an artist and as a person. Let people into your world, they’ll become invested in your journey and will want to see you succeed!
To decide how you want to tell your story, try to reflect on your music objectively. Are you portraying a certain version of yourself, or a character? What sort of message do you want audiences to take from your music?
Make sure your message, your morals and your narrative aligned to keep people invested!
Visual style
Consider the above and think about visual connotations that could go well with your music and brand. Start broad and then break it down into the finer details. I usually like to write down 3-5 key words that encapsulate the feeling I’m going for, and from there I look into other artists who I feel convey that vibe really well.
I pick apart everything I look at - what’s relevant to me? What do and don’t I like about it? What common techniques am I seeing across the board, if any?
Pulling it apart can help you create the building blocks of your own creative direction.
Top tip: Some artists will have a ‘signature colour’, this can be a great way to set yourself apart!
Planning
This is probably the most important part of the process. Plan, plan, plan!
This will look different for different people. For me, creative planning is messy. Whilst I’m researching for a project, I add anything and everything to dedicated Instagram & TikTok collections, as well as building up a mood board on Pintrest. I sometimes come out of this with hundreds of visual references, and I try to keep notes on why I saved certain things.
Don’t be too delicate with this process, this is your chance to really dig into what you like and it’s exciting to see all of the options out there!
Once I’ve collected my inspo, I use Milanote to consolidate the best bits into an actual, readable mood board. This is where the ideas begin to really take shape. I suggest having an overall mood board to keep you anchored to your vision, and if necessary, you can then have separate ones for things like wardrobe, makeup, music video, lyric video, social posts, etc.
If you’re working with other creatives, send them your mood boards and they will have a clearer idea on what you’re after. Remember, you know yourself and your brand best so don’t be afraid to push back if you need to!
Here’s a mood board I made for a lyric video :)
I made this whilst researching for an experimental project I did, which was a short lyric video for Peach PRC’s song Sweet n Low! Check out the finished video below and hopefully you can see where I took inspo
I know, this looks like a lot of work right?
Doing this work before you create your promo content, or even before you write your song, means that the minute details have been thought about before you pick up a camera - meaning the content you capture will be intentional, making it easier to create and easier to repurpose! No more trial and error :)
As time goes on, you’ll find a process that works for you and as you build your artist world, you’ll find that the ideas will flow in much more naturally.
To help you out in the meantime, I’ve created a free checklist for you to reference when you’re ready to begin planning your next release, to hopefully streamline your visual creative direction process. You can sign up to my newsletter below to receive the free download!
🍏 Need help putting together some visuals for your release? Get in touch and see how I can help turn your ideas into music videos, lyric videos, short‑form visuals, and release‑ready content.
