What to Name Your Art Business (And Whether to Show Your Face)

Art Biz

Aug 3

Written By

I talk to A LOT of artists in my membership, Art Revenue Coaching, and there are a couple of questions I get a lot.

Number 1 most asked question: What should my art business be called?

Number 2 most asked question: Do I have to show my actual face?

In this article, I'm going to tell you what I've learned in the two decades I've been sharing my work, name, and face online. I’ve made some mistakes so you don’t have to!

Both of these questions, our name and our face, are about our "brand" identity and who we are. Our name is the thing that people will hopefully remember. Our face adds the human element to our name. The artist’s name becomes your brand, your storefront, your signature. It’s how people find you, remember you, and talk about you to others. If someone can’t remember your name or spell it correctly, they won’t be able to find you—online or in person. That’s a serious obstacle when you’re trying to build momentum. Memorable = accessible = sellable.

In this article, I’ll cover:

How to choose a memorable and consistent handle across all platforms
Why your face matters in brand building—and when to show it
The pros and cons of using your given name vs. a pseudonym
Mistakes I made with my own branding and how you can avoid them

Choosing the Right Handle

Choosing your Instagram handle and website URL is not a small decision. Here's why it's important. The fact is, people don’t remember things. They don’t remember names, they don’t remember handles. If you are trying to market yourself to the world, you need to think about ways you can be more easily remembered.

When you are making your decision about switching your handles, or creating a brand new social account, it’s very important to think long haul. People do change their business names midstream, and even their personal names, but it’s never easy. Count the cost of a potential name change before you begin.

When to Change Your Handle

If you already have a consistent social media handle and a matching URL, and you've built an audience, changing your name is a recipe for confusion. If you’re just starting, you have a bit more leeway. And when I say "just starting", anyone with under 5000 followers on any platform is at an early stage, so switching things up shouldn't be a big deal.

Here's the number one unbreakable rule: use the same handle across all platforms, email, business cards, and website. I broke this rule, and I don't want you to make the same mistake. Here's how I messed this up. I was able to get my name, Josie Lewis, as a URL for my website. But I was NOT able to get my name as a handle on social media. For some reason, when I started my Instagram account, I went with @josielewisart.

Handle Consistency: Why It Matters

My website and my social handle didn't match. Then I started new accounts on different platforms, and I was using different variations on @josielewisart, so it turned out my handle was different on EVERY platform.

I've since rectified that, and now I exist as the same user name on every platform, but it took a while to get everything to align. And my website is still josielewis dot com.

Don't make the same mistake I did! In an ideal world, your URL website and all your social platforms and your legal business name will be the same. This makes it easier for people to remember you and easier for people to find you, which goes back to the important main point of all of this: being memorable!

I made another mistake with my handle. It's kind of hard to read. People have sometimes said they thought my name was Josie Le Wise. Or Jose Lew IS Art. Or Josie Elewisa. Since my goal is to get people to remember my name, this is problematic. I could probably solve this by using hyphens or underscoring, (josie_lewis_art?) but now I'm kind of superstitious and I don't want to change anything. But I wish I had started it differently!

Should You Use Your Real Name?

The standard for fine artists is to use your given name. It’s more professional and identifies you as an individual, which is important as an artist. Galleries and museums will prefer to work with a “person” rather than a business organization.

An exception for this is if you hope to create a business that is bigger than you and not associated with YOU as a founder, like Rifle Paper Company or Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, a broader name is great.

If you chose not to use your name, I would advise a title that is broad enough so that you can change your offerings without too much trouble in the future. For instance “squirrel art dot com” might be a bit limiting.

What If Your Name Is Too Common (or Too Weird)?

There's another question I get a lot: What if my name is very common OR what if my name very unusual? I have a friend named Jessica Brown. There are A LOT of Jessica Browns. She is a photographer and she went through MANY different potential URLS and handles until she found one that wasn’t taken.

Conversely, your name might be hard to pronounce or spell. That makes it harder for people to remember or find you, which is what we’re trying to avoid. There are some people who might share a name with a celebrity or an already famous brand. If your name is Julia Roberts or Brad Pitt, that might pose a problem if you every want to be found on the internet. If you want to avoid your given name for those reasons, consider a pseudonym.

Ralph Lauren’s original name was Ralph Lifshitz. I’m not making this up. Lifshitz does not bring to mind a high end clothing brand! Reese Witherspoon’s first name is actually Laura. John Legend was born John Stephens. It doesn't have the same ring to it, does it? Among artists, no one knows the original name of Banksy. Vincent Van Gogh always signed his paintings Vincent because he knew Van Gogh would be tough for non Dutch folks. The artist Man Ray was born Emmanuel Radnitzky. I have a successful artist friend named D.C. Ice. Her artist name has little resemblance to her legal name, but D.C. Ice is catchy and I'm not surprised she kept it!

Making It Legal

Once you have your name, you'll want to make sure you're legal. In the world of small business, you can create something called a DBA (Doing Business As). If you chose to use a business pseudonym, you don’t actually have to change your real name legally, you just file a DBA with your state and boom, you have a business name. You can put that name on your business banking account and it will be associated with your EIN number or social.

Fun fact: my legal name is not Josie Lewis. My DBA is Josie Lewis Art, and my legal name is none of your business! Josie Lewis is derived from my maiden name and I kept it for business. But I have a secret second legal name. I like keeping that distance between me, the person Josie and the brand Josie

Should You Show Your Face?

Now, let's dive into whether you should show your face! You can show your face on your website, about me page, and of course throughout your socials. This brings up a lot of trepidation for people, which I well understand.

When I built the first 100K on Instagram, I had a faceless account. All I posted was art process videos. But over time, I began to feel like it was important to show up with my face once in a while. I'm going to tell you right now, I was NOT excited about it. Knowing how to be comfortable when getting photographed and filmed is actually an acquired skill. My photographer friend says that the people who look the best in photos aren't necessarily people who fit some societal standard for beauty, but people who just believe they look good. If people are confident and comfortable in the presence of a camera, they naturally look great. And you will get confident when you are photographed MORE.

I think it's very possible that you can build a successful business without ever showing your face, and I know several creators that do it very well. But ultimately I think you SHOULD show your face, at least some of the time.

The main reason to show your face is simple: people connect with people. A face makes your brand human. When collectors and followers see the same face associated with your work, it builds recognition, familiarity, and trust. Another bonus? It helps differentiate you from other artists with similar names or styles.

Hot tip: hire a professional photographer to take a few polished, high-quality images that you feel confident about—these can carry your brand for years and be used across your website, bios, press features, and social posts.

Summary – What Matters Most

Your name and face are powerful tools in building a brand that people remember—and buy from. You don’t need to be famous or flashy, just consistent and clear. If you want to build a business around your art, start with being recognizable.