i figured out my branding nonsense while making more butt tags for plushies last night.
if you've ever purchased a plushie from me, you've probably seen the butt tag. it has my cyclops rabbit fursona, as well as laundry directions on it. both of the "images" on these butt tags are printed on the fabric via a stamp i hand carved out of an eraser with an exacto knife. like everything i do, i make this stuff by hand as much as possible. i actually didn't start out putting butt tags on things, it was a suggestion from my mom who was commissioning me for something for my cousin. it's been maybe 2 years since i've been using butt tags.
last night, i realized for an upcoming project, the butt tags i've been using as a standard for my plushies are too big. i waffled on what to do, include the large butt tags, or don't use a butt tag at all. i decided to just make a smaller stamp for smaller butt tags. i omitted the laundry direction side because im already working incredibly small and it would be real impossible to carve a stamp for all that.
i carve my stamp, cut out the rectangles from a plain white linen, use archival waterproof ink, let the ink dry, then wet the tags/wash them to get rid of excess ink, and then let them dry. and then i have a butt tag.
i've bellyached about "branding" before, since all of my contemporaries and peers in the plushie space do advertise themselves as a "brand" even though i know there's only one person behind that twitter account. i'm already an outlier since i deal a lot in more human/character plushies and not strictly furry/pokemon/animal plushies. i'm an outlier again because i only use felt and fleece in my plushies. i'm an outlier again again because i highly prefer to hand sew everything, especially at the scale and level of detail i work at.
i've used my own fursona as a mark of "me" because it's one of the more "unique" logos i have. i've not run into another cyclops rabbit in all my internet existence so far, and it's a design i came up with when i was a kid. it's an important image to me, hence the representation of me in the work i produce. it's for this reason the brand name i'd want would be "orchid rabbit".
while i live off my commission work, it's not my full time job like most creatives out there. but im also not just a plushie maker, which is another thing i've talked about. i wear a lot of hats, i do a lot of different kinds of work and have a lot of hobbies, all connected to my face and my online "brand".
i've never enjoyed splitting the hairs over splitting out my content to other places. i hate maintaining multiple accounts, multiple spaces, multiple outward facing personas for the internet. not to say i never do that, i have 4 twitters for fuck's sake, but its important to me that i stay recognizable to even myself. i'm multifaceted and i want that to be acknowledged, i don't just do one thing.
a "brand" is usually something recognizable under one thing. like "X brand does X thing" type thing. most of my peer's account names are their brands, and might've been their online handle before turning it into something of their livelihood. my online handle contains my own name, and it's been like that for over 10 years now. my "brand" is me in totality, much like my own name is.
this is all to say, while making my butt tags last night, i want people to see the "me" in the thing i made. i make everything start to finish by hand and as much as possible. the most important "machine" to my sewing work is the white light lamp i have for my desk.
when someone talks to me about my work, commissions me, holds what i made for them in their hands, i want them to know that there is a single person, with a face, with hands, and a name, behind it all. i realized how the depersonalizing being a "brand" can be, i know some of my peer's handles and names but i don't know a lot of them. not to say there's not legitimacy to their work or disparaging the idea that you cant be private online or whatever, but i personally can't and won't do that. my name and my face are out there and unavoidably so, and even still, i think i'd consider myself a pretty private person lmao. i've somehow managed to maintain that because my audience isn't huge and i appreciate that lol.
i am just a single person making everything, by myself, and probably will always be like that (not that i don't aspire to work on larger projects with larger clients lmao). torturing myself how i'm unlike people who do stuff like me is not a way to run a business, however i think its probably good to see what others are doing and contemplate their decisions and come to the conclusion i don't want to do the same.
anyway, im excited about this new project. i just have a few commissions to finish before i can go whole hog on it.