How to Visually Upgrade Your Music Brand: Art Direction Playbook (Mau P Edition)

So this is Ma P and this is Maurice

West. One of these artists was making a

few thousand dollars per show and one

can now get six figures plus per show.

And spoiler alert, it's the same guy.

And the difference between the two was a

rebrand, not a new logo, a new story and

position in the culture. Through the art

of rebranding, Mauitz Westine, better

known as MAP, was able to build a

multi-million dollar brand just by

following a few key steps. And today

we're going to walk through those exact

steps and how you can use the same

playbook if your project feels stuck,

stale, or misaligned. And this is a

controversial statement, but it's my

belief that most artists should be

thinking about rebranding now because of

where social media is going and what the

next phase is going to be. And later in

the video, I'll go into full detail of

why I believe this to be so. But if you

want to follow a similar path as Malp

and build an audience of millions and a

life of financial and creative freedom,

you'll have the major festival

headlines, prime set times, and global

demand. Today's topic is something

you'll need to understand. So, who am I

to even talk about this topic? My name

is Chris Alba, and for the last 12

years, I've owned and operated a

creative studio called The Cole

Creatives that's done exactly this for

thousands of artists and creative

companies. We've worked with some of the

biggest names in music, as well as some

of the most well-known companies in the

world. We've done countless rebrands as

well as building brands and stories from

scratch for many of today's top music

artists. We've done tens of millions of

dollars in business over the last 12

years. And we've been a part of the

success stories of countless artists

around the world. From our point of view

in today's landscape, brand is just as

important as the music. And we've seen

over and over once an artist gets their

brand and story right how quickly things

start to change and how fast an audience

can grow. and Mau P is a perfect example

of when this works. So, let's get into

it. Step one, decide if a rebrand is

right for you. So, if you're deciding on

whether or not to rebrand or reposition,

let's look at a few different scenarios

you may be dealing with. But first,

let's kick it to Malp and see what was

going on with him.

>> I don't even deem the first project too

successful, if I'm being honest. Like,

to me, I was always doing the the

Maurice West stuff and I always sort of

felt held back. I was always looking at

other DJs that were in the same sort of

sound or universe, whatever. And I'm

like, why are they succeeding in that

way and why is it not working for me?

You know, I thought like, I know music.

I think I'm a good DJ. I think I'm a

good producer. Uh, I know how the scene

works. I know what I want. I have the

vision, but it's just not something was

just not connecting in some way, you

know? like I played really big festivals

and there was like a small fan base and

the releases were doing good, but it

never really got to a point where it

felt like organic to me. I was still

digging for um for the gold or the

diamonds, I guess. And part of that

digging turned into like the switch up

that became Ma P.

>> So that's what Ma P was dealing with.

Let's look at some different scenarios

that you might be dealing with. Scenario

number one, stuck with no growth. No

matter how many followers or what your

engagement looks like, you've been

banging your head against the wall for

months, maybe even years with no growth.

There's just something that isn't

connecting with the audience. Maybe it's

time for a rebrand. Scenario number two,

everything all at once. So, for this

scenario, let's say you built a project,

but it was all over the place with

experimentation, and it's not really

clear who you are. There was great stuff

that was created, but overall it wasn't

a cohesive idea. It was throwing a bunch

of stuff at the wall to see what stuck

and what you liked making. Like any

artist, your first or second brand

normally is built on a foundation of

experimentation. You're trying different

things, seeing what you like as an

artist. You're honing your taste and

also seeing where you and the audience

may meet in a like-minded space. But now

enough time has gone by and you're clear

on what you want to do for the next few

years. And this time it's not based on

trends or mimicking your heroes. Now you

know what you want to make and you have

full clarity. So to express this

newfound clarity, maybe it's time for a

rebrand. Scenario number three, a

reputable reputation. So for example,

with my first project, much of the

industry knew me as a promoter. I threw

large scale parties in LA and I booked a

bunch of talent. And while I deeply

loved curating and creating these

events, I had quietly been studying and

learning how to make proper dance music.

When I was a concert curator, I also had

a corresponding DJ project that would

run alongside the events. With that

project, I was more of a DJ and less of

a producer. So once I started producing

and I had a grasp on the kind of sound

that I wanted to make, I decided to

rebrand. When I rebranded and started

the new project, I made sure that I had

distance from the promoter part of my

life and made it solely about the art,

music, and story. I focused heavily on

those elements and it grew 10 times

faster and larger than my previous DJ

brand. So, if there's a reputation on

the brand that may be an uphill battle

for storytelling, maybe it's time to

rebrand. Scenario number four, bad

packaging. So, in this scenario, there's

nothing wrong with the music, but the

brand's story and visual identity just

feels unclear. It's not cohesive, and

deep down, you know that if you were a

potential fan and you saw this project

and it wasn't yours, it'd likely be

confusing to you. So, in this scenario,

a rebrand could be retooling the story

and the look. You don't have to burn

everything down. You just need to

rebuild certain elements so it's clear

to the audience. If you find yourself in

this scenario, maybe it's time for a

rebrand. Scenario number five, a new

mission. So in this scenario, your

mission and your why, the reason that

you're building a music project and

career, your mission changed. You want

something new. Now, this could be as

simple as when you first started, the

whole reason you wanted to make music

was just for fun as a creative outlet.

But now the new mission is to build a

brand reputation and successful business

around your creative endeavors. Or it

could be the other way. Initially when

you got in, you had a mission of

building a big business in music. But

after attempting that for a matter of

years, you saw that you had to play by

the rules of the system and that killed

a lot of the fun of being creative in

the first place. You've now reentered

your mission on making sure your taste

drives everything you do. So a good

example of this is one of our clients,

Chris Lake. In the mid200s, he was a big

room and progressive house artist. He

had hits like Changes, Carry Me Away,

Only One, and Sundown. It was a very

specific kind of sound in a very

specific kind of scene. The brand was

polished and it was pure. His brand and

sound aligned with other similar artists

in the scene at that time like Dirty

South, Fetty Lrand, John Dalback, or

Funk Agenda. But as the brand went

forward, he started to evolve and around

2016 is when the rebrand started to take

place. The music was getting

progressively cooler and he found

himself with a new mission. So from 2017

on he rebranded as the more cool Chris