How to make a brand out of difficult surname?

[somegirl]

So i want to start my art career. I want to build a following and share my art using social media.

However, my surname is difficult to pronounce, let alone write it down. My first name is fine, it's a bit too common here where I live, but I think it won't be a problem for people to remember it/pronounce it. But my surname (Djordjevic) is hard to spell out, it's a bit long too, so what can I do?

I want my brand to represent me, I want it to be personal and professional (I don't want to go by username "BubbleGum" or something like that). I want some memorable, cool combination with my (already common) first name.

What I can do? 

I really want to just start my career and start working consistently, but this has been holding me back for a while because I can't start uploading without establishing name first. 

Thanks so much in advance.

 

Edit: I also don't want to add "art" to my brand name.

Edited November 22, 2020 by somegirl

[abrakamowse]

Do you know the artist Tonci Zonjic? He is from Croatia, comic artist. He doesn't have a difficult last name but he created a nickname with the first part of his first and last name.

He signs ToZo.

Maybe you can do some kind of combination with your name that sounds easy to remember. 

Moebius is a French artist, he used several nick names. One was "Gir", his last name was Giraud. 

Maybe you can use only the first part of you last name like Djord (sound a bit like Bjork)

 

I used a lot of examples from comics artist because I like comics. 

:-)

Edited November 22, 2020 by abrakamowse

[Hello from Russia]

Lool, man, why hold yourself back by such a minor thing? There are like 1000 creative solutions to it. Just create a pen name or modify your real name to your liking. It is your brand, after all, not some strict legal thing, you don't have to be super formal here. Especially in the Art world where it is 100% common and everywhere

[somegirl]

@abrakamowse Thank you so much! I didn't know about him, I looked him up. It's very creative and cool name to go by. I like other ideas too, including your suggestion, I will try to see if I can come up with something cool using this method. I hope I will succeed lol.

@Hello from Russia Everyone has told me it's a minor thing, but I think it's not, and that's why I'm careful. Once I decide the name, I cannot change it anymore, because if I do I will just confuse people and it would be a mess afterwards. So this is like deciding once and for all. lol  That's why I'm so hesitant to not make a mistake I will regret later.
This has been holding me back for longer that I want to admit, it's embarassing. 

[fridjonk]

Two of the biggest stars in the NBA are -

• Giannis Antetokounmpo

• Luka Dončić

So I wouldn't worry about it too much.

If you create amazing art, people will learn any name in order to remember you. 

[RendHeaven]

@somegirl Hey I'm trying to start an online brand using my name as well.

It's comforting to know that someone the same age as me (I looked at your birthday on your profile lol) has similar goals~

Looking forward to your art  

[aurum]

10 minutes ago, somegirl said:

That's why I'm so hesitant to not make a mistake I will regret later.
This has been holding me back for longer that I want to admit, it's embarassing. 

Based on reading this, it sounds to me like you’re running into some fears.

You’re trying to avoid making a mistake so much that you’re not doing anything. This name problem is really a form of resistance.

Does that resonate?

[abrakamowse]

You are welcome @somegirl I am also working on making a brand for my art work. 

What kind of art you do? If you want to share, of course.

 

I am mostly trying to break into comics, but I did some work (character design and backgrounds) for an video game, I also did some illustrations for a sport website (soccer fan website) and some other random stuff. I got some works from reddit.... doing commissions mostly.

[somegirl]

@fridjonk Yeah, that's true, but my name+surname are too common, it's taken on every website, and for my "career path" (especially in this day and age), branding and easy search is important, I feel like.

@RendHeaven Cheers for us! Thank you, best of luck to you too 

@aurum

13 minutes ago, aurum said:

You’re trying to avoid making a mistake so much that you’re not doing anything. This name problem is really a form of resistance.

Does that resonate?

Yeah. It's been going on for a long time now, I'm literally stuck. I am aware of this, but I don't know what do to about it or how to fix it other than deciding on my name, which I'm constantly unable to do.

@abrakamowse I'm doing something similar like RossDraws, I dont know if you know about him :P. Just digital girl portraits, illustrations, something that can be hung on a wall (t-shirt, stickers) and look pleasing to the eye! 
Oh that's cool, how did you get into it? I mean, how did people find out they can comission you for art? Do you have a profile offering all your services?

[aurum]

12 minutes ago, somegirl said:

I am aware of this, but I don't know what do to about it or how to fix it other than deciding on my name, which I'm constantly unable to do.

That makes sense though. Picking a name will happen, but if you’re in resistance because of a deeper fear, than it’s going to feel like going in circles.

The way out of any limiting belief or pattern is awareness.

What are you really avoiding here?

You may want to look at past experiences as well that feel familiar to this one. Patterns usually show up in multiple areas of our lives and at multiple times.

[levani]

arnold schwarzenegger

cristobal balenciaga

seregey rachmaninoff

srinivasa ramanujan

matthew mcconaughey

 

let's get real here your name is perfectly unique and if you don't embrace at least that you won't make a brand for yourself

my name is levani, even the name of my companies (plural) has my name in both, massive leverage

Edited November 22, 2020 by levani

[abrakamowse]

13 minutes ago, somegirl said:

@abrakamowse I'm doing something similar like RossDraws, I dont know if you know about him :P. Just digital girl portraits, illustrations, something that can be hung on a wall (t-shirt, stickers) and look pleasing to the eye! 

I didn't know about him, cool stuff. It makes me remember to Loish a little bit. https://loish.net

He did a great work, good that you are following his example, I think I will do something like that too! Really awesome.

 

15 minutes ago, somegirl said:

Oh that's cool, how did you get into it? I mean, how did people find out they can comission you for art? Do you have a profile offering all your services?

I just created a profile on Reddit and I began to post in boards that people request and offer jobs.

Like 

r/commissions r/DesignJobs r/forhire r/freelance r/hireanartist r/HungryArtists r/jobsearch

Anything that has to do with job offerings in Reddit, and I posted like an Ad offering my services and a link to my website to check my portfolio and that's how I get the job for doing character designs for a video game, the guy contacted me via DM.

Then I began to post in a board that is called r/DrawForMe  r/drawme  and r/redditgetsdrawn where people post pictures and if anyone wants to draw them they do it and post it there. I do it as a practice, and I was drawing some portraits there, and someone contacted me that he liked my illustrations and he send me a picture of him and his wife to make it like a cartoon drawing, and then I did one more for his father and brother.

You just have to be there posting so people knows about you. I am thinking in adding to my instagram account "Open for Commissions" and post some commission and see what happens.

:-)

[Guest SirVladimir]

@somegirl Look, nobody's gonna be searching for your name, but for the incredible work you do for humanity. If Leo's name was Djoinaxisoyhr.exe, I'd still be searching for him. Think about that for a second. 

[somegirl]

55 minutes ago, aurum said:

The way out of any limiting belief or pattern is awareness.

What are you really avoiding here?

@aurum I have a fear of making an irreversible mistake and regretting my decision that I know I wouldn't be able to change once I decide (I mean I can, but it's going to create so much confusion especially if I've been posting for a while). It's not like "Don't worry, you can always change it later", it's kinda definite, it's once and for all. I'm building a name that I will use for the rest of my life, so it gotta be good. lol That's how I look at it.
Plus, I think I'm also a little afraid of it sounding unprofessional, or potentially giving people ideas to make fun of the name (like rhyming the name with something else unflattering) and then it becoming a thing.
So I'm kinda looking at the potential brand names from every single perspective which is kinda exhausting because I cannot think through every single possibility.
I might be like "Okay, this is it, this is going to be the brand name" and then along the way I can realize "OH, it can be understood in this and this unflattering way", but it would be too late, it's already signed on every work I have been publishing up until that point (which would mean having to toss away all hard work because of the name change). That's my fear.
I guess it's my need for everything to be perfect. I am perfectionist by nature, which I don't like to be, but it's the way it is.
Maybe it sounds funny, but I'm being very open here with sharing my embarassing fears.

Edited November 22, 2020 by somegirl

[levani]

i think i remember leo saying perfectionism is a neurotic but changable value@somegirl

[Yarco]

Do what Gary Vaynerchuk does, calls himself Gary Vee.

You can be (First name) D.