Killer DJ Promotion 2

1. Brainstorm and research first

If you’re starting off this process sitting right now in front of a graphic design program, turn it off. Seriously, the biggest mistake most make in designing a logo is to just open up a program and go at it without any real research or brainstorming. Take a sheet of paper, or a notebook, or open a text editor if you like to type it all out. Start writing down adjectives, genre names, and any other words you can think of that you want to use to describe yourself as a DJ or artist. Don’t worry if it all looks like it won’t make sense. These are what will help you then do your research.

When you have a list to start with, then do your research. Look at the logos of DJs you admire and even emulate. Take notice to how they design their logos. Look at flyers and ads for the music and scenes you like and want to play for. Believe it or not, the branding of a rave differs from that of a mainstream club and that of a rap music event. I usually like to save logos of where I get my inspiration from. Sometimes it’ll be a treatment I like, or a font, or some unexplainable thing. Many designers will even sketch out rough ideas and shapes they find on the same page as their adjective list.

2. Move on to rough design

This is the point of the process where we hit a fork in the road. Do you want to try designing it yourself? Or go to an actual graphic designer to do the work? If you have the money to invest, then it can be better to get someone to design your logo. Again, I’d hold off on using any computer-based design programs at this point of the process. Right now this is more like writing the rough draft of your bio. You’re better off taking a pencil and a piece of paper. Just sketch your ideas, or what you like.

The main reason for using pencil and paper is so you can just think design and not get too enveloped into choosing fonts, colours, and making things “perfect”. You don’t have to make a fully-refined “polished” logo. You’re just more doodling and toying until you come up with the solid idea that you’ll want to polish.

The kind of logo you make is really up to you. Many logos will have some kind of symbol or item with the name all nicely laid out. Many others do not. I personally like simple text-based logos, but you might be different. One good tip if you want to incorporate symbolism is to look at your list of adjectives, your name, and thus pull symbolism out of it. Feel free to make a few ideas if you have them. You don’t have to just pick one sketch. If you’re torn between a few ideas, then keep them all as ideas you’re going to pursue on the computer.

3. Now you can use the computer

With your sketched ideas all in order, it’s time to move on to the computer and polish them up into what could be your final versions. You will need a vector-based design program. Adobe Illustrator is the most well-known program, but you can easily get all of what you need in the freeware program InkScape. Unless you have a deep need, I’d advise you not to use bitmap-based programs such as Photoshop, GIMP, or the web-based Pixlr. The main reason is a logo should be a vector file that can be easily resized for any purpose. It could be a tiny logo on the corner of a flyer, or a big billboard on the side of the road. With a bitmap image you cannot go larger than its original size without having blurring occur.

From this point, take your ideas and lay them out now in the program. Take your time, as rushing will only give you a mediocre deliverable. Explore not only your idea as a whole, but the font you’ll use, how the lettering will lay out, and the balance you create between your text and any symbols you might create. Don’t be afraid to “play around”. That means feel free to toy with or distort the font and shapes if you need to, or just sit there tweaking and trying variations until you are happy. Also explore colours if it is something that is important to you. I personally like to stay away from picking specific colours, but many others feel the opposite.

4. Review and revise

When you have one or multiple pieces ready, take a moment to review. If you’re going about this all on your own, then perhaps make some kind of rough design of a flyer or an album art with your logo. See how it looks to you. Many logos might look wonderful by themselves, but when you put them into context, you might find one standing out while the rest won’t. If you want to make it collaborative, then show your friends and ask their opinions, or even just check that your final designs fit the list of adjectives you wrote up in the beginning of this process. It’s not the rule you must make it fit that list, but more a good guideline to start from. If you need to collaborate and have no.one, try using our forum.

Make any changes you wish, and keep going back and forth until you feel solid on your final logo.

5. Export the final versions and make your guideline

When you’re finished with your design, you’ll need to save it out as graphics you would send out to designers or whoever might need your logo. The most popular file format for logos are EPS. I’ll usually have my logo ready as EPS files as well as PDF and transparent PNG. Since PNG files are bitmap (ie a “set size”), I’ll make the final file around 1000 pixels wide. It keeps things large in case someone has issues with EPS or PDF files (which are “vector”, as described earlier).

The main point is so you’re covered on all bases. If a designer is making a flyer with a darker image of a big crowd at a festival, he/she might end up using the white logo instead of the coloured one. That, or it could be an inexpensive flyer made on a copy machine, thus the designer will use the black logo.While making these files in every file type, I’ll also save versions in black, white, and any other colour scheme used. So if the final logo is let’s say, red and green, I’ll have EPS, PDF, and PNG files of that, but I’ll also have a white version and a black version in those file types.

A logo guideline isn’t a requirement, but you should make one if you have very specific “rules” on how you want your logo used. I personally hate them, because too many logo guidelines are super-strict and thus do not give designers much room to breathe. Regardless, if you want to make a guideline, then speak of your logo in the following factors:

• Colours / versions that can be used
• Sizing
• What colours can you put the logo on top of?
• Can you put the logo on top of gradients, photos, or textures?
• Space around the logo in design

Killer DJ Promotion

Step 1: Gather information

The first step in writing your DJ bio is to gather the information you want to talk about. Think about the following questions before you write anything:

• Where are you from? Has this had any bearing on the kind of DJ you are/want to be?
• How did you start DJing? Or what led you to want to be a DJ?
• What are your goals as a DJ?
• Who influences you? Where do you draw inspiration from?
• What have you done, in terms of gigs or projects?
• What are you currently doing now, in terms of residencies or other projects?
• What projects are you looking to do in the future?

Take some notes as you ask yourself these things. Even if you’re a rank amateur with little experience, you can still come up with an initial bio by simply focusing on the points that aren’t related to past or present gigs/projects.

Step 2: Write your draft

With your information gathered, it’s time to organise it into a first draft. This isn’t supposed to be a chronological telling of your DJ career, but more a combination summary/marketing story of you. A good way to approach the first draft is to use this basic structure:

• Who you are and what you’re about
• Where you started and what you’ve done.
• Your influences and goals
• Where you’re at now and where you see yourself going

I know it’s tough to talk about yourself, but it is one of life’s challenges that when you overcome it, you’ll be able to more easily promote yourself not even in the DJ realm but even in the normal professional world, if you happen to be seeking a job or opportunity that isn’t even DJ-related.

When you write, think about the tone you want to convey and which “person” you want to speak in. Speaking in the first person (“I did this and I did that”) will give a more friendly, personable tone to your bio. However, it might not come off as “professional”. The third person (“He did this and she did that”) is a better tone for most bios if you’re serious about going deep into this as a potential career.

In terms of tone, you want your bio to sound ambitious, professional, and positive. Try not to sound egotistical, negative, or narcissistic. Also try not to get long-winded, or put in things that have no real relevance to your DJ career. For instance, it’s nice that you were born in a little village and shovelled coal until you were sixteen, but does this have any real deep relevance to you as a DJ and what you bring to the booth? If the sound of a coal shovel rhythmically hitting the black stuff has given you a highly original take on programming drum lines, say so – if not, it’s not relevant!

So how long should your bio be? I’m sure you’re wondering. I will tell you that most promoters or even journalists are not going to have the time or patience to read a massively long DJ bio. I would probably advise not to go more than four or five paragraphs, but at least as long as one paragraph (if you don’t have much to say). One sheet, definitely.

When you get your first draft finished, approach the next step the same way you might have when you write or wrote term papers for school. Write your rough draft, read it a few times, and then tweak or change things as you see fit.

Step 3: Version it out

When you finish and perfect your final bio, you then need to make several versions of this. The main reason is your bio should also be easy content for whoever might need it. So let’s say you made a strong four-paragraph bio you’ll toss on your website and in your press kit. You should then whittle it down into a one-paragraph version showing the most important points. This is what some journalists or promoters might use in some cases, or perhaps for social media sites in the “About” section.

You should also make one or two more versions that are one or two sentences long. This might sound silly, but look at a lot of rave events. When they post their detailed lineups online, many promoters will put those small tiny bios next to each name. These mini-bios shouldn’t so much focus on achievements or where you came from, but more on just who you are and what one can expect of you. Think of this as your “elevator pitch” – what would you tell someone if you had to travel a single floor in an elevator with them about your DJing career, that gets the main point across?

Step 4. Got a related company? Do the same thing!

Are you planning on starting a promotions crew to throw events? Or maybe you’re a mobile DJ and want to present yourself as a company rather than an individual? In either case (or if you’re a PA hire firm, or you run an internet radio station, or you’ve founded a club wear shop, or you run the club listings website for your town…) the simple DJ bio will not do. You’ll still need a DJ bio regardless for your own individual use, but for a company, the “bio” is known as a mission statement. A mission statement is usually one or two sentences that tell what your company does and what it’s about. This could be something like:

“Our mission is to expand the musical landscape of the city while entertaining patrons and creating a balance between underground innovation and mainstream excitement.”

Or even:

“DDJT Entertainment provides top-quality music and entertainment services for your event. We bring the excitement of the club to your wedding, corporate party, or school dance.”

If you need to go further, then you would make a company history which tells of your achievements, growth, current projects, and goals, much in the way you did for your DJ bio. From that point you would perhaps list the principal participants in the company and show their own short one-paragraph bios (see why I had you version things out?).

In the long run, be it a bio or mission statement, the goal is to write copy that allows the reader to get to know you as a DJ, artist, or company. A demo can do wonders, but it’s the bio that separates you from the masses. That’s why it is so important, and why you should treat it always as a work in progress – keep updating and evolving your bio as you grow and evolve as a DJ or artist.

9 Tips for 1st Gig

1. Take your time
Avoid taking on a last minute gig. Give yourself at least three days to practise and plan before playing a gig. Taking on a last minute gig does nothing but open up the door of frustration. Many inexperienced or novice DJs make the mistake of thinking that they need to take on any gig they’re offered, at any notice. This is not true and in fact, it pays to be selective. Take the gigs you know you can handle and decline the rest. After all, if you botch a gig, how will that help you land another in the future?

2. Use the tools you’re familiar with
Whether your friend has a faster laptop than you, or you just bought a new deck, switching up your tools at the last minute is a recipe for disaster. In order to avoid the confusion of new equipment, or the possibility that it won’t perform the way you’re used to, avoid using equipment you’re unfamiliar with at your first (or any) gig. Stick to the tools you know, even if they’re slower or less fancy.

3. Play to the crowd
If the only place you’re used to playing is your room, then you’re likely playing to an audience of one: Yourself. When playing your first gig for other people you need to keep in mind that their tastes, and your tastes, may not line up. Learning to listen to the criticism and suggestions of others without allowing them to derail you is one of the great skills of DJing. Might as well start learning it right from the off.

4. Never leave home without a plan B
As a budding DJ you probably haven’t had a whole lot of experience with hardware failures. Despite what some DJs will say, hardware failure can and will happen. Whether it’s a frayed cable or a crashed laptop it doesn’t matter: they both stop the music. You should always have a plan B in place in case your plan A stops working…

5. Show up early
The last thing you want to be doing before you step behind the decks is rushing around tying up last minute loose ends. It’s better to show up too early than too late. Give yourself time to set up, and run a thorough sound check. This will alert you to any problems and give you time to fix them before they affect the sound of your set.

6. Plan out your set
As a DJ you know it’s best to start strong and end strong, but many well-intentioned DJs will forget this in the heat of the moment. It’s best to plan out multiple solid playlists that you can switch to depending on your crowd. This will keep people dancing, and help lessen the nervousness of a first gig. Having pre-planned “mini-sets” like this is not cheating; slotting together pre-planned segments according to what the crowd reacts to is a time-honoured why of mixing planning with spontaneity.

7. Promote the gig
It’s not enough to assume that your family and friends will simply pack out a club. They may or may not, but truth be told you’ll probably want some strangers there too, and bringing a crowd is certainly one of the best ways to get booked again, like it or not. Friends and family may be flakier than you think, plus they’ll always give biased feedback. Plus, winning over a room of strangers is always more fulfilling than playing to the converted.

8. Make sure everything makes it to the gig
You probably have a lot of equipment, cables, accessories and the like. Create a log so you can make sure everything you need makes it to the gig and back home. It’s a good idea to pin a checklist to the back of door in your DJ room, or keep one on your phone, or tucked in your kit bag.

9. Bring a trusted sidekick
Having a person available to help you isn’t necessary, but it will make a world of a difference. During the course of a two-hour set it’s very likely that you’ll need to step out for a break or to use the restroom, and it’s good to have someone there who can watch your stuff and make sure everything keeps running smoothly. This person can also act as a liaison between you and the audience so that you can receive requests and suggestions without having to shift your focus from the decks to the audience.