As a designer, in any medium, there is one element that is vital to your success: finding your style. Defining your style helps you to build a brand around yourself. All well-known designers are known for their style. If your style isn’t unique and representative across your designs, people will have trouble identifying your work. On the other hand, if your work is easily identifiable, that makes your promotion and marketing efforts smoother & easier.

I remember in 5th grade art class learning about van Gogh, Degas, Monet, Matisse & Picasso. They all had a distinct style {and painting method}. Style is especially important for illustrators. Look at Norman Rockwell or Mary Engelbreit, you know their work when you see it. Even businesses should have a distinct style {which is more commonly referred to as a brand}. The products, services & marketing efforts should reflect that company’s brand/style.

For some, finding your style may be simple. Maybe you doodle & your style just screams off the page. For others, like me, finding your style isn’t that easy. I find I like several different & conflicting styles. modern. fresh. clean. simple. bold. balanced. understated. shabby. vintage. messy. intricate. The key here is not what design styles you admire, but the style that your designs actually reflect.

As for me, I am still working on finding my style. It is slowly emerging through different projects. It is a mixture of the items I listed above {but not all of them}. It’s not completely clear yet, but I have had some surprises recently. One of those came when I did some doodling on a friend’s card, which became the inspiration for this hand-lettering {on a soon to be launched project}:

I still have some style searching to do, but I’m having fun exploring my design style & learning new techniques and methods throughout the pursuit.