Some great minds have already argued that ideas are processed and understood only when we look back in time.
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
Steve Jobs
What exactly do I mean by style in this context?
Style: Noun
You know, when you hear a song by a famous artist and feel that this song has the same style or vibe as other songs that they created? They didn’t do that on purpose. They didn’t think: “Oh! If I put more drums here and keyboard there, this will be much more of my style”. No, they did it intuitively. They didn’t think about creating the song in their style beforehand; it just came to them.
Here, I’m referring to developing a personal and authentic style. While it’s possible to emulate another person’s style, this is a separate topic.
Every creative work has a style, and I see many beginners in this creative journey—writers, musicians, filmmakers, illustrators, designers, animators, and so on—struggling to find their own.
But the trick is the title of this text: Style is only backwards.
You start to glimpse your style only after you have repeated your creative work. Only after doing and doing you start seeing yourself on it.
Repetition
Beginners see renowned and experienced creatives and get overwhelmed by them because they comprehend the styles of those giants but not their own.
You watch a movie by Tim Burton or by Greta Gerwig, and you can recognise their styles.
You read a Stephen King book and recognise his mannerisms.
All of these artists didn’t completely consciously decide that their work would be in their style. Of course, they decided what the colours would be in their movies or words would be in their novels, but the why can only be revealed later.
Artists choose a particular aspect of their work in a certain way more often than not because they feel like it because they cannot help it.
So, how exactly do you discover and construct your style? You create, and then you make again and again and again. Well, you already understand it. You have to keep doing it to gain more experience, so after that, you can look back and start to recognise the patterns and connect the dots.
But if you need help with how to begin with, you can always commit a crime.
Be the best thief
If you have read Austin Kleon’s book Steal Like an Artist, you already know where I am going. If you haven’t, do yourself a favour and read it. It is excellent and straightforward.
Every artist that ever lived had their influences. If you ask any fantasy author nowadays what their influences are, they will talk about their favourite books and authors because, before they were authors, they were readers.
Their passion made them want to pursue a career in that field. If you are a designer, you are because you fell in love with the work of other designers before you.
Now that we have established that every creative person has influences, it is time to accept the truth that every creative person is also a thief.
Initially, you don’t know precisely what to create, but you want to create something that creates the same feeling that a particular work made you feel. So you start replicating their work, trying to grasp how they did it. But you don’t steal only from one influence but from a bunch.
You take a piece of style from each influence you have and each creative person you like, and when you look, this becomes your style. The amalgamation of your influences is your style.
The love for the history of WWII and Samurai movies made George Lucas create his style for Star Wars.
Biologically speaking, you are made by the combination of your mother and father.
Creatively speaking, you are made by the combination of everything that you like–and even what you don’t like. I like to call this idea the Cultural Frankenstein Monster.
So now what?
If you feel stuck and don’t know what you want to create, sometimes the best approach is not to create but to consume. Consume more work to be influenced by, and then start to replicate and create. After that, you will see your own style flourish.
The tricky part is that you cannot be only someone who steals; you must start creating something new from what you learned. And please, never plagiarise; that would be an actual crime.
In the end, what I was hoping you could take from all of this is to relax and to take it less seriously. Style comes after the work done. You can’t see your style looking into the future.
So, focus more on the present and create without judgment and self-doubt. After a while, you will see yourself more and more in your work.