Can we identify our style?

Alright, I'm going to level with you all. I'm currently on a train home from London at 9 pm after having 4 hours sleep and waking up at 4.30am. I've had four coffees, little food, and absolutely no WiFi. So what better time is there to the right a blog post? I chose the topic of finding your unique style as I've recently had the thought of identifying one's self often on my mind. I've dealt with imposter syndrome in the past, as most of us will do at some point in our lives. I've dealt with it so much so that I don't feel like an imposter anymore; I feel like I am just growing and forever will be. Now while some may see this as a great success, knowing that one isn't pretending to be someone or something that they aren't. However, this is not true in my case; it leaves me in what I consider a worse situation than before, not knowing what I am or who I am.

I mean, I know I'm Jack. I know I'm passionate about website design and development and that I am living my dream job. The issue I have is figuring out how I am perceived by others, not in the anxious “I hope they think I'm cool sort of way”. Just in how would they describe me? Am I enthusiastic, influential, monotone, what is my style? With most artists and designers you can notice a clear trend in their work, the same goes for most artistic career choices. In all honesty, I don't think any artist can truly pinpoint their style. I've watched many music artists in my time have interviews where they had informed as to how they achieve their sounds and unique style. Most of them say the same thing; they don't believe they have a set style. They know what sounds good to them and they play it by ear.

I feel as though one will truly identify their style when they develop a pattern for themselves in developing and creating. Whether it be a web design, development, music production, painting, anything that involves creating. If you have a pattern or series of steps that you follow as part of your process in every creation, you will then truly being to develop a style. Do I think I've developed a style yet? Not at all, I'm still a puppy trying to find my favourite spot. I believe it'll take a couple of years at the least before I find what works best for myself as a developer, and only when I find my perfect set of tools will I begin creating in a more process-driven manner. My advice to anyone reading this is that if you don't think you've found your style yet (in any field) that you pay attention to the tools you use. Identify what tools you find are in line with your values as a creator, what tools you feel will help achieve excellent results and build them into a routine. Over time you will slowly begin building your process. As technology advances, you will drop and add tools to your process, which is a good thing as you don't want to stagnate. Just ensure that the new tools added are for a justified reason, not just because your favourite creator is using them.