Joy Of Code - Web Design Training and Consulting
Joy Gems Newsletter

What Style Is Your Parachute?

By Bud Kraus
bud@joyofcode.com
Joy Of Code
Creator And Instructor

v2 i7
Originally Published: April 6, 2006

A couple of weeks ago I attended a panel discussion of heavyweight illustrators which was organized by the New York Chapter of the Graphic Artists Guild.

One of the panelists, Daniel Pelavin, said something to an audience made up of many blossoming illustrators which got me thinking.

He remarked that frequently people ask him, "What's the best style of illustration I should adopt? What's the style that will work best for me and my career?"

Pelavin, without flinching, I'm sure, tells his inquisitors, you don't find style. Style finds you. It comes from within. It is the expression of who and what you are, what is in your soul. Style tells the world what you value. It is not something you find on a rainy day as if you were looking for something to do or to imitate.

We form our ideas about style from external stimuli - the rush of and accumulation of all things our senses experience over time. But in the end, each of us must synthesize all that input to develop a style, a sensibility for which we will be recognized as something that only we can do. Indeed, one's style becomes one's brand, one's franchise, one's recognizable value added to the world.

What does this have to do with web design, something always in the forefront of my thoughts? Everything. Do I have a style? Do you? Do you have a way of design that you are known for, that moves across all media especially The Electronic Canvas?

Perhaps my style is an approach and not really a style. I have said on more than one occasion that I'm not a web designer. That's true enough, but I sure have an approach that I take from project to project, from class to class. That approach is wrapped around web standards. Why? I feel that's the best way we can serve the needs of our clients, users, search engines, and future technologies all at once while providing a rich enough palette to allow each of us to develop and express our unique style.