How much YOU is in YOUR work?

by Tobias van Schneider
Published Apr 29, 2024

I started my design career by accident and never enjoyed a classical educational foundation in anything I'm doing professionally. As a result, my approach always had a bit more of a "punk" approach.

Going this route meant that I had to figure myself out. I had to carve my own path, find my own voice both in my work as well as how I present myself to clients.

But at the same time, I was also lucky to have been part of a creative industry at the right time. A time at which every designer I knew or looked up to had a very strong personal voice and style. There was a lot of "them" inside their work. Regardless if you liked a particular style or not, you couldn't deny the fact that the work was full of personality.

It may have been the graphic design of Stefan Sagmeister, the unique type work of Louise Fili or even the more modern (and now old) web studies like 2Advanced, NorthKingdom or Fantasy Interactive in their heydays. Almost every portfolio you saw, even not-so-well known designers, had a certain aesthetic. A certain style, a certain opinion you could find in the details.

Looking back at all this today, I believe this attitude was born out of the surrounding culture at the time. Differentiate yourself and avoid fitting in at all costs. Of course we had trends (not as big as today) but those who followed them knew they were boring. It wasn't something that was rewarded and usually you were more motivated to start a trend rather than follow one. After all, isn't this the biggest compliment a designer can get? As a true designer, following a trend is an insult to our own competency. Something that brings sleepless nights (dramatically put).

But then over the years, the communities became bigger. The clients became bigger, the trends became bigger and for the first time on the internet, we developed and followed global design systems, "agreeing" on visual languages set by big corporations (Apple's design language as well as Google's Material Design).

Soon enough, we had hordes of "creatives" who all just tried their best to fit in. Thousands of portfolios that all look the same, undistinguishable from each other. In fact, you can barely tell the difference these days between someone with 2 years of experience and someone with 15 years of experience by looking at their work. Both of their work looks "good" by today's measurement. A direct result of the standardization and templatization of the design industry.

None of this is particularly wrong. You could argue that global design systems set a new standard that allow most websites and apps to unify and streamline their user experience. You could say that the web was un-useable before. And you're probably right, we really did come a long way. But at the same time, isn't it beautiful when your work has your unique fingerprint on it? When your own work has an opinion? Depth? Something to say?

Maybe it's the punk in me speaking, maybe it's the lost artist that should've never become a designer in the first place. But I enjoy seeing the YOU in your work, because otherwise whose work is it anyway?

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