Hi there,
This is the forty third of D&T Special, a more in-depth view of topics that interest the Canvs team. Today’s topic – A designer’s path from influence to identity.
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✍️ From the Canvs Research & Editorial Desk
Most designers begin by borrowing, collecting what they like, imitating what feels right, and learning by proximity to what’s already good. It’s a natural start. But over time, influence alone stops being enough. The real challenge is to understand why something works and how your own judgment fits into that equation.
This week the Canvs R&E team has spent some time pondering this concept, let’s dive into some details.
That’s where style begins to take shape. It’s about building a way of seeing that’s distinctly yours. The following notes explore how that shift happens, from being shaped by influence to shaping your own identity.
Key takeaways from this read:
1. Style is not something you discover, it’s something you build
It takes shape slowly, through repetition and reflection, in the small, daily decisions that train your eye to recognise what’s good craft and what’s not. Over time, that awareness becomes instinct, and instinct becomes identity.
2. Your aesthetic is shaped by what you consume intentionally
Every reference you save or reject says something about how you see. The more intentional you are about what you collect, the clearer your patterns become, and those patterns eventually form the groundwork of your aesthetic.
3. Experimentation turns taste into instinct
Style doesn’t grow in theory, it grows through doing. Fast, low-pressure experiments teach you how your preferences hold up in real context, until your choices start showing consistency and weight of their own.
📰 In other news
✨ Product find of the week
Affinity comes with built-in Vector, Pixel, and Layout studios. Rearrange panels and mix and match your favorite tools to build custom studios. You can save multiple setups, switch between them in a click, and even share with others or download theirs.
Some highlights from the past month of D&T
And that’s the lot! Thanks for checking out what we had to share with you this week, we shall catch up with you next Wednesday. Incase you aren’t subscribed to the newsletter, you could subscribe here.
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