Discussion Forum I- Is having an Individual Style Important?

Danny & Nayeem: Is Having an Individual Style Important?
The first Discussion Forum of the year has been by Nayeem and Danny, exploring the question of whether or not having an individual style is important within the design industry due to change of trends etc.

Bill Lumby- God View Screenshots

The pair began by talking to us about a cinematographer Bill Lumby, who is a producer based in South London, his collection of films named 'God View' all inherit the same distinctive style, which he's become recognised and successful for, the discussion was then lead to whether or not it was best to have your own style or whether it is better to find success with following the trends.

Tim Burton Sketches

Due to mass internet success of certain artists and Youtubers, their videos become viral, and trends may start, and without such a trend some designer's work may not be as successful. In our discussion, we were unable to find the source of what starts these trends, whether it's a famous person on the internet leading their fans in a direction for a trend, or a designer accidentally starting a viral thread, each trend is a wave that we can follow or hinder to.
The discussion made me think on a larger scale of designers like animator and director Tim Burton, who has a gothic style, but when reading a book on Tim Burton he lists films he rejected due to them not matching his ethics, and his style, with him favouring darker, and more misunderstood character designs.
The question was asked to us 'Would you rather follow a trend or would you rather try and stand out?' with mixed views on this, we discussed the fact that although trying to stand out is quite hard, with nothing really being original, having being influenced by various artists and designers before us it's hard to try to think of something that hasn't yet been done, but, we found that as designers we would love to develop our own work and try and fit our style around our projects and future work, rather than restricting it to following the popularity and trends.

Personally I'd say that style isn't necessarily restricted to the final appearance of something, I feel that the actual process of design and the generation of ideas itself reflects your own style.  I think that it is possible as well to explore alternate medias but still retaining a style that is distinctive to yourself, and yet can cater to the requirements of a client perhaps. This was a point we all discussed in the forum too, and all agreed that we can retain a certain individual style without being too engrossed in following trends. In order to be more aware of trends however, we knew that researching and analysing what existing trends and work is out there and why they are so popular, in order to understand how your work could impact someone else in the long run, and whether it would fit in with the trend, without you needing to follow it.