This question has been in my head for quite a while now.
I started to question myself when I stopped obsessing over detailed design and changed my focus to minimalist work.
At about this time last year I wanted to be as good as anyone with as many styles as possible. It started with creating some dynamic layouts and then skinning them with different themes, grunge, hand drawn, minimalist and so on.
The intention at the time was just to get a taste of each so that when the time came that someone wanted that style, I could produce it.
It was my belief that you had to be good at any design style to be considered a good web designer. I used to think it was a bad thing if my portfolio had a ‘samey' feel to it.
Recently however, my mind has started to change. It hit me when I looked at the top designers in our field and realized that they very much stick to what they are brilliant at. They perfected it and then put themselves in a position where they can charge a premium to create your site.
It's just like some of the best artists are easily distinguishable from each other. You will know right away when you stare at Picasso's work or Pollock's work.
I know of web designers who dance along a similar line, Veerle Pieters rocks the illustration house, Collis Ta'eed has white space in control, Liam McKay and Max Voltar can add detail to a one pixel circle, Jason Santa Maria has a great balance of type and minimalist design and Mike Kus owns hand drawn web design at the moment.
The amazing thing is that despite sticking to their style they still manage to be innovative and move the industry forward at the same time.
The benefit of becoming the master of one is that people will start coming to you for that style and the net result is charging a premium for your work. It's just like an artist charging for a painting, at the end of the day Pollock was just splashing paint and leaving his cigarette buts on the canvas, but, because he was the perceived master at it, the value for one of his paintings is rather high.
I've got a question for you, have you discovered the style that you want to pursue and become great at? Or are you like me, still trying to be good at too many things?
For me personally, I will continue doing detailed designs in the From the Couch mould but I'm enjoying minimalist designs so much that I will also continue down that road. I want to cut out the extra flab on the sides and just focus entirely on those to styles.
On a side note, I have a quick rant. Why do we all think that we are such great UI designers? In some cases the person isn't even a designer but ‘they are great at UI'. What is up with that? It's like some social media experts, they haven't made a cent from social media but have all the advice in the world for you on how to market online.
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