There's a difference between a designer's signature and reaching your limits. Don't kid yourself - we all do!

Being repetitive is using:

• a pattern that sets itself over and over in your design.
• the same format and size
• filling the same visual/space *spot*
• the same shapes
• the same graphic/imaging treatment or commands
• the same (chromatic) palette

Then what is a designer's signature since some of the above ingredients might be part of it anyway?

First a designer achieves a *signature* after years of perfecting the skills of his trade. It's not an overnight achievement. Why so?

First, when you start designing you are under the influence of some style movement, a star designer; don't worry! That is the most natural step and a good one indeed. What in fact is happening? You are experimenting with taste. You are trying to define what is it you *like* - what attracts you and what you think is beautiful.

This is a true trial and error period. For example, when I started experimenting with color - it was with traditional oil paint. I always deeply admired the works of the great Masters - the chromatic details - the light and the usage of white to create transparency fascinated and still fascinates me. Ok I didn't think I could imitate them in any way but I thought that trying out *abstract* painting would be a good start to see how I would do with colors.

Oi! Needless to say I failed miserably! Got mightily frustrated and it dawned on me that *colors* were much more complex and complicated to use than I originally thought.

I have in mind an early painting. First, I didn't know that oil based painting took many days to dry before applying another coat over an area if I wanted to obtain a different color. So the next day, I applied some lighter color and when I used the brush it started smearing and blending with the first coat - the lighter color definitely turning darker by the second. I thought using a lighter shade would recuperate the second one. Same thing happened - the third coat smeared and blended with the first and second ones... it took less than an hour to have a canvas that really looked like... sh... brown all over!!! No amount of different or lighter color helped; it yielded a thick and ugly brown all over canvas.

That was it! I gave up on oil right then - threw the canvas out and was deeply concerned with my inaptitude and complete ignorance at understanding colors. The Masters had used the same medium and had opposite results -- why, if I was artistic and good at drawing, did I meet up with such a formidable obstacle? I did a couple of other trials - making sure that the colors were not overlapping each other to avoid the dreaded brown factor of which I couldn't even start to fathom why it was so. One of my favorite aunts has one of my paintings hanging over her mantel - I understand her attachment is sentimental - you know… the work of her niece - but when *I* think of it - I still shiver inside - it's a real horror. I was 13 years old at the time.

So upon my first trials with colors - I deeply understood that I didn't understand zip! Chromatics were a locked mystery so I went on to try watercolor. My first failures didn't put a final lid on my curiosity. I thought if I could use a *transparent* medium the colors might start making sense. I experimented with the technique called *half dry watercolor*. Using my ability to draw - I started playing with colors again --colorizing like we do with coloring books when we are children - I did my own drawings and used water color to fill inside the outlines.

In parallel - for about 7 years I did illustrations using pencil & ink - avoiding at all costs the dreaded colors. Met an artist who said that disciplining myself to use black & white was very good since I didn't have the colors to cover up mistakes in my drawings. Encouraging words indeed but they were of no help for my color training.

So the result of my failure was two fold: a) I perfected my drawing & illustration techniques b) I played with watercolor to continue learning about chromatics.

This time around, because the colors were not opaque, I began to understand the interaction of mixed colors - what they became and which colors I liked most. Most of the discoveries were accidental but I was slowly starting to have a basis to build upon.

That's the basic *taste* knowing step I was mentioning earlier; an exercise we all need to go through. Not necessarily the way I did - but through the years and since then - I've had many different color periods when a favorite tint would be predominant. But I never ceased to be amazed or stop exploring the world of colors. Every new color I tackled was another discovery for me, and this led me to the belief that taste is acquired by experimentation.

So you could say that part of my signature is my usage of colors. The second would be my *collage* feel. How so?

When I started being interested in design - I bought high-end decoration magazines, which were the only *artsy* magazines around. In them, I would see Masters' paintings that were in private collections and never would make it to a museum; rare or modern furniture; intricate architectural details, accessories, fabric, and color use. Most of the homes had been *organized* by a professional decorator and they were my first educators as how to use space in design.

These magazines taught me the art of composition.

Keep in mind at that time there were no computers and no digital imaging software. Everything was *hand crafted* in old times - until recently I had tons of Lettraset lettering which I use on paper collages. You did everything with hot wax on a blueprint canvas. Text was laser read and if there was a typo you used an xacto knife to cut and paste the correction. Painstaking and demanding almost absolute precision.

For many a years - my design projects were based on my illustration capabilities, sense of spatial composition and my chromatic taste.

I have to admit that I was slow in making the transition to the digital world. One of my friends was one of the very first designer using a computer and through him - I saw the evolution of the early Photoshop and Quark versions. To me - it was archaic - non-intuitive and mostly - preventing me from using the experience gained from years of training my brain to be at the tip of my fingers. Using a mouse was completely alien and uninspiring as a creative mind tool. ROFL.

When I started my ventures on the web 6 years ago - little did I know how the media would become to me - the biggest challenge and most promising tool to promote creativity and that my mindset concerning digital imagery would be changed and how wonderful the tools I discovered have empowered me. I consider myself very much still a newbie - and feel the challenge of my limits constantly - but like I said - building a signature is addressing those limits through research - constant research for overcoming the unknown.

After reading this - if you don't recognize yourself in any of the obstacles I have faced - great! But don't kid yourself - you will need to challenge your own limitations to progress and develop your signature.

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