Design Dilemma

black foreshortened nude, by Milton Glaser

So, I am a graphic design student. Actually for the past two years I have been attending a university that doesn't actually offer a degree in graphic design but does offer an art degree and a handful or design classes. I have thus far been under the tutelage of only one graphic design instructor and while I am grateful for her, I also feel the need to get more than one point of view. Lucky for me, an opportunity has opened up and in the fall I will be moving to another state and to another school (obviously) that offers a BFA in graphic design.

As a student, I have begun to develop my own style but am still rather unsure of myself. I feel I have a talent for design, I certainly have a love for it, but I still have a fair amount of uncertainty. I suppose we all do, that's what moves us forward and makes us push ourselves to be better. I am torn between my love for frilly, complicated design, and my great appreciation for simple, clean, and elegant. Do I, as a designer, have to choose one or the other? Or is it simply a matter of applying the right design style to the right project. Do you create a definite style for yourself, one that you will be known by? Or do you adapt to each client or situation?

I suppose it's all part of the learning process. Perhaps the more styles you try your hand at, the more you gain a sense of what you like and don't like, and therefore, who you are as a designer. I hope that moving to this new school will provide me with the guidance that I need to become the great designer I know I can be. Or perhaps I will walk into digital foundations on the first day and discover that I know squat. There's nothing like discovering you know a great deal less than you thought you did. That's always a humbling experience. But, as always, an opportunity to grow. You just have to pull yourself up by the bootstraps (or flip flop...straps?) and gleen all the information that you can.