yup.

you're in a rut alright.

:o)

A rut, or a style of your own you're obviously comfortable with?

(ooh an' I like the Ed Interlock one! (It also shows you calmed down a bit over the years.))

Good question: What’s the difference between being in a rut and having a personal style?

It also shows you calmed down a bit over the years.
Or that it's easier to clean up my messy experiments with Illustrator than with a hand-cut stencil.

From what I see your rut has actually deepened.

What’s the difference between being in a rut and having a personal style?

Being in a rut means no steering, you're on autopilot (or rut-pilot). Having a personal style doesn't preclude a lot of steering.

Put another way: if your answer is "I've always done it that way" you're probably in a rut. If your answer is "this is what it needs" you're probably developing your style.

Rut, or not, his letters are more informed... therefore more knowledge has been acquired. Hence, all you rut throwers missed the opportunity to compliment him on one facet of his work instead of just blowing him off.

I think his letter are less informed - subjugated his creativity. Instead of developing his natural talent he chose a path of least resistance.

Acquired knowledge? You bet! And is rutting straight towards being creatively bankrupt.

Lessons learnt ...by all ;)

Amen.

Yeah, we've all learnt you must be brilliant Neil.

Good stuff Nick, keep it real.

What’s the difference between being in a rut and having a personal style?

Whether clients are still paying for it.

For me the newer version seems more evolved and if you never revisit projects then you don't learn from them. You can't always be 100% fresh. The goal should be to produce the right design for the right piece, if that happens to be similar to one done years before, the other day or never before is irrelevant.

I've never put Comic Sans on any pieces I've been in control of and I don't think that just because I haven't done that that doing it now will make me a better designer.