An Artivist’s Guide to Uncover Your Artistic Style and Voice: Part 1. The Difference Between Style and Voice
Uncovering and developing your artistic style and voice along your artivism journey is a deeply personal experience that combines self-exploration, experimentation, and reflection. That’s what we’ll be focusing on in this series of posts.
But first, in this introductory post of this series, I will focus on the difference between style and voice because I often see them mixed together and confused.
Without further ado, let’s dive in!
The Difference Between Style and Voice
The terms “style” and “voice” are often used interchangeably in the creative fields, but they refer to two distinct, though closely related, concepts.
Let’s begin by looking at some general aspects of style and voice, respectively.
Style
Style refers to the aesthetic choices and frameworks you use in your creative work. It’s your personal aesthetic and what you find beautiful or captivating. It also includes your process, technique, and execution.
Style could include:
Mediums
Techniques
Genres and tropes
Color palettes and textures
Structures and compositions
Use of metaphors and symbols
Etc.
In other words, style is the “how” of your work.
I will give you some examples of works of artivism below to show you how style can be used.
Voice
Voice refers to your work's underlying expression, message, perspective, and unique, personal marks. It reflects your personal perspective, thoughts, emotions, and worldview, to name a few things.
Voice includes:
The deeper meaning behind what you create
The themes and stories you express through your art and why
Your purpose and message
Your values
Etc.
In other words, voice is the “why” and “what” of your work.
Examples
Now, let me give you some examples to illustrate the difference between style and voice.
The Metropolitan Museum Poster by Guerrilla Girls
Guerrilla Girls is an anonymous group of female artists who bring awareness to the sexism and racism within the art world. They’re known for staging surprise exhibitions and hanging up posters in public spaces to spread their message.
Their most iconic poster is the Metropolitan Museum poster from 1989, which states: “Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?” with the Grande Odalisque by Ingres as the template for the naked woman with the gorilla mask on the poster.
The yellow background, depiction of at least one woman, and the informational text on their artworks were part of their style (which has developed a bit since then).
The voice of the work was the text, and how it was made as a response to the overwhelming number of female nudes in the modern art sections of the museum, compared to the very few works by female artists that were exhibited there.
A lot more can be said about their use of one of the most famous female nudes in Western art (Grande Odalisque by Ingres), putting a gorilla mask as their signature over her head, etc. But you get the point.
B.Y.O.B. by System of a Down
System of a Down is an American-Armenian metal band with several songs that are activist in nature. B.Y.O.B. (from 2005) in particular was written in protest against the Iraq war and includes the powerful lines: “Why don’t presidents fight the war? Why do they always send the poor?” and “You depend on our protection, yet you feed us lies from the tablecloth”.
The style is the genre of music; in this case, it’s metal. They also have their own specific style of tempo changes that are sudden, yet transition seamlessly between each other through the song (and most, if not all, of their other songs).
The voice is their strong message against the Iraq War and the title of the song in itself, B.Y.O.B., which here means “Bring Your Own Bombs”.
I hope this gave you a clear idea of the difference between style and voice and in more than just one creative discipline and art field.
We will explore both of these topics more in the coming posts in this series as we’ll dive deeper into ways that you can identify your own personal style and voice and how to integrate them into your work.
Before I end this introductory post, however, I want to highlight the importance of documenting your journey.
Keep a Logbook
Uncovering and developing your style and voice takes time. It’s a self-discovery, experimental, and contemplative journey. To make the most out of it, I recommend that you keep a logbook of sorts. You can use a physical notebook or a digital one. Use what works for you.
However, it’s important that you can access it regularly, especially on the days you do creative work.
The things that are beneficial to jot down every day you’ve done creative work are:
Influences and inspirations of that day
How your creativity and work of that day made you feel
What you liked or are most proud of, and what you didn’t like about your work that day
What lessons you learned
Your progress on your current project/projects
Etc.
Keeping a logbook will help you recognize patterns that can inform you about your style and voice. It can make this process a lot easier.
Also, keeping a logbook is a great way to document your creative journey, to see the growth you’ve made over time. It’s easy to forget where we’ve been, but it’s also so important to remind ourselves of our growth and progress because it can cultivate joy, excitement, motivation, and confidence, all of which are fuel to keep going and create more amazing work on your artivism journey.
Final Words
Knowing and understanding the difference between style and voice is important, and I hope the guidelines and the examples in this post clarified them. It is fundamental knowledge before diving deeper into these two aspects, which we’ll do in the coming posts in this series.
Until then, happy creating.
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