I'm actually currently reading Alain's book (highly recommended by the way), in the chapter on developing a style. Maybe by beginning to work out where my vision differs from Alain's, I'm actually beginning to realise that I might actually have some hope of developing a style of my own :-)
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Good point and thank you for the compliments on my new book. Style develops through both hard work and personal choices, among other factors. The choices we make are both about what we like and what we dislike. Finding out what we dislike allows us to make a selection just as much as finding out what we like. In fact, what we dislike is often a more powerful motivation to "do our own thing" than finding out what we like.
Many artists, inventors, or other creative individuals got started doing their own thing because they did not like what others did, or did not think others were doing it the way it should be done. There are many examples in the world of fine automobiles to take but one example. Enzo Ferrari and Ferrucio Lamborghini, in Italy, are good examples. Both offered a new approach to cars. So did Ettore Bugatti.
In fact, designers or engineers that choose to start their own company, often do so because they are unsatisfied with what exists around them. In many instances, they worked someone else in the same field, until they decided to go their own way. This decision is usually motivated by the desire to go further, to do things differently or to do thing better. Without a reaction towards what is already in existence at a given time, there would be no progress and no new styles would emerge.
I know that, personally, my current style is as much a reflection of what I like as it is a reflection of what I don't like. In many ways I want to provide to my audience an alternative to what was there before I got started as much as provide myself with the satisfaction of creating my own world, my own reality.