When does simple = boring?

First, before I get into the main topic of this post (design, or specifically, simplicity vs. "boring-ness"), we're gonna chat money.

I did my taxes by myself this year and I'm 99% sure I did something wrong. Right now, per TurboTax, I'm set to get a $1,540 refund. This seems ridiculously high, especially since I usually owe Uncle Sam moola (and sometimes, depending on how well the market did, I'm stuck paying estimated taxes).

I'm hoping that I did them correctly and will pocket the $1,500, but in the meantime, my mama (pre-kids finance wizard that she was...) is reviewing them. Fingers crossed.

But moving on to the topic of the evening....

Y'all know that I work in marketing and communications. And some of you may know that I was a relatively accomplished artist in my younger years. (Um, hello award-winning 7th grade paintings!) I think I have a pretty good design aesthetic when it comes to marketing collateral.

So you can imagine my disdain when my design taste was challenged.

Here's what happened: yesterday, our art director Tracy came up with a great structural design for a client's new web home page. I loved the layout. However, the colors didn't resonate with me, especially one of the accent colors. I thought was too bright. Tracy's response?"You're always so blah and boring!"

Ouch.

Now, Tracy is an absolute doll and one of my favorite people, and I know she didn't mean it to be so, well, mean. What she meant was that my design aesthetic, be it for websites, brochures, logos, ANYTHING, errs on the side of what I call "simple and clean." Tracy, however, calls it "blah and boring." To be specific, she doesn't think I push the envelope enough. In her opinion, everything I like looks the same.

After talking to Tracy, I went back to my office and looked through some of the collateral I had helped produce for my clients over the last year. And to some extent, Tracy's right. There are common elements to everything I've created -- simple lines, lots of negative space, subdued colors, large fonts...you get the idea.

This whole convo got me thinking about simplicity and when, if ever, simple becomes boring. At what point does a clean and simple look and feel just become an uncreative blank slate? At what point does everything I like just begin to look the same?

Now, I still don't think my design taste is boring. But I do think I have a high level of comfort with a specific design perspective, and sometimes, just *maybe*, I don't push the envelope enough. Perhaps my actual design aesthetic isn't boring, but my inability to test the waters beyond what I'm comfortable with, or what appeals to me, is? To be honest, I don't know. But it is food for thought.

What do you think? When does simple = boring when it comes to design? When are you no longer simple...and just plain dull?