Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy
Stealing Art: How to Be a Master Designer
Pablo Picasso once said,
“Good artists copy. Great artists steal.”
That was never truer than it is today.
Ethical theft. Is it an oxymoron? Theft is not unethical by its very nature? How can someone ethically steal from another individual?
Well, it turns out creative individuals are doing it all the time. It’s a natural component of the process of creation.
It’s not about copying (and certainly not plagiarism). To generate distinctive expressions, it’s about taking inspiration from the job of other people, reinterpreting it and filtering it through your own experiences. It’s not about reproduction or duplication, but about adaptation and evolution.
Mark Twain once said:
“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations.”
What Twain’s saying here is that artistic expression is a continuum that builds on itself. The work of newer artists leans heavily on the expressions of previous artists.
We often feel ashamed or guilty as creative people to use something as our inspiration. However, taking inspiration from what comes before us is a natural component of the creative process and a wonderful complement to the job that we use as our muse.
Our original work is a mash-up of all the inputs, both active and passive, that we have accumulated throughout our lives. Acceptance of this leaves the door open for more effective stealing and design.
So the issue you’re supposed to ask yourself is not “should I steal?” but “how should I do it?”
Here are the details.
1. Imitate
The first step to being just a skilled designer-or, for that matter, a skilled thing-is to do what another person can do. It’s a test: is it possible to follow instructions? Except, instead of reading or hearing instructions, you follow the instructions you see.
It’s no coincidence that after an art director has set an art direction, junior designers are often taught by doing a manufacturing job. If the art director makes the 48px bold Helvetica headline with 16px margin on each side, do you do the same on each screen you design? It sounds easy, but it’s hard for many junior designers to even get this down. Why? Many want to be chefs, but they do not want to be first-line cooks. It’s not glamorous work, but it builds muscles of design, muscles you’ll need to get better and move on to the next step.
Think of it as learning to draw through tracing. It is literally the same thing, in reality. My designers ‘ first few assignments are taking screenshots of existing websites, pasting them into Sketch or Photoshop, dropping the opacity and locking the layer, and tracing it over to produce the same layout, colors, illustrations, typography, and everything else necessary to reproduce the pixel-perfect site.
Whether you’re new to design or a seasoned creative director, this easy workout will warm you up, like long-term stretching.
2. Remix
Once you’ll certainly imitate any style you come over, you’ll be able start to change the components to feel more custom to the way you wish to utilize it. This step has the slightest parameters and needs the slightest rules since it’s up to your creative energy and the number of changes you’re willing to try.
I am a strong believer in the notion that under the sun there is nothing fresh. Everything is a remix, he said differently. Free from the pressure that all things designers need to be initial works of art, instead I can concentrate my efforts on what sources to combine in a manner that is less used to by my audience.
3: Invent
Pablo Picasso is famous for his original Cuba work, but the majority of people don’t know that first he was a great classical artist. He and some great masters could draw and paint photorealism, but only when he got this he went into his own unknown stylistic territory.
The next thing is to take two seemingly unconnected thoughts and to put them next to each other metaphorically in order to see how they can function together. Customers often employ me to invent distinctive and original ways of art. I can do this by stealing my way to something initial from the neighboring feasible.
The strange and beautiful truth about the adjacent possible is that its boundaries grow as you explore them. Each new combination opens up the possibility of other new combinations.
Steven Johnson
Let’s look at how this works in practice.
Say Oyo has recruited me to build a website to promote a fresh service: rental homes on various planets. You were going to get you there, stay as long as you want, and they are going to get you back. Think Uber will meet Airbnb. Think Uber.
The first thing I’ll do is list all the content kinds I need on the homepage. Perhaps I would reach 5 distinct parts after speaking to stakeholders and prospective customers in the target industry:
- A fresh service elevator pitch
- A target (or a few characteristics)
- Some information, such as lengthy trips or planetary accommodation, can worry about individuals.
- Price
- Contact details
Next, I’m going to begin selecting some sources to imitate. That’s important: make sure you select sources far from what you design. Do not choose another bank site as a benchmark, particularly in the same competitive field, if you designed a bank site. As we can model this after Airbnb, it is likely too near to being initial with Airbnb as a reference. One trick I frequently use is beginning lower. I’ll choose a few models to make distinct components from instead of trying to use a whole website as a reference.
Conclusion
When you copy someone else’s design work, you have to pick it apart in order to understand it and apply it to your particular project. Otherwise, the design just won’t work, or it will seem out of place. Copying effectively teaches you to do it the right way. Nail the basics, and innovate where it makes sense.
“Designers are made, not born.”
If you want to be a great designer, don’t delay and don’t doubt yourself. Go to Dribbble or Behance and follow designers whose work you admire. Pick your favorite shots and start copying. Do it over and over and you’ll develop and hone your skills over time. Eventually, you’ll be able to do the same things your favorite designers can do.
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