Two years ago, I signed up for an online marketing course. In one of the classes, the teacher was telling us about designing our buying personas, and how we should do research before jumping into any marketing strategy. At that moment, I remembered one of the strongest messages my brand design professor taught us at uni: “Copy! Copy everything you can!”.
Of course he didn’t mean in any short of illegal form -which by the way, literally means taking someone else’s work and sign it with your name; he just meant what every other creator in the creative industry has meant when encouraging others to copy: learn from the masters, get inspired by them, and yes copy their work but to find your own voice in the journey of discovering that of others.
So, getting back to the marketing class, I remember I felt an urge to share this knowledge. To tell my classmates of the importance of copying! But the teacher didn’t see it that way. She even felt it as an attack! And I ended up feeling ashamed about it. Thank god I had two amazing classmates who understood my point, and defended me in front of everybody. Lord bless them, wherever they are.
The art of stealing like an artist
So imagine my relief, my joy and my hope, when I read the book “Steal like an artist“, 2012, written by Austin Kleon.
We all copy. ALL. We copy even when we don’t realize we copy. Even the artist Rosalía, when she was asked once at a Spanish Interview Program called “LATE MOTIV”, how come she was so original, she smiled and said: “I haven’t invented anything. It is all there. I has all been there”.
But she has done something very smart -and very humble. The author of the book explains it very well (maybe not with these exact same words, but I couldn’t find the quote so I hope you get the message): “When you copy from one person, you are the next someone. When you copy from many sources of inspiration, you end up being original!!”.
Anyway, Lord bless Rosalía, her discipline and amazing talents. Here, you can check out the full interview (it is in Spanish).
But it does feel scary, doesn’t it? We all want to be unique, special and an original. We don’t want to be copies of a masterpiece. It would be the end of our big-fat ego. But it is also the end of a prospect career. I spent many years frustrated, thinking that I had to be “original”. It felt devastating, to the point of thinking that design was not for me, that it was not my call, because I just couldn’t come up with anything different! And that mentality was only isolating me even more: I didn’t read books on the matter, didn’t check what other designers where doing, didn’t keep an inspiration file. Now I understand, how much I was actually sabotaging myself.
Caption from the book: “Steal like an artist”, 2012
So why should we do it?
If the word “stealing” feels wrong for you, then use “inspired”. Which is, I believe, the mentality behind it. And please, don’t judge the author for the catchy title. It is actually a smart move and it does challenge our perception on the matter.
So, why should we copy by inspiration? Well, because that’s how we learn. We learn how to behave in society by imitating the people around us. We learn to dance by watching other’s dancing and replicating their moves. Does it mean that you are dancing in the exact same way? Well, sorry to tell you, but in most cases that’s not the case. And even if you do dance well, you will end up doing it with your own style, with your own energy. No replica is the exact same thing. Unless you press the button of printing copies in your computer. And still, I have my doubts, even if we are talking about tiny details unperceived by the human eye.
But in the process of witnessing, of feeling excited about what others are doing and of trying it yourself, you will find your own way. And that’s the adventure. That’s the beauty of it. The key here is to choose well who to imitate. Who to learn from. Would it make sense that you pick unhealthy people as mentors in your journey of getting fit? Well, I will let you answer that question.
7 Insights from the book
As you may know already, I like to end the post with some quotes and insights I have highlighted from the book. I hope they inspire you, and I challenge you to read Steal like an artist (2012) if you haven’t read it already!
- “You have to dress for the job you want, not the job you have, and you have to start doing the work you want to be doing”.
- “Start copying what you love. Copy copy copy. At the end of the copy you will find yourself”. Yohji Yamamoto
- “You don’t want to look like your heroes, you want to see like your heroes”.
- “Whenever you are at a loss for what move to make next, just ask yourself, “What would make a better story?”.
- “Draw the art you want to see, start the business you want to run, write the books you want to read (…)”.
- “You have to find a place that feeds you -creatively, socially, spiritually, and literally”.
- “Ironically, really good work often appears to be effortless”.
I hope you enjoyed the post, and that it can motivate you to move forward in you career path. Don’t hesitate to let me know your thoughts in the comments, and see you in the next one xx