The ever-watchful subconscious
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008
So I recently had a scary realisation when I noticed a very familiar diagram on the back of the shampoo bottle in my shower.
The reason it was familiar is it struck and uncanny resemblance to a graphic I'd created for a web site recently. "How did that get on the back of that bottle…!?" I thought. Oh, the irony.
I know, it's not that crazy — I'm sure this happens all the time. But when you catch on to it happening, it's a little worrying to think how susceptible and absorbent our minds are to the outside world.
Now I know they sit you down and teach you this sort of stuff on your first day in advertising 101, right after you've signed away your soul at the door. (People…I kid because I love). But that's more about getting people to buy product X in the supermarket. As a designer, I'm less concerned about the brand of washing powder I buy and more about how much I just regurgitate the world around me into my designs.
Of course this makes perfect sense. And it explains so much about why being original is such hard work for most people.
I remember seeing this TV show when I was living the UK by this master mind f*cker, Derren Brown. He had a pair of guys from the advertising industry driven to his office to come up with a concept for an animal cemetery. He claimed to be able to predict ahead of time what their concept was likely to look like with amazing accuracy. Now I won't spoil the trick, but watch for yourself.
Assuming this was legit, it's an interesting example.
So what can we learn from this?
- You're almost certainly an unoriginal hack.
- Surround yourself with beautiful things and you can't fail.
Have you ever had a shocking realisation of subconscious plagiarism?
Rarrrr...Youtube isnt allowing embedding on this one, but just click the image.
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Wow! Thanks for the link to that video - like you say, it’s amazing if it’s legit!
1 justinReply
November 25th, 2008 at 05:04 AMThat Darren Brown is a tricky wanker…
I keep on finding myself wanting to put a particular soft drink company’s swooshy lines in my designs ;) It just happens.
2 KhayyamReply
November 25th, 2008 at 07:15 AMGreat post. On #2: not only is this true, but I think it’s highly undervalued. It took me a long time as a designer before I realized the importance of good design everywhere in my life.
3 GrantReply
November 25th, 2008 at 08:37 AMha! this totally happened to me.. I come up with a great logo, the client loves it, etc, etc, we refine and go to print for signage/trucks/etc. Then all of a sudden I see the concept on a commercial.. it was a very minor part, just an accent thing.. it wasn’t identical, but close enough in concept that it bothered me.. so now I’ve definitely come to realize that your #2 point is dead on. We unknowingly absorb so much, so GOOD inspirational sites are fantastic versus randomly Googling to see what fresh ideas/designs are out there. thanks!
4 AngelAReply
November 25th, 2008 at 12:37 PMIt makes sense that the more you observe that is inspirational, pushes you to do something more original? Maybe not, the trick is to try and catalog what may be inspiring you, to not subconciously RIP something.
It’s happened to me too, sometimes months later, the site is online and everything, and you drive by a sign or an outdoors logo, that’s always been there and go, “Jeez, that’s what inspired me to do that logo, it’s so similar”!
5 TyReply
November 25th, 2008 at 02:30 PMA couple of weeks ago I was halfway through a new website design and I realized it started to look a little bland. So I started fooling around a little, added big type and a larger header, moved the navigation. The end result was an exact copy of a site I made months earlier.
At least I was ripping myself, but suddenly I felt like a one-trick-pony.
6 TrevorReply
November 30th, 2008 at 04:39 PMI think this article is a great observation. I’m only 16 and in my designs i see countless plays on other peoples work. If i could just come up with something original! But thats just it, every once in a while you do and thats when im really happy. :)
7 Willie HartmanReply
December 3rd, 2008 at 06:08 PMWe learn by communicating. We look for new ideas, we see new trends and we follow them. There is a fine line between ripping somebody else’s idea and just being inspired by them and that’s where we have to get creative. But then again, who was the first one to use background images, dotted borders, image reflections, over-sized text headers, icons, etc? Design is better because we keep improving on it. We share and we evolve.
8 Javier CentenoReply
December 12th, 2008 at 03:12 PMAesthetics as a language are driven by what is considered acceptable… acceptable by society as a whole. It’s is the designers role to understand he is merely a vehicle to translate what is already out there and give it form.
Basically if you came up with something really new… no-one else would get it and your work would then become “art”. You always need a common reference point for all kinds communication.
As designers you should try and gather as much reference as possible… ripoff or not.
9 TonyReply
January 6th, 2009 at 04:39 PM@Tony: This is a great point. To have relevance, and to be accessible, design needs to have reference.
10 Rob MorrisReply
January 7th, 2009 at 02:57 AM