"Imitation is the highest form of flattery..." they say.
Who "they" is, exactly, is beyond me. Imitation has always been kind of weak in my book. Imitation is intent or attempt to copy, which at first thought could seem flattering - until someone tries to pass it off as their own work - then it becomes plagiarism.
To be fair, it can be said that we all copy or build upon each others thoughts even if we're unaware of the influence. In a place like Hawaii, we are all a product of our environment, and what we do - how we express and portray our lifestyle to the rest of the world is usually limited to words like "Aloha", "Local", "Da Kine" or some other visual element like palm trees, floral prints, and pineapples. But that's where we can draw the line and ask ourselves as artists, (if you care to ask yourself), "How original can I get with this?" or "How can I really make this mine?"
The handful of ideas that I've chosen put down in ink and actually put on my own product are mostly works that I thought up years ago. Although I never got around to publishing them until recently, I can say with all honesty that BEFORE putting them out there, I searched high and low - for ways that I could take what I've done and make it stand out ABOVE the crowd. Occasionally I scratch an entire board and start all over because what I've created was way too driven by something I had seen from someone else, or the final product was no longer clean and simple like the rest of my designs.
That's design motivated by original thinking in my book, but hey, that's just me.
"good artists copy, but great artists steal"
There is a saying that I never quite got until recently. Supposedly Picasso (or maybe it was just Steve Jobs) said that "good artists copy, but great artists steal".
Put simply
- {Independent Thought : Original} Awesome!
- {Imitation : Copy} Boring!
- {Making something your own : Steal} PWNED!
If you're gonna copy, run away with it. There's more where that came from anyway.
Disclaimer: This post is not intended to point fingers at any individual, group, or entity. It's a simple analysis of human nature and an expression of my feelings about originality and creativity. Admittedly the words in my own company name "Fresh" "Local" and "Product" could never be owned or considered unique in themselves. The combination of these words, though, (i.e. Fresh Local Product), is the foundation of my line and it is my hope it is respected as such. All rights reserved.
