It's not useful to think about originality. It is useful to think about infinity though.

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Music and links from this episode

Man Alone Chimes the Hour by Nihilore

Pineal Gland's Goodbye by Sro

And the track playing right now, my new favourite track: Invisible by Camilla North x Jens East

Line-by-line notes

In episode 118

I spoke about the idea that ideas are infinite

That, given enough pressure, we can squeeze out ideas forever

We shouldn’t believe the mantra that everything has already been done

And nothing is original anymore

Because that’s just not true

This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess

MUSIC

In design, we’re already setting ourselves up for a fall

Most people on this planet today believe the mantra

“It’s all been done before”

“Nothing is original anymore”

I hate that mindset with every bone in my body

It’s destructive and just plain unhelpful

It just sets your mind up for defeat before you’ve even tried

Why bother trying hard, if everything you’re about to make has been done before?

Why bother trying at all?

Why don’t I just copy somebody else?

After all, it’s all been done before right?

This is not the attitude to take when it comes to idea generation

It’s a deeply destructive train of thought

And just to confuse you more

I don’t think the direct opposite is a helpful stance either

Trying to be original with everything you do is unhelpful too

Thinking the complete opposite sets you up for equal failure

If you’re trying so hard to be original, you’ll forget the original purpose of any design

To communicate something effectively and efficiently

I’ve been there myself

And this is why generally designers are so bad at doing things for themselves like their own portfolios

Because they want it to be so original, and so perfect, it creates inaction

I prefer to believe a much simpler thought

That ideas are infinite

Your mind and everybody else’s mind are so full of ideas, you can never run out of them

There might be days when you struggle to come up with a single one

Those days where nothing works

And they’ll be lots of bad ideas

Yes, LOTS of bad ideas

But that doesn’t matter

Because ideas are infinite, you’ll eventually, no, inevitably get to a good one

This removes the idea of originality completely

Originality is important

Just as important as it is to develop your own designer’s eye

And your own unique way of looking at the world

I won’t say a style, because I think designers developing a style just paints you into a corner

And that’s a topic for another day...

Rather than believing everybody has done everything

Or that you need to be a christopher columbus and discover the next big trend

Just think about the idea that ideas themselves are infinite

It shifts your thinking completely

You don’t need to worry about originality anymore

Because you know you’ll get there eventually anyway

You don’t have to worry about your ideas being rubbish

Because the next hour or the next day is full of more ideas

Everybody is capable of an infinite amount of ideas

You’ve just got to believe it

MUSIC

This was AADA and I’m Craig Burgess

Music featured in this episode was

Man Alone Chimes the Hour by Nihilore

Pineal Gland's Goodbye by Sro

And the track playing right now, my new favourite track: Invisible by Camilla North x Jens East

For a line by line rundown of this episode, go over to askadesigneranything dot com/ ep 120

I’m back tomorrow

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