If you spot a trend, don’t make eye contact and run the other way!
The creative community is always looking for the next big trend, the next idea that we can claim as our own. We actively search for inspiration but many times we are looking in the wrong place. I’m always surprised to see creatives looking at the big “inspiration books” at the book store—Business Card and Letterhead Design – Edition 15 or Best Logos Ever Created of All Time in the History of the World! Do ideas and inspiration really exist here?
I remember when I was in high school my art teacher in telling us that inspiration shows up in many different places. When we were assigned a project and we needed inspiration, he would direct us to a dark corner of the class where multiple stacks of 50 or so vintage National Geographic magazines lived. He didn’t give us an art book or tell us to go to the library and check out books on Monet, Michelangelo, or Warhol. These artists already defined their trend. He wanted us to be original, be inspired to create something new.
The biggest commercial example of this is the iPhone. When the iPhone came out there was nothing else that looked like it—let alone function like it—on the market. Apple looked at what Motorola, Nokia, and Sony was doing and they ran the other way. They created a trend by making a choice to go the other way. And what happened? They created one of (if not thee) the biggest, game-changing products ever. Look at everyone spending millions of dollars trying to catch up with no guarantee that they will.
So, the next time you see the trend bus coming down the street, run the other way and invest the bus fare into your trend.
