Notes and news, insights and inspiration from the autonomous collective mind of GS.

When I began my career in advertising and design I was obsessed with the idea of being original. I would second-guess any logo or ad I did because it would remind me of something else. “Yeah, but Target has red circles.” “Yeah, but iPod uses silhouettes.” “Yeah, but Miller did a commercial with a Sasquatch.” It happened on every project, and it was paralyzing. But over time I learned a secret that all artists eventually figure out: Nothing is original.

Artists steal all the time. And it’s not a bad thing. It’s what keeps culture moving – revising, reinterpreting, and remixing existing ideas, which is to say all ideas.

Once I realized that, I could move on and get back to work.

Newspaper Blackout author Austin Kleon offers some very good advice about the art of plagiarism, and how to live and create as an artist that I happened upon via Drawn! Here is just a portion of what he had to say in his post:

All advice is autobiographical.

It’s one of my theories that when people give you advice, they’re really just talking to themselves in the past. This list is me talking to a previous version of myself.

Your mileage may vary.

The rest of the post is pretty much amazing. Read it. You'll be be glad you did.