I poured a lot of work into the design and layout of this website, from the choice of colors, to the fonts, imagery and even sound. It will interest you to know that the very first design for this website was a complete replica of Brian Lovin's website.
I had found his website almost a year ago and was completely intrigued by it. It's been 4 months since my first iteration and what I want you to do is take a look around this website, check the Colophon page, you'd see Brian's website and some others listed there. Those were the websites that gave me the needed inspiration and ideas to create what you now see as LilysGarden.
This website started as a Copy, a patchwork of several other websites. Overtime, with iteration and intention, it evolved into a unique and original masterpiece.
The Myth
Ideas do not come from a vaccum, they come as a result of seredipitous encounters and collaboration between a person and an experience, a thing, or another person. We often times think that being creative means coming up with and manufacturing new ideas from within our head but that is very much incorrect.
Creativity comes from outside, our encounters with people, places, objects, animals, movies, websites, music, sound, paintings. No good work comes from the void, it happens as a result of collaboration that has occured sometime in the past and because you don't remember doesn't mean it didn't happen.
We think creativity means novel, but it doesn't. Like my website, it is a remix of already existing websites, combined and transformed in a way that creates a new masterpiece. Now, don't quote me wrong and think I mean to steal someone elses work, or the works of several people and pass it as yours.
For your work to standout as "creative", it must posses the three elements of creativity which are
- Copy
- Transform
- Combine
Copy, Better Still, Steal
The networked approach of connecting existing things together in creative ways is how new ideas are formed and this is what brings about new things.
- Look for something really good to copy
- Transform it as much as you can or as little as possible
- Do this to multiple works and combine them together
With creativity, you reinvent not invent. Even the bible says "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." Ecclesiastes 1:9.
The works of people like Thomas Edison can be used as a good example for reinvention, as opposed to popular stories on the invention of the light bulb by Thomas, his breakthrough was only possible as a result of his work and success being built on pre-existing work of others that dates back to the turn of the 19th Century.
In content creation, many content creators advice new creators to remix viral content or simply repost their most viral content after a few weeks or month. Picasso had a saying that “Good artists copy, Great artist steal” and to steal well, you must do the following as listed by Austin Kleon in his book Steal Like an Artist:
- Honor
- Study
- Steal from many
- Credit
- Transform
- Remix
To steal, you need to figure out what to steal, then steal from several persons. This means that your work can start off as an imitation and when you imitate a person's work, you don't just copy their work or style, copy the thinking behind the work.
Transform and Combine
Identify what makes your imitation weak, and just like I did with my website, iterate the imitation until it becomes original. Take from others, put it in your own voice until you find your voice. Copying someone’s work might be a bad idea but don’t worry it’s merely a starting point.
You might be waiting for that light bulb moment, but it takes hard work to get to that point as inspiration and ideas don't come from thing air, they come from consistent hours of work put into your craft.
This site, like all good work, is a remix. It's not magic, it's simply magical.
Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again.
― André Gide
References
- Boring ways to become more creative
- Everything is a Remix
- Steal like an artist by Austin Kleon
- How do you use the internet mindfully