Design Eats Itself

Notes:

London Calling- The Clash

Design eats itself- historical context

Harmon Hoffman -> Wolfgang Vingard

Dorianism- “Design is a religion, not something you do, you live it”

“Everything is a remix”

Basic elements of creativity

Copy: Transform: Combine

Presentation:

Lasquax cave paintings- visual communication

Cuneiform tablets- clay tablets with markings

3500 BC beginning of Gods and hierarchy- used tablets

picture to abstract symbol- quicker, efficient

next step: Greek

after that: Roman

Capitalist quadrada- square, formal

Capitalist rustic- informal, casual- 475 BC

Book of Kells- Ireland

Isolated from Roman influence- Celtic

Masterpiece of Celtic art

If everything is a remix then everything comes from something and not nothing, even though I have a t-shirt that contradicts that. But from the perspective of the Xerox vs. Apple story, that appears to be true. Therefore the idea of true inspiration is outdated and fictional. This would define creativity as the combination, transformation, and presentation of elements into a new conception. This would make design like a puzzle, forcing things to work together that may not have been put together before. Apple stole the graphical user interface, but transformed it and retooled it into something revolutionary and user friendly superior to its origin. Therefore creation is evolution and evolution makes way for more creation. The pictographs of early man evolved into cuneiform and cuneiform evolved into Capitalist Rustic.

So stressing over being original is redundant cause anything can be traced to something else. This can be summed up in Picasso's quote "good artists copy, great artists steal." 

Copy, Transform, Combine- Take what others have done and make it better