I like to tell my marketing clients to think of themselves as concept artists & moodboard designers for the cinematic universe that they’d like to build. I try to encourage them to do the minimum amount of work necessary to produce their desired vibes. (Ideally you’d have lots of resources, but even so, it’s helpful to Think Scrappy.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Making lists of things you like might seem relatively trivial, but it’s a great 1st step to becoming creative. (Two possible 2nd steps come to mind: articulate why<\/em> you like the things in the list, and\/or try to make some crappy imitations of the things in the list. Both are very worth doing, and I highly recommend it.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here’s Philippe Starck describing step 2a elevated to the final form<\/a>: “‘If I think it has to be pink, it\u2019s pink, and here\u2019s why.’ I explain the difference between pink and green, and all the types of pinks and all the types of green, because I know my job.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Quentin Tarantino: “What they do have to show is a high regard for their own opinion. They’ve learned to break down a movie. They understand what they like and don’t like about a film.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n So. Make a list of the products that inspire you. Don’t pretend that you don’t have any influences, or that you’re the first to ever do what you’re doing. That’s false and unhelpful. In 1998, Steve Jobs said<\/a>, \u201cThe whole strategy for Apple now is, if you will, to be the Sony of the computer business.\u201d Everything is a remix. Your goal is not to be free of influences, but to remix good influences into something that is useful and relevant to the context that you’re operating in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2731 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here’s a little worldbuilding from a video game that I love, Horizon Zero Dawn. Not only do each of the tribes have a coherent aesthetic in their clothes, this is “full stack” and reflected in their architecture and all of the elements that go into their design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n