Learning Design: Emulate or Challenge
I remember when I was trying to learn how to design (which obviously still never worked) and looking at many different designers and picking my favorites and then copying their designs. Not for the public to see, but for my own practice. I wonder though how harmful this is because you might end up creating a style that you believe is your own, but in actuality is just another’s creativity shining through to you.
But how can one learn quality design if not emulating the people we respect? Should you emulate their style and then push it to further lengths so it becomes your own? I really don’t have an answer to that because I never reached the point in my life where I considered myself a designer.
Rundle’s dirty little secret (he is out of town so I can say this) is that he emulates many other designers, but he is able to bring in certain qualities and adjust them with his own tastes so that the style becomes his own. Is this how everyone else does it?
I know eventually you get to the point where you know your style and that’s what you always run with, but it certainly can’t be like that in the beginning, right?
We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us… and they stood on the shoulders of someone else. In short, I don’t think it’s “bad” or uncreative that works are based on other works. We all have to start somewhere. If we could see inside the heads of designers who we might be emulating, we’d see they went through a similar process. The only difference is that they’ve probably gained more confidence in their own “sparks” over time.
Ryan
By Ryan on February 16, 2006 12:56 pm
I believe that everyone emulates. It’s not harmful — it’s a learning process. For example, remember in grade school when they were teaching us how to handwrite or print? We even had to trace over letters over and over, trying to make it look EXACTLY how it looks in the books… but every single human being has a different way of holding a pen, different hand to hold it in, different pressure on the paper, angle, etc.
How many people do you know, besides a professional forger, has the exact same handwriting? Everyone, despite having to “emulate” something exactly the way it “should,” ends up having a different scrawl. You evolve over time because of your environment, experiences, and the tools available to you.
The same can apply with designing or doing anything creative: you study designs or people that you admire, their techniques… and as humans, we naturally scrap what doesn’t work for us and keep what does, and with some creativity, you can make something truly original. You can develop a style, if only because every person has a diferent environment, experiences, and tools to work with to do the same thing.
Just as long as you don’t slavishly copy something verbatim or pixel-perfectly, and then you challenge yourself to try something new once you’ve mastered a technique and experiment, I think you can learn by example and still remain original.
By Lea on February 16, 2006 1:03 pm
Without emulation how do you base your work. You need a starting point and if that is your design, my design or someone elses I dont think it matters as long as it is pulled together in such a way that it is your design and syle that is in the end project. Now I am not saying copying from others is good but seeing what others have done and build on it is, that is what makes the world go around.
By Dennis Bullock on February 16, 2006 1:30 pm
The important thing is to draw the line between duplicating and emulating.
Take a theoretical example with cruise control in cars. If my company actually invents cruise control, yours will obviously have to follow suit and introduce a similar feature. The difference revolves around whether you engineer something yourself, or if you etch the logo off of one of mine and replace it with your own.
Basically, it’s fine to take pieces from other puzzles, but make your own picture when you put them all together.
One thing I have to say, however, is that I think there is a little too much emulation/direct copying out there anymore. So many sites look alike. I’ve actually started placing and organizing my content first, and then adding the appropriate touches to bring it across the line from stark to minimal.
By Jonathan Barket on February 16, 2006 1:36 pm
I think emulating is a great way to learn, but I just want to say here that I don’t do it. Yes, it’s possible not to do it, and everytime a new fad hits the web-design-community, it’s because at least the person who started it tried something new, rather than emulate everyone else.
Even though I’m not a very good designer, I think a couple times I’ve benefited just from doing things differently, and that’s probably why I’ve made it into a few galleries here and there.
As much as I like to see nice looking fads making it onto every new design, I much prefer seeing designers trying different things, all contributing to the web with their own style and ideas.
By Christian Montoya on February 16, 2006 2:45 pm
As a guitar player and an interface designer, I can say that there are some solid parallels to developing your own technique.
And learning how to play your favorite songs is certainly on the road to success.
By Anton on February 16, 2006 3:40 pm
It’s funny that you posted on this today. My wife is an Art History prof and we were having a discussion something similar the other evening - related to all of Art History in general.
Emulation seems to be the norm for art and design through history. The great ones and true innovators in any period usually started out building in the style of the day and enhancing it with their own flair. Later, they found their own voice and did something original and different because they were confident and competent in their fundamentals.
Their credibility in introducing something new and different, in most cases, came from the fact that the public already respected their ability in relation to the current conventions of the day.
Emulation, without violating the intellectual property of others, is as much a part of learning good fundamentals as any knowledge gained from books and lectures, IMHO.
By Jon on February 16, 2006 4:43 pm
.
I think it’s impossible not to copy others, be it in music, design, writing or any other form of art. There’s only a finite number of possible note/color/word combinations, no matter how big it is.
Like Ryan said, we stand on the shoulders’ of others, nobody can really come up with something out of the blue.
By Rami Kayyali on February 16, 2006 4:58 pm
Ahhhhhhh Rami stole my quote (Great quote)! Coming from someone who spent their whole life innovating, Picasso sums it up. It’s what you get out of others work that you can then build upon and create your own style. It has to start at some point and move from there.
By Jeremy Techtmann on February 16, 2006 5:10 pm
I say it helps to emulate, but I think designing awful things in the beginning is a necessary phase of that process of learning. Unfortunately, I’m still not out of that phase.
By Glen C. on February 16, 2006 5:11 pm
I think everyone is influenced by something outside of themselves. If it isn’t another designer, then it’s something else. An eye for design is a gift and not neccessarily a learned skill.
By RonnieSan on February 16, 2006 7:50 pm
Whenever I need inspiration for something I search on deviantart or other communities not thinking “I’m going to use this” but hoping that by looking at something I can get ideias of my own.
For example, I see a yellow circle and I start to imagine a sunny day on a beach.
It all depends on your stimulus.
Besides there are psicological factors that might affect you that depend on your day to day life and personality.
By Mario on February 16, 2006 8:35 pm
Everybody starts out emulating a designer they like. That’s what inspired me in the first place. I used to spend so much time on css vault, css beauty, stylegala, any site that had a gallery looking through other peoples designs and finding stuff I liked.
My first rendition of my website, griffinwebworks.com, (which was featured on CSS Vault after Scrivs sold it) I thought was original. To be honest, I spent 6 months on it and went through 10 comps. But if you take a look at it on CSS Vault you can see from the small screenshot it does bare some similiarities to Neubix’s style. Somebody in the comments even pointed that out.
But since I used blue gradients heavily that means I copied them? Because I didn’t, but you can see Ryan Sim’s style and even I’ll admit I was insipried by him. I think he does great work.
But at this point, almost a year later, I can comp out at least a shell of a website in about 6 hours or less (of course this depends on the complexity of the site) and nobody could probably tell. The more I do it, the less I need to “get inspired” by others. When I’m designing sometimes I’ll go to a gallery and just take a look at some of the designs and then something will click and the final product may not look nothing like what I was inspired by.
My point is, everybody emulates, whether its one person/company’s style or a little from everybody. Emulating is an exercise of the brain and mind. But everybody does get to the point where they are so full of ideas you don’t need inspiration.
By Chris Griffin on February 16, 2006 8:57 pm
“Rundle’s dirty little secret (he is out of town so I can say this) is that he emulates many other designers, but he is able to bring in certain qualities and adjust them with his own tastes so that the style becomes his own. Is this how everyone else does it?”
Yup. That’s basically how I do it. I “steal” other designers ideas to get on the right track, then kind of throw in my own little twists to uniquefi it.
I wouldn’t call it emulation so much as an insane amount of inspiration… ;-)
By Andrew Hamann on February 16, 2006 11:23 pm
Scrivs,
Great post. I really needed to read this today. See I’m new to the designing aspect of creating a website. The code part of it is something that I’ll always be trying to improve upon, but the physical aspects of a sites design is something that I’m trying to learn. I have Photoshop and Fireworks like everyone else, but I have no artistic skills what-so-ever. I don’t really have the money right now to hire or partner with a tried and true designer so I browse around the Net and see what others are contributing and try to go from there. I really like Bryan Velaso’s work and Mike Rundle is on fire. But I get worried that what I end up coming up with stylisticly for site is a copy of what I’ve seen on someone else’s site. Reading this post and the comments puts me at ease: Learn from others, emulate until you can develop your own style. If you never get to the point of developing your own style, quit and hire Mike Rundle!
By viperteq on February 17, 2006 12:31 am
As a human you are influenced by things around you. You also have to make sure you know what is going on in your field and as a result you will expose yourself to styles that may or may not influence you. Having your own style is a thing that take a long time to develop. I do not see anything wrong in people using others as inspiration - but the line between inspiration and copy cat is a thin one. At the beginning you learn from example and then you move on to hopefully creating the examples.
In design, gaining your style is when you become a true designer rather than a junior, that is probably one of the key aspects which leads you to grow up the career path. I see this a lot in the juniors that I have in my studio. Most also move on and progress once they have experimented and found their style - it is a process that changes depending on the person. Some of course seem to almost be born with a style where others are relative photo copiers and can turn their hands to any style requested.
By karmatosed on February 17, 2006 4:26 am
I once heard an interview with a few of the greatest names in the present blues- & jazz-scene (George Benson, B.B.King, Stanley Clarke, Al di Meola, etc..) about an opportunity they once had to share the same stage and play together. When asked about these performances they all kept saying it was so interesting to be able to learn new tricks for each other. I find that most people who claim to be original aren’t and those who are will have little restrictions in sharing who and what they’ve learned from.
By Robert de Mildt on February 17, 2006 12:54 pm
I never done that, don’t know why. I’m that stupid, its a terrific idea. What I done, is this:
- Look a good, tasty design
- Stare at it for about 45 minutes
- Take a sip of water
- Hit my face in the wall
- If nothing pops out my head, and idea will hit me soon
- I hit my face in the wall again and again, until an idea pops out
- I try that idea, that design.
Bad thing is, I had to do this process like four times before I find something really tasty and beautiful. Four times. I never get it right away.
BTW, I have the biggest forehead you ever saw and there isn’t much inside my head so… I don’t harm myself that much.
Javier Cabrera
By Javier Cabrera (CSSelite) on February 17, 2006 1:23 pm
I define “design” as “problem-solving.”
Given that definition, I think Scriv’s is an excellent designer. He’s solved a great many problems and achieved a great many goals with his web sites.
I’ve been a reader of WS for a long time, and he’s always bashed his “design” skills.
His visual tastes are similar to mine, too. I think WS looks great. It’s lean and clean. What more do you want?
Something like Stop Design, maybe? Why?
Anyway, in answer to the “question,” I agree with others that have said we stand on the shoulders of those before us. We see emulation in nature all the time, too.
Honestly, I think this whole post is a moot point.
Scriv’s asks, “But how can one learn quality design if not emulating the people we respect?”
Eh.. what’s quality? Someone might say WS sucks, but above I said I liked it.
Take Exploding Dog for example. I LOVE his stuff. Other’s say he’s a talent-less hack. Beauty’s in the eye of the beholder. Go ahead and mimic those you like, but I don’t think any particular “design” (in the graphic sense, not the problem-solving sense) is better or worse than any other “design.”
By Rabbit on February 17, 2006 2:02 pm
There’s so much to the design process it’s almost impossible to really answer your question. However, I’m surprised nobody’s linked to Cameron’s article by now:
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/copy-great-designers-steal
There is nothing wrong with learning from good designers, in fact, that’s the only logical way to go about it. Learn from other people’s experiences.
By Edward on February 17, 2006 7:44 pm
Jeremy Techtmann, juste another quote for you. “Creativity is the art of hiding its sources” (A.Einstein). … Quite the same idea.
By Thuan on February 18, 2006 4:47 am
My husband had a rare lucid moment the other night and stated:
“Artists don’t live in the real world. Designers find a use for the world”.
Considering he is a landscape gardener and not a designer (although he was trained as an illustrator), I thought this was really spot on. It was also rare as far as lucid goes as he is often wandering about muttering about trees - living with a gardener is a muddy experience.
By karmatosed on February 20, 2006 4:08 am
Man without being able to copy you have to be one talented person. The best way I think to look at it is it’s a never eneding race. Someone is always in first and you second. Then you are in first when your new design is complete. But hay someone is coming up behind you and guess what your back in second. and so it goes on.
If you dont wnat anyone to copy your work dont display it. But then whats the point. I love people taking ideas form me as it a sign off I must be doing something right.
Like music design should be sampled and changed but not just ripped off.
By Joachim on February 21, 2006 8:11 am
All I know about webdesign comes from emulation, as I didn’t study design at school (my major: Phlosophy).
Here in Japan imitation is a very natural and common thing also and especially among creative people and by no way regarded in any way as bad or lame. Imitation is regarded as the first step to creativity.
I emulated whitespace and business logs to get to the new design of my homepage. The challenge mostly is: To make it simpler and add your characterisitc details. (Didn’t manage yet to challenge the footer design of business logs yet, which I think is just awesome, but I get to challenge it soon.)
By Oliver Reichenstein on February 23, 2006 10:45 pm
I define “design” as “problem-solving.”
Sorry, but IMO this is the only sane thing that’s been said in this discussion.
Design is not art, it’s the solving of functional problems. Design is not an outlet for your artistic flair, expression of personal style, or any of that. Our job is to solve the problem well. That’s it. It’s not about you—at all—it’s about the solution.
I personally take pride in not being original with the majority of my designs. I like that there’s a well-codified set of rules for typography that have been refined over a few thousand years of writing stuff down. Originality in this department, particularly on the Web, is usually disastrous. If you really want to, throw the rules out the window. Go for unrestrained line lengths. 60 word lines? No problem! Use that 7 point serif on your Web site, it’s so designerly! Rock that blink tag! See if anybody reads it.
I once read this great quote about eBay, “sure, I paid $5 for that can of beans, but I won the auction“. Don’t make the same mistake with design and originality. There are known solutions to certain problems. Don’t get caught in the trap of “sure, my ‘design’ is completely incoherent, illegible, laden with AJAX (just cuz I can!) and literally painful due to weird color choices, but it’s original“.
By Nicolai on March 19, 2006 6:43 pm