In Business (as in life) always be yourself
“To thine own self be true”
It’s in Hamlet, it’s said to be inscribed at the Oracle of Delphi (“Know thyself”), and Marlo Thomas told us we were “Free to be You and Me”, in the 1970s. It’s part of our ancient wisdom, woven deep in to our culture. …but is knowing yourself, and being yourself, really all that simple?
At least once a year, I get a request from a client for a logo, or a brochure, or a website, or some other marketing collateral, and the creative direction goes something like this:
“We’re in a crowded and competitive market, and we’re directly fighting some pretty fierce competition. We’ve studied their marketing and they created _______, which we think is brilliant. We want ours to look like theirs.”
Early in my career (we’re talking 15 years ago…(has it been that long?! WOW!)), I would actually do a few of these copycat jobs. a) I was ignorant of copyright & trademark infringement laws, b) I didn’t have a whole lot of original ideas of my own…when you’re first starting out, every job is a new experience, and c) hey, everyone needs to get paid. If they were buying, I was working. In fact, in the early days, this is the way that everyone learned from each other: find something you were impressed by, and click “view source” in your browser, copy the code, figure out how they did it, and implement it yourself, maybe with your own little twist. Someone would see what you did, copy it, add THEIR own little twist, and on and on ideas would flow, building on each other.
Over time, I learned two things:
ONLY YOU can be you. And ONLY THEY can be them.
As much as I might admire other design / creative firms, I can’t be them. I can be open to influences, I can pay tribute to Dave McKean and others, in some of my work, but if I am ever to call myself a designer, someone ought to be able to point to something I did and say, “that looks like Carlos Moreno’s work”. The temptation is very strong, to copy a best-practice, to stand on the shoulders of others, and to say, “hey, it worked for them. surely it can work for me”, but the logic there is flawed. Whatever you see that worked for someone else, worked because of who they are, where & when they are, and why they made a specific choice. YOU are the only one who can be you.
The ONLY way to make a strong statement is to find your own voice.
It’s hard to do something different. I’ve been a designer for 15 years and just now feel that I am finding my own creative voice. And do you know something else? This is also the first year that clients are seeking me out because they have seen my body of work and specifically asking for what I bring to the table. If you are following the crowd, if you are simply doing what everyone else is doing because “hey, it worked for them…” customers will not seek you out. Why do I want to buy a pair of jeans that are “almost just like” Levi’s, or a computer that, “looks almost like” a mac, when I can easily get the real thing?
Customers out there now have an infinite number of choices, for ANY product or service they want, at their fingertips in an instant. Why should they choose you? The best answer you can give is one that makes YOU stand out. Give them something they CANNOT get anywhere else, and the only way to do that is to give it to them in a way that is coming from what makes you completely unique.
