This is a topic that almost no one talks about and one way or another it has to be said. With the help of many of you in our community, we have seen how different people have tried to “copy” our content, and we have addressed this. But we were also thinking about, what is really behind all that “copying”?
“Start copying what you love. Copy copy copy copy. At the end of the copy you will find your self.”
Yohji Yamamoto
Nobody is born with a style or a voice. We don’t come out of the womb knowing who we are. In the beginning, we learn by pretending to be our heroes. We learn by copying.
Austin Kleon
The reason to copy your heroes and their style is so that you might somehow get a glimpse into their minds. That’s what you really want—to internalize their way of looking at the world.
Austin Kleon
We’re talking about practice here, not plagiarism—plagiarism is trying to pass someone else’s work off as your own. Copying is about reverse-engineering.
Austin Kleon