Nothing is Original
- Apr 27
- 1 min read
To quote the British rapper Scroobius Pip: “nothing is original.”
That quote isn’t original either. Any number of people before Scroob have echoed the same sentiment.
When we think about the work we make, we often put a lot of pressure on ourselves to be original, to come up with a concept that the world has never seen before.
The reality, though, is that (big surprise) nothing is original.
Every creative concept is built on what came before.
Most concepts we believe to be original are just the smashing together of two distinct concepts or ideas.
For example:
Star Wars (1977) was inspired by Hidden Fortress (1958) and Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
The iPhone (2007) was the combination of PDAs, Mp3 players, and existing mobile phones, along with capacitive touchscreen tech (which had been researched as early as the 1960s).
Harry Potter (1997) pulls from the wizard school concept (Ursula Le Guin and others) and Roald Dahl’s often-used misfit child/cruel guardians dynamic.
Rock and Roll (1950s) was inspired by African American blues and gospel music, and the up-tempo energy of boogie-woogie and jump blues.
The important thing is to remember that when it comes to your own work, stop piling the pressure on yourself to be original right from the outset.
Originality isn't about inventing from nothing. It's about the angle of collision between influences, the combination of existing ideas into something new.
What you bring to the combination is your taste, your obsessions, and the question only you thought to ask.