Imitate Till You find Your Style

A great deal of time is spent trying to figure out the how and what of creativity.

A lot of assumptions and rigid assertions trail this subject as many people believe that ideas are supposed to solely come from newness, from space and from dust like humans at creation. They say: Your product and ideas need to originate only from you and no one else. You are never supposed to copy or imitate what others have done. No reference point, just you digging out this ‘never have seen before idea’

This is not true. At least my experience negates this belief. I am a writer with rigid originality principles. I hold tightly to the belief that your creative work must be original, I believe that you have all it takes to come up with genuine ideas that could transform lives and stand the test of time. When I write, I simply listen to the conversations that croons in my ears. I ensure that my output is in its purest form, none of my writings can ever be linked to plagiarism. I believe that every single human is wired in a way that if they dig enough, pay attention enough, they will churn out innovations that intrinsically differ from each other in functionality, design and purpose.

But sometimes I struggle to write. Those days, nothing flows until I have read a quote or an excerpt of a material similar or not similar to what I want to write. All I needed was something to stir or prod my mind. And as soon as my mind is stirred, I go on to writing, ideas start flowing until I finish my piece.

But I have a different experience as a graphic designer who spends countless hours looking at designs on Pinterest and Behance.

When I started designing, I needed to replicate designs until I found my style. I moved things around a bit until I finally figured how to do my things. I redesigned exactly what someone else had designed just to train my judgment and application of design principles I have learnt.

When I started editing videos about three years ago, the same thing happened. I applied the cuts and effects I had seen other people’s work in my work. When I contemplated product design and leant Figma, one of the most efficient tutors I watched taught imitation as a major procedure to learning Product design. He advised his students to replicate Apps of desire until they become just as good to come up with their concepts and deploy them. That is how to learn and it works.

This method of learning or creating does not take away from your creativity if you use it as a launchpad to establishing yourself. Many industry leaders who follow this path to become what they are today, denied that they did and it’s fine.

But they demonize this approach as if it corrupts your creative ability, no it doesn’t. It enhances it and shortens the time you spend rambling around for ideas, concepts and flow.

I read many years ago that if you want to write a bestseller, you must have read 10 bestsellers.

This helps you to build your creative muscles and create a pattern that actually creates.

Studying what others have done, imitating them for a while till you figure out yourself does not make you a scam. It becomes a scam if you have figured out yourself but you refuse to deploy what you have figured and you continue to live in the shadows of others. Then you become a lie, a mere replica and a second version of the original.

You have to learn the rule before you can break it. Picasso said it better, “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” You will be blessed with the unusual gift of innovation and originality as you go on, but it doesn’t stop you from imitating and adapting ideas when you start or need to learn a new brick.

If you’re in a new field and you’ve learnt the skills, you have a new project but you don’t know how to start? Find a masterpiece and replicate it till you find your style. You don’t need to start from the scratch every time. Check what others have done.

However this is the caveat, do not replicate other people’s work, idea,concept and present them as your own. This is plagiarism and it is unacceptable. Give credit where it is due and allow other people’s work to inspire you, not limit you.

I hope this helps.

Have a blessed week and breakthrough from within.

©Abiola Iyiola, 2025

Image Credit: The Internet