Yes, you’ve read that right. Be shameless – go find the icon set you really like and copy it, right after finishing this article.Copy till you can’t tell the difference between the two sets. “Why?”, you might ask. The answer’s easy – to learn. Copying the work of others is the best way to gain new skills, and one must have no shame to admit it. If you don’t publish it taking all the credits for yourself, of course.
Copying to learn is the most natural trait of human behaviour.
Newborn children copy their parents. They watch and follow every step trying to understand and then imitate what they’ve seen, day after day. Toddlers are amazing little students. It’s hard to imagine, how many information they actually absorb in their childhood.
But in the artistic community, copying other designers’ work is still a dogma. Sure, everyone wants to be unique and have their own style. The problem is, however, that lots of designers want to develop their own style way too early. Before they even learned some basics and prepared the fundament for their future career. This leads to a lot of mediocre works.
Having ambition is good. But before taking over the icon design world, copy the works of professionals to understand the techniques and master your skills. Only after that you may try to find your own unique style.
There’s a catch though. You should not blindly copy the work of others. The key to success and the whole point of copying is to understand how everything works and why it’s made the way it’s made.
You may not get it now, but believe me, eventually, copying will lead you to understanding the basics of the field you’re working in. And once you’ve fully understood everything, you’ll b able to start experimenting. For example, combine a few icons together to make them into unique one, or remove some unnecessary details. After you feel absolutely confident, go for bigger changes, the ones that will lead you to your own remarkable style!
Don’t cross the line!
I’ve said it above, and I’m going to repeat it once again – don’t publish any of the works you’ve copied to develop your skills. Respect the author and yourself! We come across a lot of different things all the time, and it is ok that we are often inspired by other designers. Obviously, sometimes there will inevitably be similarities and coincidences, but you should never intentionally copy anyone’s work to pass it off as your own, or even worse – sell it to a client.
So if you want to find your style and rock the icon design scene – go and copy the best icon designers you know, the ones that made you want to create icons in the first place! Do some research, explore! Study every single detail to understand and make it work for you.Never switch off your thinking regime. The more you think, the more you learn. Question everything and look for the answers.
And most importantly – Stay awesome!
