Build your whole style on this month’s trend and you’ve got an expiration date stamped on your work.
REFLECTION
WHAT THIS MEANS
Trends move fast because they are built to, and anything constructed entirely on top of one moves with them, including out. The cost is rarely visible at the start, when matching the current look is what gets you noticed. It shows up later, when the look dates and your work dates with it, since there was nothing underneath holding it up.
Borrow from what is current without building the foundation out of it. Ask which parts of your work would still make sense if the trend disappeared tomorrow, and put more weight on those.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
Which trend are you copying that will date your work?
MORE IN MINDSET & IDENTITY
- Disagreeing with everything for attention isn’t being original. It’s being predictable in the opposite direction.
- Beat yesterday’s version by one page, one lap, one rep. Nobody else’s numbers are on your scoreboard.
- Once you clear the bar without trying, it’s not a standard anymore. It’s a step stool.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.