There has been a lot of talk about ‘swiping ideas’ and ‘copying’. Swiping ideas is when you read or see work that someone else has produced and you get inspiration or ideas from it and then make your own. While copying is just straight up taking the idea and just make a few minor changes so it can be classed as your own thing. This all came from ‘swipe files’.
A moz.com article describes a ‘swipe file’ as a file of ideas/images/approaches/technologies that inspire you or you’d love to learn from. The basic purpose of the file is for people to keeping contributing to the file and people can look at it when they need inspiration and ideas.
There is one problem with this. It’s that people can just straight up copy what they see and use it as their own. The people who do this will have no inspiration and will not be using or expanding their own creativity. Don’t get us wrong, everyone needs inspiration but this file could help create laziness and less original stuff.
To avoid coping and laziness just make sure to actually spend time reading through the articles and figure out what the original author was trying to do or what they wanted the readers to focus on. Try to make as little similarities as possible. Keep in mind things like: What is the writers background, motive, current political, personal or social influences, how does, if they are being biased and does it agree or disagree with other views?
Before you know it you would have expressed or opened new areas from the original writing in your own, making yours original. It’s great to have an individual approach or view but even if you have a similar view try to show the most understanding and insight. You are now ready for world of swipe files.
