I remember when I was trying to learn how to design (which obviously still never worked) and looking at many different designers and picking my favorites and then copying their designs. Not for the public to see, but for my own practice. I wonder though how harmful this is because you might end up creating a style that you believe is your own, but in actuality is just another’s creativity shining through to you.
But how can one learn quality design if not emulating the people we respect? Should you emulate their style and then push it to further lengths so it becomes your own? I really don’t have an answer to that because I never reached the point in my life where I considered myself a designer.
Rundle’s dirty little secret (he is out of town so I can say this) is that he emulates many other designers, but he is able to bring in certain qualities and adjust them with his own tastes so that the style becomes his own. Is this how everyone else does it?
I know eventually you get to the point where you know your style and that’s what you always run with, but it certainly can’t be like that in the beginning, right?