It’s always good to see something done well, but sometimes it can also be very annoying, particularly when said thing makes your own achievements look a lot less interesting.
It seems that Target [the chain store] has been stealing my thoughts as I sleep, as evidenced by this sexy ad which is showing in Australian cinemas right now.
Remind you of anything…? Like maybe a certain pet project of mine, if I were to get really really motivated and work on it non-stop for a year…?1
*sniff*
So why is it that I actually feel a bit depressed when I see this? Partly I think it’s for the same reason that anyone can be disheartened when they compare their own work to someone else’s; but mostly I think it’s because now I will find it hard to avoid using this imagery as a kind of goal or benchmark for future work on Drivey; thus creating a real danger that my own [occasionally original] ideas will be overshadowed by the urge to match someone else’s vision.
I guess this is a problem within any creative field; in fact one reason why I am attracted to programming+design2 in the first place is that it is still a pretty sparsely populated domain, with plenty of room for innovation/originality – Unlike writing a book, playing an instrument etc, where you can always find ample evidence that you are a talentless amateur and everyone else is a million times better than you can ever hope to be…
__________
1. I am aware that similarly styled imagery has been popping up all over the place the last few years, but nothing else I have seen has given me such a strong feeling of déjà vu.
2. For want of a better term. "Design-centric programming" perhaps…? I’m not even sure that I know what I mean now…