Many nights for the past 5 years, I have worn a soft, gray, oversized shirt that reads, “the Basic elements of creativity: copy • transform • combine”.

That shirt encapsulates the core message of Everything is a Remix, the video documentary manifesto about creativity by Kirby Furgusen.

I wear that shirt because it reminds me of my constant struggle to push past good enough and create innovative products and services that have real value and lasting impact. I wear it also because I want my children to internalize the message through osmosis.

Good enough is easy. Just find someone who has already done what you are trying to do and make a compelling copy. Creating something new, something that change things, that creates value and has a lasting impact is incredibly hard.

The film gave specific language to the things I was already seeing, feeling, and intuiting in my product design work - that the all great designs and innovations copy, transform, and combine prior art in a process he calls “remix”.

Copy

Copying is how we learn. We can’t introduce anything new until we are fluent in the language of our domain. And we do that through emulation.

Transform

After we have grounded ourself in the fundamentals through copying, it is then possible to create something new through transformation: taking an idea and creating variations.

Combine

The most dramatic results can happen when ideas are combined. By connecting ideas together creative leaps can be made.

Successful remixes include StarWars and Kill Bill (both of which built heavily on scenes, art, staging, and motifs from prior movies) and the Macintosh Computer (which built heavily on the Xerox Alto and Star - which both built on other prior computers and innovations).

Remixes fail when the copied work is not transformed or modified enough to be distinct from the original. When the transform step is omitted remixes are just knockoffs.

Kirby’s work had a significant impact on mine as I remixed his idea into the product design process that I use and teach. Here is how you can use remix to transform your ideas:

Create a succinct statement of the problem you are solving.
Search for all those who have already solved some aspect of the problem.
Extract from their solutions the kernel of an idea that you can apply to yours.
Create a series of iterations that transforms and combines those extracted ideas into a new solution.
Test your new solution to see if it solves the problem.
Repeat, repeat, repeat.