If your job is a creative role such as a Graphic Designer then you will know that when you create something (this could be anything from a business card to a website) your ideas matter! The overall result of what you have designed needs to be four things: Creative, Unique, Distinctive and Original. These four words all sound similar but they all have different meanings.
Unique
Definition: Being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else.
Unique means being completely different from everything and everyone else; there is nothing else like it, it is completely individual. If you are able to create something that follows these guidelines then you have a winner! Nobody wants a design or a product that is so similar to someone else’s that you can’t tell them apart, so switch on that brain of yours and get cracking on a totally unique design/product.
Creative
Definition: Relating to or involving the imagination or original ideas.
I think that everyone can be creative in different ways, it doesn’t matter if you can draw or not! Creativity can be anything, from how creative your outfit is to how creative your ideas are. I think that you need at least one creative person working for your company whether they are there to come up with new ideas, to move your company forward or if they are there to create things for your company such as websites and infographics. You could have creative ideas that could help your company progress and take off or you could have creative skills that could make a visual image for your company.
Distinctive
Definition: Characteristic of one person or thing, and so serving to distinguish it from others.
If something is distinctive it stands out from the crowd and would catch your eye if you caught a glimpse of it. If you have a piece of work like this it would be fantastic, you would have so many people wanting to look at what you have created which means it would become very popular and would be noticed a lot! An example of something distinctive is the Mcdonalds ‘M’. When you see this you know what company it belongs to because they have made it their own and it is completely distinctive compared to anything else!
Original
Definition: Used or produced at the creation or earliest stage of something.
Everyone wants to be original and I think that everyone is, but is your work original? Sometimes it is fine to copy ideas if that is what the person who has requested the design or product wants but if they ask for something completely original you need to come up with a brand new idea that is totally your own. Be different to everyone else and please your client, that is your aim.
These are words that should relate to your work in some way. When you have created anything stand back, have a good look, go down the list of words and decide whether you can check each one off; if not, your work is missing something. Think about what needs changing or adding to your final piece to make it completely different to anything else.
