What causes visual monoculture? When we’re all fed the same inputs, we all produce similar outputs. It’s by this cycle that trends are born, flourish, and die. Great design is downstream from uncommon sources. To access them, we have to hike a bit higher than our peers, and even, god forbid, step away from our desks, and into a library, museum, or archive.

For example, we once referenced the title of a Laurie Anderson album to crack the language for a wellness brand’s positioning statement. Another time, we designed a custom type family based on the silhouette of a 1970s highrise in Côte d’Ivoire.

Throughout our careers, we’ve developed concepts based on Middle English etymology, Tintin book endpapers, the philosophy of Dr. Bronner, and the poetry of Walt Whitman.

We’ve found that authentic inspiration rarely comes from sources explicitly promising inspiration: popular mood boards and thought leadership platforms are quickly exhausted from overuse. Instead, we try to look outside of our industry’s echo chamber to spark new and original ideas.