Original and derivative. Excerpt from the book "Design Today"

Contents:

• Victims of Instagram**, or Homage without theft

Garage Museum of Contemporary Art has published "Design Today," a book by art historian, critic, and lecturer Maria Savostyanova. This publication contains lectures Savostyanova gave at Garage in the fall of 2016 and spring of 2019. The book offers an in-depth analysis of contemporary design trends and practices and examines changes occurring in the field. Particular attention is paid to illustrative case studies, allowing readers to better understand the current challenges and opportunities of contemporary design. By exploring this book, readers will gain a deeper understanding of the influence of design on our everyday lives and its role in shaping the cultural context.

With the publisher's permission, we present an excerpt from the chapter "Between Avant-Garde and Mainstream." This excerpt illuminates key aspects of the interaction between avant-garde art and popular culture, highlighting their mutual influence. Importantly, the avant-garde has always strived for experimentation and innovation, while the mainstream focuses on mass consumer demand. We explore how these two movements can coexist and enrich each other, creating unique artistic forms. Readers will be able to see how the boundaries between them are blurring and how this is reflected in contemporary art and culture.

Victims of Instagram**, or Homage without Theft

The problem of reuse in design is more complex and is associated with the form-making and visual novelty of objects. In 2015, Russian designer Olga Engel presented the striking Emotions lamps, which combined character, anthropomorphism, and interesting materials such as forged metal and biscuit. However, these lamps turned out to be similar to the floor lamps from the Das Pop Light series (2014) by Dutch designer Maarten Baas. Despite this similarity, Emotions achieved commercial success, which underscores the importance of not only the originality of the idea but also its perception by the market. The irony is that Olga Engel's popular and original chairs have recently become the subject of counterfeiting, highlighting the relevance of the question of secondary and original design.

The availability of visual information, especially in the context of the development of social media, contributes to the growth of counterfeits and the increase in the derivativeness of ideas. The Instagram platform plays a significant role here, allowing users to easily navigate similar concepts and styles thanks to the tagging system. This creates conditions for the spread of similar content and makes it difficult to identify original ideas. As a result, the world of digital content tends to repeat and borrow, which calls into question uniqueness and creativity.

How can a designer avoid derivativeness in their projects? It is important that each design project is based on thorough research that records all intermediate stages of development. The more in-depth and original the research, the less likely it is to accidentally overlap with the ideas and solutions of other designers. This approach not only contributes to the creation of unique works but also improves their quality and effectiveness, which, in turn, has a positive impact on the designer's reputation. The originality of the idea and its implementation play a key role in the success of a project, so it is important to pay attention to each stage of development.

Contemporary designers face the challenge of building on the legacy of the 20th century. The ideas and designs of outstanding designers of this era are now becoming the basis for the work of specialists in various design fields. We are witnessing the gradual transformation of the legacy of modernism into a museum piece: major institutions are hosting exhibitions dedicated to such masters as Gerrit Rietveld, Marcel Breuer, Eileen Gray, Charlotte Perriand, Piero Fornasetti, and Ettore Sottsass. These famous works and their creators are becoming the subjects of documentaries and feature films, as well as the subject of scholarly research and literary works. Thus, 21st-century designers continue to reflect on and reinterpret the achievements of the past, contributing to the development of contemporary design.

Young designers strive to engage with the legacy of their predecessors, creating unique projects that do not simply copy, but reinterpret known ideas. How should a project be developed so that it contains elements of homage without succumbing to accusations of plagiarism? It is important to maintain references to original sources while creating original and contemporary solutions. How can one adapt the furniture designs of Jean Prouvé, the graphics of Willem Sandberg, or the posters of Rodchenko without being accused of creative indecisiveness? To achieve this, one must develop one's own style, analyze and interpret classical elements, and integrate them into contemporary contexts and technologies.

The exhibition "This is not a copy. Design between Innovation and Imitation" (Ceci n'est pas une copie: Design between Innovation and Imitation), held at the Centre for Innovation and Design in Grand-Ornu, Belgium, represents a unique attempt to analyze the concepts of originality and imitation in design. The exhibition's curator, journalist Chris Meplon, created a space for discussing the boundaries between innovation and imitation, focusing on how these two concepts are interrelated and influence contemporary design. The exhibition invites viewers to consider what makes an object unique and how designers can use elements of imitation to generate new ideas. Meplon explores the issue of originality in contemporary design from multiple perspectives. Her themes, such as "Copy to understand better," "Copy to actualize the past," and "Copy to pay homage," highlight the multifaceted nature of this issue. She also highlighted the differences in perceptions of the nature of copying in Western and Eastern cultures. These aspects provide a deeper understanding of how copying can serve as a tool in the creative process and how it influences contemporary design.

Studying the history of iconic 20th-century objects reveals that successful design isn't always based on originality. Chris Meplon shares his surprise at discovering a red Monpti portable typewriter (1968) in Nuremberg's Neues Museum. This Czech model was virtually identical to the famous Valentine (1969), designed by Ettore Sottsass for Olivetti. Interestingly, Monpti was released a year earlier than the famous Valentine, which emphasizes the importance of not only originality, but also the correct perception of design in the context of its time.