The reference becomes the proof, the comfort blanket, the way to sell in an idea to stakeholders who fear risk . But when the proof is always something already familiar, the outcome can only ever be a variation of what we’ve seen before. The cycle produces work that is technically beautiful yet emotionally flat, caught between safety and sameness.

The result of this cycle is a visual culture that feels polished but strangely hollow. Aesthetics are optimised to perform, but they rarely surprise, provoke, or move. What once signalled a point of view has become a default setting. You can scroll through campaigns from global fashion houses to emerging labels and find them indistinguishable, beca... See more

In this reference economy, research has lost its edge. What could have been a way to push culture forward has been reduced to a cycle of recycling and getting us stuck in the cycle of sameness.

The rise of platforms like Pinterest, Are.na, and Instagram has reshaped how creatives build ideas. Instead of digging through books, archives, or harder-to-find sources, research became as simple as a search bar. But algorithms don’t surface what’s rare, they surface what’s already popular. The same fifty pictures rise to the top, over and over ag... See more