Daily Inspiration Quote by Marc Newson

Originality gets sold to us like a rare mineral: unearth it, polish it, monetize it. Marc Newson flips that script with a designer's blunt practicality. "To be original is to be yourself" isn’t a misty self-help mantra so much as a quiet rebuke to an industry addicted to novelty for novelty’s sake. In design, "original" often means a new silhouette, a fresh material trick, a form that photographs well. Newson’s line suggests the deeper competitive edge is less about chasing the next aesthetic wave and more about developing a signature so coherent it can’t be mistaken for anyone else’s.

The phrasing matters. "But to me" signals dissent - an argument with the unspoken consensus that originality is a heroic act of invention. He’s demystifying it. Designers are routinely pressured to perform innovation, to appear ahead of the curve, even when the curve is just trend cycles in better packaging. By grounding originality in selfhood, he’s pointing to consistency, taste, and restraint: the long accumulation of choices that become recognizable as yours.

There’s also a warning baked in. If your work is assembled from reference boards and algorithms of "what’s hot", it may be new, but it won’t be original. Newson’s own career - spanning furniture, product design, and aviation - reinforces the idea that the strongest work carries an internal logic across contexts. The subtext: originality isn’t a costume you put on. It’s what remains when you stop trying to look original.