Steal Like an Artist: creativity applied to marketing

Steal Like an Artist and working with influences

Creativity draws on what we observe and the decisions we make afterward. In the book's official introduction, Kleon explains that it originated in a talk for students in 2011 and that Workman published it in February 2012. Its ideas include working with your hands, making room for personal projects and simplifying. That framework provides a way to begin a conversation about creative habits without turning the book into a formula for commercial results.

For a brand, a reference should help answer a question. It may show how to guide a journey, explain difficult information or invite participation. Before saving a piece in a folder, it helps to note what problem it was solving and what we observe in it. That way, the team's conversation can move beyond an aesthetic preference.

The applications that follow are working proposals by GX, not instructions attributed to the author or client cases. Their purpose is to organize a creative exploration and offer criteria for reviewing it before producing a campaign.

Building an archive that helps you think

A reference archive is more useful when it preserves context. Alongside each example, we can record its author, source link, date and reason for interest. If it is an exhibition, a service experience or an advertising piece, it also helps to describe where it was and what it expected of people.

Looking outside the category opens other questions. A team designing an activation can study a museum's wayfinding, a recipe's sequence or a library's organization. The objective of that observation is to identify decisions about clarity, rhythm or participation that will later need to be developed with original resources.

It helps to separate what is observed from what is assumed. A photograph of an installation can reveal its composition, but may not tell us what it cost, how many people participated or whether it met its objectives. Recording those limits prevents a striking reference from being presented as evidence of effectiveness.

The archive also needs editing. An excessively large collection can delay decisions. For a specific review, selecting a few well-explained references makes it easier to compare options and identify which aspects still need research.

From inspiration to a proposal of your own

The brief sets the starting point. Before choosing colors, formats or activities, the team needs to define whom it addresses, which situation it wants to address and what action it hopes to facilitate. It also needs to understand the time, budget, space and operational constraints that shape the experience.

One approach is to describe the principle without reproducing the piece. If a reference uses layers to reveal information, we can study that sequence and ask how it would help our audience. The result might be a guided conversation, a demonstration or material that allows people to choose the level of detail.

Each adaptation then needs to be justified. Why does this interaction fit the brand? What does it offer the participant? Could it be understood without having seen the reference? Those questions help find an original intention and discard elements included only because they seemed novel.

A review among people with different responsibilities can enrich that decision. Design observes visual hierarchy; production checks feasibility; audience-facing staff identify foreseeable questions. The idea gains precision when those perspectives arrive before everything is finalized.

A workshop example for a brand experience

Imagine a brand that wants to explain how to care for a product. This is an illustrative example, with no client or attributed results. The team identifies a specific difficulty: people receive many instructions together and do not know which to apply first. Its objective will be to facilitate understanding of a care sequence.

The exploration can bring together learning and wayfinding references. Rather than reproduce another campaign, the team observes how a recipe divides tasks and how a sign helps people choose a path. From those questions, it prepares a demonstration table with its own materials and three clearly differentiated stages.

The first prototype can be simple. Cards, test objects and a short script allow the journey to be rehearsed before commissioning the installation. During the session, one person explains while another observes where questions arise, which instructions are skipped and which steps require a second demonstration.

With those observations, the team can change the order or reduce information. If participants understand the explanation but cannot repeat it, a take-home guide may be needed. If the activity depends on a particular skill, alternative ways to participate will need to be explored.

Evaluation should correspond to the objective. In this example, it matters to observe comprehension and use of the instructions, as well as record participation. The number of shared photographs can provide information about dissemination, but does not prove on its own that someone learned to care for the product.

References, permissions and recognition

Provenance should stay with the material throughout the project. The World Intellectual Property Organization distinguishes ideas from their expression and explains that using protected works generally requires authorization, with exceptions depending on the applicable law. That general guidance does not replace a review of a specific use.

A production review can include a materials register. Photographs, music, illustrations and texts should have their origins and applicable conditions of use identified. Giving credit does not replace a necessary authorization. When a license raises doubts, it helps to resolve them before incorporating the resource into the final piece.

It also matters to avoid implying an association that does not exist. Mentioning an author as a reading reference does not mean they participated in a campaign or endorse the brand. The team must review both the text and visual presentation to avoid suggesting a nonexistent collaboration.

Sharing the process thoughtfully

The process can become content when it offers something useful. In Show Your Work!, Kleon develops the idea of sharing work as it is being built. Distinguishing this book from Steal Like an Artist helps place the references more accurately and avoids attributing all his work to a single title.

For a marketing team, sharing requires selection. A comparison of sketches can explain a legibility decision. A test can show how the journey changed. Before publishing those materials, permissions, confidentiality and agreements with the people appearing in or contributing to the project need to be reviewed.

The explanation should recognize contributions and the limits of what was learned. A test with a few people can point to difficulties, but does not automatically represent the whole audience. Sharing a specific decision and its context offers a clearer conversation than announcing an infallible method.

Maintaining a creative practice that can be reviewed

Inspiration needs a next step. A session can end with a written concept, a sketch that can be tested or a question pending research. Defining that outcome and who will review it helps prevent references from remaining in a presentation that no one opens again.

It also helps to keep discarded decisions. Explaining why an option was unsuitable allows lessons to be recovered and repeated discussions to be avoided. The record can be brief: what was proposed, what was observed and what changed. Its value lies in facilitating the next task, not documenting every conversation.

At GX, we propose looking at influences with curiosity and turning them into responsible decisions: a clear intention, original execution and an experience that can be evaluated. If you are developing a campaign, talk to GX about the audience, idea and questions you need to resolve before producing it.

Explore more

• Visual content: bringing clarity to the brand message: Choose images and formats for what they help explain, not only for their visual impact.
• How to measure brand experiences with clear criteria: Useful measurement begins with the question you need to answer, not the biggest number.

Sources

The official Steal Like an Artist page supports the origin, publication date and ideas from the book mentioned here. The introduction to Show Your Work! helps distinguish the focus of that second title. WIPO's frequently asked questions provide general copyright guidance. The procedures, review questions and product-care example are illustrative proposals by GX, not completed projects or legal recommendations for a particular jurisdiction.