Hi there, Matt here.
In case you’ve forgotten (and you’d be forgiven, it’s been a while), this is an email newsletter that goes out whenever I publish a new essay on my website, matthewstrom.com. You’re receiving it because you signed up at the bottom of one of my other essays.
Now that we’re re-acquainted, I’m very excited to share one of the most in-depth things I’ve ever written. It’s a little more than an essay, but not quite a book, so I’m calling it a very short book.
It’s about copying.
Copying is central to design. But designers (and design-adjacent people) have a very complicated relationship with copying. I dove into the tension between originality and imitation; after a few months of research and writing, I’ve come to see copying as one of the driving forces behind my own career, too.
Before the jump, let’s hear a song. I think Terry Riley’s Keyboard Study #1 suits this book nicely; it’s all about the power of permutation.
Now, here it is! I hope you’ll enjoy it.