Copy Culture

How ideas and aesthetics circulate, and how designers move beyond them Design does not happen in a vacuum. Every visual language, trend, or aesthetic is shaped by circulation, through social media, platforms, studios, and cultural exchange. References move faster than ever, collapsing timelines and geographies, making it easier to access inspiration, but also easier to replicate it unconsciously. This creates what we call copy culture: a landscape where ideas echo, styles repeat, and distinction becomes harder to maintain. What starts as influence quickly turns into imitation, often stripped of its original context, meaning, or cultural specificity. But copying is not inherently negative, it’s part of how design evolves. The problem is not exposure to references, but the lack of transformation. This conversation brings together different perspectives on how designers push beyond repetition: • Juan Villanueva challenges the idea of a fixed design canon, highlighting how dominant visual systems, especially in typography, have historically erased or sidelined non-Western practices. Moving beyond copy culture, in this context, means reclaiming authorship, reintroducing cultural specificity, and actively reshaping the references we consider “valid.” • Kristina Bartošová is a Slovak graphic designer and creative director based in NYC. Her work spans from branding, packaging and editorial design to type design design and letterings. She has a soft spot for big and bold type and a moody 80s art direction. She has worked for clients like Apple, The New York Times, AG1, New Balance, Aimé Leon Dore or 12 Matcha. Currently independent, she's a co-creative director of Gossamer, the bi-annual culture and lifestyle print magazine. After running her own practice for eight years in Austria, she has worked with some of New York's best studios (Base, COLLINS, Wolff Olins among others) and continues to take on work that catches her instinct for the unexpected. • Anjela Freyja looks at how platforms, and increasingly AI, accelerate aesthetic sameness. When everything is optimized for speed and visibility, styles flatten quickly. Breaking out of copy culture here requires intentional friction: slowing down, questioning trends, and resisting the pressure to immediately produce what is already circulating. Moving beyond copy culture ultimately requires a shift from consumption to interpretation. It means: • Understanding the why behind a visual language, not just the surface • Reintroducing context, constraints, and personal perspective • Combining references in unexpected ways rather than reproducing them directly • Allowing friction, experimentation, and even “mistakes” to shape outcomes Originality, then, is not about creating from nothing, it’s about recombining, reframing, and recontextualizing what already exists in a way that feels specific, intentional, and alive. Location: Resobox, 91 E 3rd St, New York, NY 10003 Closest Subway station: F Train, 2nd Ave Event Format: 6:00-7:00: Networking( free food and drinks) 7:00-8:15: Speaker Presentations 8:15-8:30: Panel discussion/Q+A 8:30-9:30: Networking and Goodbyes Our Amazing Sponsors: Readymag - is a design tool for creating all kinds of websites with flexibility and creative freedom. Resobox - A cultural house in the East Village Jakarta Munch - Crafted with care Indonesian food Flutter Butter Bakery - Delicious sweet cookies and treats Can't wait to see you all there soon!