What’s “New”?

Americans revere the newest thing, what’s up-and-coming, the latest trend. But what is really “new”? Andy Warhol brought pop culture to the art scene and made the world consider what art is. And the importance of how pop culture affects us. In The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, he wrote “You have to treat the nothing as if it were something. Make something out of nothing.”

How much of modern innovation is truly created out of nothing? Most of what we consider new is actually a derivative or an expansion of something existing. Taking something proven and making it better can sometimes be a more challenging assignment than creating something completely new.

The Powermoon HeliMax® converts a primitive form of transportation into a convenient and effective tool for the modern world, illuminating large areas without the glare of floodlights. These balloons, which are light enough to deliver by mail and fit in the back of a car, allow work to continue in disaster-relief situations into the night. Simple. Effective. Innovative. But is it new? Developed in the late 18th century, hot air balloons have been used for travel, recreation, surveying, war, and communication. The Powermoon is a modern use for an invention with many historical purposes.

In the movie The Spirit of the Beehive, a young girl is mesmerized by the movie Frankenstein. Viewed in a small town in post-civil war Spain, the monster movie has a more intense effect than it would have in say, New York City, or London.

When TBWA/Chiat/Day created the Absolut Vodka ad campaign, they took the beautifully simple shape of the Absolut bottle and presented it in a new way. Beginning with artists’ renditions, the ads then branched out and covered seasons, spoofs, literature, places, flavors, holidays, and more. After 25 years, the campaign is still going strong continually winning awards along the way. Each ad is an expansion on the previous.

What’s “new” is relative to the situation, the culture, the use.