What Does New Look Like..?

“It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them… That doesn’t mean we don’t listen to customers, but it’s hard for them to tell you what they want when they’ve never seen anything remotely like it.”
- Steve Jobs

For those of you just tuning in, welcome back to PLANET GRIFFIN, the pirate blogcast that holds orbit over that grand dumpsite known as pop culture. For those of you who never left, thank you for sticking around! (Hopefully, you didn't drink all the beer while I was away...)

Okay, to the Up and coming Creator's out there, I ask you--- what does new look like?

The above Jobs quote is something you can apply to virtually any medium at any given time. In this new age of technological interconnectivity and derivative concepts, the idea of creating something original is not the easiest thing in the world to do. Meanwhile, while an exceedingly small group of people are pondering that very question, the larger multimedia corporations are doing the thinking for you...

Don't believe me? Let's take Hollywood, for example... Here is a massive entertainment consortium that believes it KNOWS what you want, simply because you wanted it before. (This made X, therefore it'll make X again...)  Notice how many remakes, revisions, reinterpretations, and reimaginings (my personal fav) that have come down the pipe in the last 5 years? It seems as if the Industry views us as an ADHD audience, in constant need of cinematic adirol or we'll lose interest and begin eating our feet... Realize that the need for 'formulas' exist only because no one's bringing a better equation to the table... What does new look like?

Comics are another example... How many times will we be sold on the 'Next Big Thing' only to find out it's the 'Same Old Thing' in flashier dress. Keep in mind, this is coming from the 'Mainstream Majors' like Marvel, who are white hot with so many film projects (Marvel, as of this week, became the FIFTH most powerful film production house in Hollywood), they're coasting and slacking on what made them what they were to begin with: A House of Ideas.
The Comics Industry KNOWS what you want, simply because you wanted it before... Creator's, again I ask you, what does new look like?

Flashy gimmicks, bright lights, and nil-meets-non-attention span boom-bap is what currently holds many enthralled, but the drawback to all of these things is that none of it is built to last. People are still waiting for something new. Something different. Something they can hold fast to... Which is a feat in and of itself because that timeless new material is still out there somewhere... Awaiting release from the mind of a creator out there with the moxie and the will to make it real.

ORIGINAL CREATIVITY STILL EXISTS. It has to... Because we're still waiting to see what it looks like.