POLAR COMPLIMENTS

That's the idea behind Polar Compliments.

 

One of the most reliable ways to make something new is to combine things that don’t seem to belong together. At first glance, the two parts resist each other. But in the resistance is energy, and if you can channel it, you get something stronger than either part alone.

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You see this in obvious places, like food. Chocolate is good. Peanut butter is good. Together they’re something else entirely. The same is true in art. Rap was once the province of a very specific culture, young, Black, urban, tough. Then Eminem arrived, a white kid from Detroit, rapping not just about bravado but about his family, his anger, his vulnerability. It shouldn’t have worked, but it did, and it made the genre bigger. The Simpsons pulled the same trick: a cartoon that looked like it belonged to kids, but inside was an adult sitcom about American life. The friction of form and content was the source of its longevity.

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The pattern is everywhere once you start looking. Two opposites, pushed together, create a spark. Sweet and salty. Vulnerable and aggressive. Childlike and adult. The lesson for anyone making things is simple: instead of smoothing over contradictions, seek them out. If your design feels too polished, add something raw. If your product feels too serious, add play. If your business feels too familiar, add a piece that feels alien. What you get is not compromise but tension, and tension, when used right, is the engine of originality.

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Make more chocolate peanut butter situations.