# Borrow From the Subject > Take the look from the thing itself. - Section: Identity - URL: https://critly.vercel.app/borrow-from-the-subject - Published: 2026-10-14 - Source: https://github.com/kausthubh-coder/critly/blob/main/content/identity/borrow-from-the-subject.mdx Most interfaces borrow from other interfaces. The card came from a component library, the gradient from a landing page someone liked, the type from whatever was default. Put together, they say "software" and nothing about what this software is for. The subject has material of its own lying around. A seed library has packets, stencilled sacks and plot stakes. A climbing gym has colored holds and the setter's tape. A darkroom has a safelight and the code printed along the edge of the film. **When a product needs a look of its own, take type, color and shape from the subject's own world (its tools, artifacts, places, era, numbers and the words its people use) rather than from other software, and keep only what does a job on the screen, because a theme worn on every section reads as a costume, not a brand.** > **Interactive demo: Borrow From The Subject.** Open https://critly.vercel.app/borrow-from-the-subject to try it. Each screen starts generic. Pull each material in from its noun and the screen becomes about seeds, or climbing, or film. Hover a row to see which part of the screen it changed. ## Where it came from in practice These are case studies: what studios say they did, not tests of what caused results. They are useful because they show where the material came from, and that part you can copy. Duolingo's typeface, Feather Bold, was drawn by Johnson Banks and Fontsmith from the brand's owl. The studio [looked at](https://www.monotype.com/resources/duolingo-custom-font-inspired-their-owl-mascot-duo) "how to incorporate the shape and spirit of an owl's wing into every conceivable letterform." Duolingo's art team [describes](https://blog.duolingo.com/shape-language-duolingos-art-style/) the same move in the app: from "flat, pointy shapes" to rounded buttons and rounded illustration. Spotify's duotone came from music, not from software. Collins [describes it](https://www.wearecollins.com/work/spotify/) as drawn "from the duotone screen-printing used throughout music's history," and uses it to make any artist's photo look like Spotify. For the Public Theater in New York, Paula Scher used [street typography and Victorian wood type](https://www.pentagram.com/work/the-public-theater), the lettering of the city outside and of old theater bills. It was distinctive enough that other theaters in the city copied it. Michael Bierut gives the reason in an [interview](https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/655-exit-interview-with-michael-bierut/transcript/): design "can't invent that weight out of nothing." It needs a reference that already carries the meaning. A noun from the subject is that reference. ## Borrow how it works, not the costume There are two ways to take something from a subject. One copies how it looks. Wood grain on a carpentry app or a torn paper edge on a notes app are costumes: they show the subject without doing anything with it. The other copies how it works. Spotify's duotone is a printer's method, two inks and high contrast. Because it is a method rather than a picture, it works on any photo an artist sends. In the demo, the darkroom's time slots are set as a test strip, because a test strip is how a printer chooses an exposure time: steps that get darker as they get longer. [How to Get References](https://critly.vercel.app/how-to-get-references#translate-dont-transplant) makes the same point for references from outside the field: translate, don't transplant. A test for each borrowed thing is whether you can say what it does in the product. If the answer is only "it looks like the subject", it is a costume. ## Finding the nouns List 8 to 12 things a person could photograph or hold: tools, materials, printed things, places, the era, the numbers people track, and the words they use that outsiders don't. Read the forums the users read. Look at the paperwork of the job. Prefer the nouns that would never appear in a competitor's brief, since those are the ones that set you apart. Then take one material from each of a few nouns: a palette sampled from a real object ([palette from the world](https://critly.vercel.app/palette-from-the-world)), a typeface that shares the lettering of the subject ([typeface as voice](https://critly.vercel.app/typeface-as-voice)), one motif used as the [signature](https://critly.vercel.app/signature-move). Keep the layout and controls standard. [Direction First](https://critly.vercel.app/direction-first) covers why the structure stays familiar while the materials change. ## Resources - [The Duolingo Font: Exploring Feather](https://www.monotype.com/resources/duolingo-custom-font-inspired-their-owl-mascot-duo): How Johnson Banks and Fontsmith drew Feather Bold from the shape of an owl's wing. - [Shape language: Duolingo's art style](https://blog.duolingo.com/shape-language-duolingos-art-style/): Duolingo's own account of moving from flat, pointy shapes to the rounded style its app now uses. - [Spotify, by Collins](https://www.wearecollins.com/work/spotify/): The case study behind Spotify's duotone, drawn from the screen printing used throughout music's history. - [The Public Theater, by Pentagram](https://www.pentagram.com/work/the-public-theater): Paula Scher's identity for the theater, built from street typography and Victorian wood type. - [Exit Interview with Michael Bierut](https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/655-exit-interview-with-michael-bierut/transcript/): Bierut on why design needs a reference that carries meaning, and can't invent it from nothing.