Kibu author argues creative replication accelerates brand development
A June 2026 blog post from Kibu advocates for the '3% approach' to design, suggesting that meticulous copying of existing works fosters deeper understanding and faster value creation than starting from scratch.
A blog post published on 24 June 2026 by an author representing Kibu, a company specialising in documentation tools, argues that the deliberate copying of existing creative works is a valuable method for rapid value creation and learning. The article, titled "Stealing Is a Skill", details how the firm rebuilt the Mintlify marketing site pixel-by-pixel to develop its own brand identity and design intuition.
The author describes utilising the "3% approach", a methodology attributed to the late designer Virgil Abloh. Abloh originally applied this concept to his redesign of the Air Force 1 sneakers, limiting changes to just 3% of the original design to preserve the integrity of the work while introducing subtle innovations. Kibu adapted this principle by reconstructing Mintlify’s site to force a comprehensive inspection of every design element, from component widths to the strategic use of video content over screenshots.
Kibu initially deployed the recreated site in Framer after less than a month of weekend work. The firm noted that Mintlify’s "show, don’t tell" ethos and decisive use of colour provided a clear vision that the team lacked. By recreating the site, the author claimed they learned the underlying story of the original design, including its tradeoffs and imperfections, which informed their own brand decisions such as adding team pictures to call-to-action buttons.
In March 2026, Kibu migrated its marketing site from Framer to a full codebase. The company stated it was betting on "vibecoding" to achieve faster development speeds compared to drag-and-drop builders, arguing that this approach avoids vendor lock-in and leverages ancillary AI tools more effectively than previous methods.
The post references Steve Jobs’ philosophy that creativity is merely connecting existing things, suggesting that originality often stems from identifying and solving problems efficiently rather than generating ideas in isolation. The author concluded that professionals should prioritise identifying what to copy, why to copy it, and how much to alter, framing this process as a skill that accelerates learning and brand development.
