Sets, Props, Characters, Uniforms
As I’ve referenced many times in Blueprint, my obsession is world building.
My only goal, for the next 50 years, is to create a world around the things I care about, full of people I enjoy building for, and launching amazing products within it.
In a meta sense, my aim is to build a world for world builders. The “who” is other world builders like me.
For any world builder, a key unlock is shifting the way you think about the elements in your life.
I view them as sets, props, characters, and uniforms.
Sets
Your office, apartment, city, car, coffee shop, commute, etc. Every place you spend time is a set.
Sets are influential in two ways…via inputs and outputs.
Inputs are how sets impact what you create. You’ll notice a stark difference in ideas generated from a cozy, dark coffee shop vs a bright, bustling co-working space.
Everything around you will subtly guide the way you think.
In a more obvious way, sets also greatly influence your output.
Sets act as backdrops, environments, and mood setters when you share anything visually.
To build a world means to literally build a visual world that someone can place themselves in when they think of you with their eyes closed.
This doesn’t mean you need to spend thousands of dollars redecorating every room in your house, but the closer your actual sets get to your desired visual aesthetic, the easier it will be to communicate about your world.
Using me as an example…
I’m going for this black, moody, batman style lair vibe, but I also enjoy golden hour in coastal locations with floor to ceiling windows. I like living in the juxtaposition.
My apartment in San Diego now has both, so I can quickly film across both aesthetics.
When I move back to NYC next year, I will lose the golden hour coastal look, which I’ll need to factor into my visual world. For me, I’m okay with this, because the primary visual aesthetic I like is the dark and moody.
I also like to use travel destinations as temporary sets that I don’t have to buy/build.
Props and Uniforms
Similar to sets, the objects you carry with you, products you use, and clothes you wear will be seen as props and uniforms by people in your world.
Again, using me as an example, I like everything I carry to be matte black.
I’ll pay extra to have the black colorway because I care that much about reinforcing my visual world.
Props and uniforms are conversion by a thousand touchpoints.
You may think nothing of me wearing a black hoodie for a weekend, but after the 20th day in a row, you subconsciously start associating me with the black hoodie.
So much so that when I don’t wear a black hoodie, it looks off.
As a world builder, this is what you’re going for.
You want your identity to be so tightly tied to objects and uniforms that people think of you when they see the object without you in it.
This is why clothing brands are so powerful to build as a world builder.
Yes, physical products have shitty margins. Yes, there are thousands of clothing brands that launch every single day…
…but is there anything more powerful than someone paying you money to wear your uniform and becoming a walking billboard for your ideas? No.
This is also why I’m so careful with the products I wear, carry, or endorse.
The minute I showcase a physical product outside of my visual aesthetic, dissonance starts to creep in. It feels phony.
It’s like that scene in Inception where the NPC characters start to notice something feels off and begin to attack the dream architects.
Visual consistency over years is how you world build.
Characters
This one is pretty self explanatory, but your partner, pets, kids, friends, and family are all characters in your world.
The more you showcase your interactions and create backstories for them, the easier it will be to world build.
A world without characters is just a deserted island.
Nobody watches the movie to see the island. They watch to see who’s on it and what they’re doing.
If you don’t believe me, they had to personify a volleyball in Castaway just to add enough visual intrigue 😂
What makes a world interesting are the characters inside it and the adventures they go on.
Again, this doesn’t mean you should stage phony interactions with the people in your life to drive home a certain vibe. Many creators do this, but that mirage becomes tough to maintain over years.
Your goal as a world builder is to lean into the authentic behavioral quirks and tendencies of the characters in it. And if you don’t like the characters in your world, befriend new ones
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To summarize all of this…the reason vlogging is so powerful (and why I’ve gone down the path to start doing it consistently) is because it gives you a canvas to world build visually across sets, props, uniforms, and characters.
Most content is created in fixed locations with controlled everything (e.g., most of my short-form content thus far).
This is helpful for establishing a single set of visual inputs, but it’s much more powerful when you can create visual consistency across many locations.
Someone that is really good at this is Logan Robles (Lough). Watch his vlogs for 5 minutes and you’ll immediately understand what his world is like.
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