Working on a blog on this subject. How important is orginality? How does orginality effect creativity?
Almost as important as timeliness. 
Originality is extremely important. It sets things apart. Look at what is made or done by humans and more times than not, the original/originator will be the one most known/remembered. Examples: People - Copernicus, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Picasso, Faraday, Gutenberg, Franklin, Aristotle, Socrates, Luther, Kellogg, Ford, Bell, Edison, Marconi, Goodyear, John Crapper, Hillary. Things - Kleenex, Q-Tips, Band-Aid, Intel, Microsoft, Wal-Mart. Places - Athens, Rome, Thebes, Philadelphia, Mt. Everest.
Creativity begets originality because to be original you must first be able to create.
In and of itself, I think originality is not super important. i.e., the pursuit of exclusively original things or creation of original things- not that big of a deal. Here’s why:
Consider the word “Montiscropator”.
It is an original word I just made up off the top of my head. It is 100% original with the exception of some recongnizable vowel/consonate configurations that appear pretty standard. Other than that, it is original.
Now, what is the value of it? Not much since it has no meaning. Now, once we assign it some meaning, then, in addition to being original, it takes on some value as a word.
Let’s use some backwards etymology on this one:
“Mon” from “mono” meaning "one, “tis” is, I think, something that has to do with “to do”, “cro” loosely from the “chrono” root refering to time and “pator” meaning practitioneer.
So, our new word is someone who does somethig only one time. Here. we’ll use it in a sentence:
“Bob’s one attempt at a triathlon has branded him a blatant montiscropator.”
There, now it is original and useful.