I hear people say “break the rules” all the time, when talking about creativity. I agree breaking the rules is certainly one of the ways to be creative. You could argue that if you don’t break some rule somewhere, can it really be creative? I absolutely believe in breaking the rules. As long as you’re willing […]
You know my favorite way of being creative? I call it “bumblebee sex.” It’s an effective, efficient, perfectly natural way to think creatively. Particularly for when you’re crazy busy. Which is like – what? – 90% of the time? You’ve seen bumblebees going from flower to flower. They think they’re sampling the buffet of sweet […]
One of the biggest mistakes most people make in creative pursuits is to go with the first good idea they come up with, or worst yet, they go with the first idea, period. This can be a particularly damaging habit when brainstorming. There are several reasons why this is usually not a good thing, not […]
When you lead a group ideation session sometimes it’s good to anticipate the potentially difficult players in advance to head off the problems. There are many types of problem children who could mess up the process. Here I’m going to talk about a trouble maker who is not necessarily a problem became he or she […]
It’s that time of year. New ad creatives are busy trying to get that first job. And, yeah, you’re hearing from your professors and placement department about how to get that entry level job. You’re hearing that the advertising business is tough to break in to. That it’s a buyer’s market. You have to have […]
Oh, you’re an __(occupation goes here)__, not a musical instrument inventor. That’s, my point. Leonardo da Vinci wasn’t a musical instrument inventor either, until he had the idea for this viola organist recently built by Polish pianist Slawomir Zubrzycki. Leonardo is generally regarded as one of the great minds of any era. He had diverse […]
Few things spur creativeness like the will to survive. I watched an amazing baseball game yesterday. The Tampa Bay Rays and the Boston Red Sox (yeah, I’m a Sox fan, and they won, but that’s not what made the game amazing, from a creativity aspect, that is). From almost the beginning of the game until […]
Maybe not. Just because an idea seems familiar doesn’t mean it’s been done before. In a book about The Beatles top 100 songs, two of the top 10, Yesterday (#4) and Something (#6) were considered very familiar by the Fab Two who wrote them; Paul McCartney and George Harrison, respectively. So familiar, that each song […]
Corona beer has a skunky odor, according to a beer industry insider, because of the distinctive clear bottle. That’s why most beers are in brown or green bottles. The smell happens when the beer becomes “light struck”, again according to that same brewing expert. Supposedly the smell doesn’t hurt the taste. But it did cause […]
Everyone says they want creative ideas to propel their business. But if you’re the one coming up with these massive ideas you’ve probably noticed that the bigger they are, often the harder they are to sell. On April 16th Before & After’s founder and head creativity coach, Tom Monahan is conducting a webinar on Selling […]
