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July 28, 2012

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99percentinvisible:

Starlee Kine’s friend Noel works in advertising. In 2003, Noel was working in at an agency in Richmond, VA. Everyone wanted to work on flashy spots like Apple or Nike or Gatorade. Do you know what wasn’t flashy? Insurance. Which is why when a company called Geico became a client everyone hoped the campaign wouldn’t end up on their desk. Noel ultimately got stuck with Geico. His job was help them somehow figure out a clever, not painfully boring way to explain how simple it was for people to sign up for their insurance online.

Maybe you see where this is going.

But you don’t know where it came from.

Starlee Kine guides us back through the surprising, culturally rich path of inspiration that ultimately resulted in a commercial for an insurance company.

This story originally appeared at Pop Up Magazine #6 in San Francisco.

creativesomething:

Creative thinking is a lot like telling a story. You have to move the story along if you want to discover what comes next.

Three effective ways to move creativity along is to raise specific scenarios that let you address deeper questions and explore the unexpected.

1. What if?

Ask yourself “What if?” What if you don’t succeed? What if you tried an opposite approach? What if you were someone else, what would you do then? What if you asked “What if” 100 times?

2. And then…

State the thing you are trying to accomplish and end it with “and then…” Repeat as necessary. And then write down anything that comes to mind. And then keep adding continuations to it until you feel inspired. And then move on to #3.

3. But why?

Understanding the fundamentals of what it is you’re trying to do – or of the problem trying to be solved – helps to identify potential solutions and answers. To quote Charles F. Kettering: “A problem well stated is a problem half solved.” But why? Because looking closer at the details is something we don’t regularly do, and it is from those details that potential solutions make themselves clear.

What if you tried these three approaches today, if only for 10 minutes? And then you can explore the ideas that come as a result. But why would you do such a thing? Because these three exploratory statements tend to bring about more than just one feasible idea.

I’m so fucking pissed right now.

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polosforhomos:

inthehangingtree:

neverbirds:

getnothingdone:

has anyone noticed we brits literally take nothing seriously

#we parachuted our queen into the olympic stadium

#we made hundreds of Mary Poppins’ battle Voldemort

is it a little late to bring in the boston tea party because you guys took that pretty harsh

improbablenormality:

simplydalektable:

emmiandthefireflies:

“And here’s Narnia, followed by Gallifrey”…

“And bringing up the rear is Asgard, full of glorious purpose”

“There’s the Empire, with Darth Vader waving the flag.”