Where Do Ideas Come From?
This is an adaption of a talk I did at my old university. I got asked to talk about where ideas come from to final year Communication students and this is what I came up with.
I. Bowie
The year I decided I wanted to be a copywriter was the same year I was deeply under the influence of one pop star in particular. His name is David Bowie. Growing up, someone like Bowie, someone who could reinvent themselves over and over again appealed to me, in the same way that I think it appeals to everyone. It sounds kind of silly to say this, given that I never met him, but I learnt a lot from him - how to be confident, how to pull off wide legged trousers, and even how to find a good idea. This is a story about the latter.
It’s 2016. I’m 19 years old. I was in my second year of this degree and I decided to take some advertising classes. I’ll admit, I wasn’t doing that well at first- I mean not so bad that I was failing, but not so good that my work was remarkable by any means. Often when we’re just starting out, in any craft, that’s the way it is. It’s like learning a new language. You’ve got to work through all the hiccups and mistakes, work through all the bad ideas to find a good one. So that’s what I was doing - coming up with lots of bad ideas - and I had no clue how to crack the code. How to find a good idea.
That year, every fortnight I’d catch the train to the city and walk to ACMI. I was volunteering there. It was the year that that big David Bowie exhibition opened. And I remember a month before it did - the curator got everyone together and briefed us about what to expect. She was talking about the different rooms, and outfits and artefacts we’d have on loan, and then she said something that really resonated with me. She was talking about how before Bowie was Bowie, he was just a kid who knew that in the future he wanted to be creative. Not just creative, but popular too.
I know this sounds so simple, but sometimes it's the simplest things that totally change how you look at the world, maybe forever? That was one of the moments for me. I caught the train home afterwards, and I felt like I had just been let in on a big secret. If that’s what Bowie aspired to be, and he went on write songs like Heroes, Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes - like really great pop music, what could happen if we all aspired to do that. That is: if that’s how good pop music works, maybe that’s how good ideas works? A good idea, like a good pop song, is creative, but popular too. Brave, and new, but most of all- relevant to whoever’s listening. So now that we know what an good idea is, let's talk about where they come from anyway?
II. Chaos
I’m going to start with, potentially, the bad news first. I think creativity, and ideas, emerge from chaos. Absolute chaos. I mean, to continue with the whole pop music theme, why are some of the best songs in our world break up songs? ‘Go Your Own Way’ by Fleetwood Mac. ‘Dancing On My Own’ by Robyn. ‘Green Light’ By Lorde. Even ‘Cry Me A River’ by Justin Timberlake’. All of these songs are so good, because they attempt to make sense and make something out of chaos. In these cases specifically, the chaos of a relationship breakdown, of being heartbroken.
But it’s not just our personal lives, our whole world is chaotic. It’s messy, it’s not fair, and often it doesn’t make sense. There are so many things whirring around us - so many different kinds of chaos - demanding that we notice it. And though it’s easier to ignore, and act like it doesn’t exist, perhaps we should be paying more attention. As creative people of any kind, maybe it’s a job to. Chaos makes us nervous, angry, uncomfortable, and upset. It makes us screw up our noses, and question why things are the way they are. It pushes us towards the unfamiliar and the unknown.
There’s an advertising agency called Wieden + Kennedy. All of the ad kids in this room probably know of it, but if you don’t know of them, you will know of their work. Think Nike, think Old Spice, think Coca Cola. They’ve done a lot of incredible work for these brands. And one of it’s founders Dan Wieden, whose the man behind Nike’s fantastic tagline ‘Just Do It’, said something really interesting about Chaos, that I’m going to read to you now. He said:
“It seems to me, chaos does this amazing thing that order can’t. It engages you. It gets right in your face with it’s freakish breath and issues a challenge. It asks stuff of you that order never will, and shows you stuff, all the weird shit, that order tries to hide. Chaos is the only thing that honestly wants you to grow. The only friend who really helps you be creative. That demands you be creative so you make something that matters”.
I really love that last line. Chaos demands you be creative so you make something that matters. It’s so true. I even think the reason why we’re all in this room - the reason why we want to be creative, why we chose to study and work in Communication, is we want to make sense of chaos. We all want to make work that pulls us closer to each other, to what we all have in common, to what we can do together. Our world is full of obstacles, adversities, and problems that demand us to be resilient, resourceful, and not give up. This is where our creativity comes from. This is where ideas come from.
Which brings me to my next point. Don’t underestimate the creative power of being in a bad mood. The creative process itself is inherently chaotic too. One of my favourite illustrators Christoph Niemann, tweeted about this recently saying “for anything decent I’ve done I’ve been in a tense, and angry mood”. I think this is so true- just because of the frustrating nature of trying to come up with a good idea. Your first ideas are often always crap, and after that, it take multiple attempts, to come up with something good.
Even with something like our shortlisted Future Lions project, A B See, something as simple as trying to come up with that name took forever. I distinctly remember coming up with name after name after name in a Word Document and they all sucked, and I admit was a little bit grumpy about it. So grumpy that I had to walk away, and do something else. Like I went to put the washing out, and then when I was pegging up like some socks on a washing line, like doing the most mundane thing, that name just slingshot into my head. So I definitely think there’s a subconscious element that plays a part in idea generation, but that’s a whole ‘nother talk. I guess what I’m trying to say is, if you’re working on Future Lions, or any other project this year - it can be challenging - but that’s the best thing about it. The chaos of any project, or any problem, demands that you make something that matters.
III. Order
Now I’m going to talk about the influence of order in good ideas. Just how comedians follow set up and punchlines, and musicians follow verses and choruses- in advertising there’s a structure to how a creative concept works. Nearly all creative disciplines have conventions and rules built in- and I’m going to sound like a nerd right now, but sometimes it pays to follow the rules. Especially when you’re still figuring everything out. Just as chaos plays a role in creativity, order and structure can help assemble an idea too.
In advertising creative concepts, this is how the basic structure works. Problem. Insight. Idea. Execution. So first there’s a problem- that’s the issue or cause you’re trying to make an impact in. Then there’s an insight - this is a human truth about who your audience is, what they believe, what they feel, what their lives are like. Then comes the hard part, the idea - this is usually phrased like a what if question, you’ll know it’s a good one when it’s creative but popular, and it’s also justified given the prior problem and insight. And then there’s the execution - that’s things like what medium you’ll use, what shape the idea will take, when it will happen, etc.
Pretty much all advertising ideas can be broken down into these 4 elements, the easiest way to figure out how it works is to take an ad you love and break it down yourself. So we’re going to do that right now. You guys know about the texting and driving problem across the world right? This is what a Canadian agency called John St did on a highway in Toronto to make an impact.
Grim, right? But fantastic work. Simple, but powerful. This is actually a fake funeral parlour. In fact the reason this work exists is because John St were approached by a billboard company who had a problem - how can we prove that billboards are still a powerful medium in the digital age.
Even when I was a student, going to the library and flicking through the advertising award books they have up there on Swanston St, and breaking down why campaigns and concepts work in my head was invaluable. So I really recommend doing this when you’re just starting out. It’s teaches you how ideas work, persuade, and connect with people. And the better you get at understanding the underlying structure of good ideas, the better you’ll get at coming up with them and justifying your own.
IV. Optimism
The coolest thing about ideas, is that the good ones, they make our lives better. They’re all around us, and we don’t even realise it. The streetlights that turn on so we can see where we’re going when we’re walking home. The recycling bins scattered across the city which mean we can choose where that bottle of water goes when we’re done with it. We should strive to create work that is just as useful, and connects with people in the same way.
Michael Bierut, whose a designer and partner at Pentagram, said: “It’s important to constantly be aware that… you have chosen a profession in which you put communication out into the world. In effect, you are taking part in the public space that we all share, and you’re intruding on it. At the highest level of responsibility you do not intrude on the world with things that are untrue, crappy, dumb, or don’t deserve the space you’re devoting to them. And if you’re really doing it right, you avoid all of that and ask, “How can I do this in a way that will make people’s lives better?”
And I know maybe that sounds idealistic in this context - like really Maddy, advertising can’t make my life better. But good advertising, the good ideas at the heart of it should be trying to. It’s not what an idea is, but what it can do. Ideas come from the optimism of focusing on that. The product could be dog food, or batteries, or a loaf of bread - it doesn’t matter - you have to go into into creating a piece of communication for anything with that level of conviction.
Speaking of conviction, here’s a cracker of a quote , which you may have already read. “Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to.”
I just thought I should throw that in there. And few last things before I go. One: your advertising teachers are right - keep it simple, stupid. Good ideas should be simple. Two: for every 80% you spend working on a project, spend 20% doing something totally unrelated. Three: Put yourself in the way of as many creative disciplines and sources of inspiration. The more you know the easier it is to make connections between everything.