Jack Foster used to teach an advertising course at the University of Southern California. He emphasized that every ad has to start with an ad, but his students complained that he never taught them how to get those ideas. So Jack began teaching his students about getting ideas, and this book is a result of six years of hands-on experience in the classroom.  

He defines an idea several different ways, but the definition I liked the best is one suggested by one of Jack's students: "It's something that's so obvious that after someone tells you about it you wonder why you didn't think of it yourself." Exactly. So, where do you get these ideas that you know you could have thought of yourself?  

First, Jack suggests to have fun. That sounds so simple, it's easy to dismiss. But humor, by design, is always creative, and when people are laughing, they are seeing things they wouldn't ordinarily see. Hence, ideas.  

Second, Jack says to become idea people. Don't try to come up with one idea. Come up with a whole bunch of ideas. We tried Jack's approach at the TMI USA office a few weeks ago. We got everyone together, played some music, got some props, invited some outside people, and sat down to do some idea generation. We came up with enough ideas to keep us going the entire year of 1998. We had so much fun, we're going to do this once a quarter.  

An interesting thing happened as I read Jack Foster's book. It's a very obvious book, which according to his university student, must mean that it's filled with good ideas. I teach a course on creativity. TMI USA calls it "Unbind Your Mind," and it's got many of the same ideas in it that Jack Foster has in his book. So, I was reading a lot of ideas I teach, but somehow they all seemed fresh reading Jack's words. And I realized that that's what creativity and ideas are about.  

One of his chapter is about learning how to combine. Jack has combined a great deal of traditional information about idea generation into his own style. A definition of creativity that I have always enjoyed is that it has the Stamp of the Individual on it. And this book has Jack Foster written all over it. If you read this book and as a result get a good idea from it, your idea will have the Stamp of You written all over it. And that's the gift of How to Get Ideas.  

Jack writes that we need a lot of inputs to inspire our idea generation. His book is such a tool. If you ever get stuck, you can pick up Jack's book and read a few pages, and I think you'll get unstuck. And, I think you'll like the illustrations.  

Janelle Barlow, President  

TMI USA 

Previous "Owl Book Review Grove" pages: 
#1 ,  #2 ,  #3  

tel: 702 939-1800 
fax: 702 939-1804 
email:  

Website designed by  
©2005, TMI US