Idea Spotting :: A Summary

Idea Spotting by Sam Harrison

Having trouble coming up with your next great idea? In his new book, “IdeaSpotting,” creativity guru Sam Harrison encourages designers to quit looking inward and to explore the world around them for creative inspiration.

Here, he offers some exercises to help you get started.How many times have you heard someone say that there are no new ideas? While that may not be exactly true, you can learn a lot by “borrowing” ideas from the world around you. Are we condoning plagiarism? No way. Serendipitous inspiration? Absolutely.

Though his stories often pertain to businesses, art directors, inventors, and designers, the manner in which the ideas were attained is directly relative to an artist's work. It takes the ability to spot ideas in order to make artwork that speaks clearly to a 21st century audience. The ideas in this book will help you attain your best ideas for the art that makes the most sense for you to be making.

Explore the Masters for Material

When artist Willem de Kooning came to America in the 1920s, he met a young painter named Arshile Gorky. Lacking formal training, Gorky learned classical techniques by trying to re-create masterpieces. De Kooning was impressed and borrowed the process. Years later, de Kooning talked of using Rubens in his own work, fusing classical and modern into a new form. What masters of innovation do you admire? Edison or Einstein? Curie or Carver? Picasso or Pavlov? Dalí or Disney?List idea masters you admire. Explore their lives, methods and ideas. See what can you can borrow.

Observe and Take Note

Ideas have short shelf lives. We find them one second, forget them the next. That’s why it’s smart to capture ideas and insights at the scene of the crime. Book them before they flee. Take notes.Leonardo da Vinci is arguably history’s most famous note-taker. His notebooks overflowed with sketches and notes on nature, art, architecture. Thomas Edison loaded thousands of notebooks with insights and diagrams. And today’s creative people are equally diligent about recording thoughts and ideas.Canadian designer Bruce Mau says, “The single most necessary device for me is a notebook. I just plow through notebooks.” Gail Anderson, Rolling Stone alumna and current SpotCo art director, calls herself a note-taker and language observer. “I love making notes about type I’ve seen on store signs or on sides of buildings,” she says. Note-taking gives the creative process time to breathe, says Erin Whelan, Real Simple art director. “I love recording really out-there ideas,” she says. “It’s so great to start at crazy places and then reach middle-ground, smart solutions.” Eva Maddox, principal of Perkins + Will, has a journal in hand when she travels, but not for writing. “I draw,” she says. “I draw at least one picture in my journal each day.”Capture ideas while they last. Ideas often show up as snippets of conversation, views through windows, books on tables. They linger for a moment, then they’re gone. Take verbal and visual notes

Open Your Mind

Hallmark Cards, for example, finds inspiration by opening its doors to outside influences. “We value getting our people out of cubes and into cities,” says Scott Orazem, director of design studios. Hallmark designers, writers and photographers regularly tour metro areas for creative exploration. “These trips are purely for renewal and inspiration,” says Mark Spencer, program director.On a Chicago tour, participants explored museums and architecture, art fairs and shops. They dined at new restaurants and hit shows at Steppenwolf Theater. In Washington, a Hallmark group studied history and politics, theater and art. And the Santa Fe tour covered art colonies and Native American culture. “People return with broad knowledge and strong inspiration,” Spencer says. “For example, one designer created beautiful gift wrap inspired by theater costumes she admired in Chicago.”In addition to going out into the world, Hallmark brings the world in. A gallery in its Kansas City, MO, headquarters hosts 10 shows a year. Recent shows focused on watercolors, embroidered fabric, antique furniture and a 19th-century photographic process. “Each show runs four weeks,” Spencer says. “People from throughout the company visit for inspiration.”Hallmark also conducts an in-house lecture series, pulling in creative experts to share their work and experiences. Recent guests include poets, book designers and poster printers. “We seek ways to open our minds,” Orazem says. “We engage with people outside our world to exchange ideas.”What are you doing to open doors and minds?

Pick up the Trash

More and more people find ideas in found objects. “Right now I have little bars of soap piled all around my workspace,” says Kristy Moore, art director at Martha Stewart Living. “I get inspired by the packaging, the soft colors, the way words are stamped and etched in the surfaces.” San Francisco-based designer Bill Cahan gathers sidewalk stuff while walking to work: an apple core, a cabinet lock, a wood scrap. He piles these found objects in his studio and sifts through them for inspiration. And SpotCo’s Gail Anderson finds ideas in salt-and-pepper shakers and bottle caps gathered through the years. “I’ve also swiped typography from old matchbooks, tobacco tins and crate labels,” she says.Designers often use found objects as creative materials. A lamp shade made from Styrofoam cups. Another made from plastic stir sticks. A dividing curtain made from discarded tea bags. Joe Duffy, founder of Duffy & Partners, embeds found objects into portraits—oak leaves found on a tree-lined street in Paris, a tribal headdress found in Thailand. Any random object can be inspiring.See what you can find—and use—today.

Stay Where You Are

Sometimes you need to move. And sometimes you just need to stay still.Charles Pajeau sat in his living room and, for the first time, really watched his children build small bridges with their collection of pencils and thread spools. Soon afterwards, Pajeau invented Tinkertoys.Italian designer Antonio Citterio was enjoying movie night at home with his wife and two children. He suddenly noticed they were seated in a straight line, like passengers on a crowded plane. This gave Citterio the idea for a new family-seating concept for B&B Italia, a semi-circular sofa shaped somewhat like a banana.Because she was pregnant, Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola was paying extra attention to baby dresses. Inspired by the smocking on one little girl’s frock, she used the stitching to design her Smock chair for Moroso furniture.Dan Groggin, an unknown New York City actor, received a nun’s habit from a friend as a joke. Groggin put the habit on an old mannequin and posed it around his apartment—washing dishes, vacuuming and performing other household chores. One day, while watching guests laugh at the mannequin, Groggin spotted an idea. Grabbing a pad, he began creating the play “Nunsense,” filled with silly songs and skits. “Nunsense” and its sequels have grossed more than $300 million in ticket sales and earned Groggin more than $7 million.Sit and explore where you are. What’s happening right in front of your eyes?