How to come up with creative ideas quickly? Use this method!

James Webb Young's explanation of creativity in his book How to Generate Ideas has been widely recognized in the advertising industry. That is, "Creativity is the recombination of various elements."

Jobs also said: "Creativity is just connecting a series of things to each other."

So, what the world you imagine in your mind is like, what the world you see with your eyes is like, that is what this world can be like.

There is no imagination, the whole body feels uncomfortable!

Especially for those who work in marketing, advertising, copywriting, and creative related jobs, a core job is to be able to "consistently come up with ideas." It is not difficult to come up with an idea, but if you think about it too often or too much, you will suffer from liver failure and acne.

Don’t say whether this idea is good or bad, you have to think of it first.

Is that right?

Otherwise, you will be ignored because of your "obscurity". When everyone is offering suggestions, you will sit there quietly, becoming an invisible person for a thousand years and having no ideas for ten thousand years.

So, next I would like to recommend a method to quickly produce creative ideas in a short period of time.

This method is not what I thought of, but I have been using it, and I have also seen many people who are specifically looking for creativity using it.

When I was reading the book "Amazing Future Note-taking" by the famous Japanese creative director Toshiyuki Konishi, I found that this creative genius was also using this method and even invented a term called "white triangle notes".

Konishi Toshiyuki is very impressive. Not only has he collaborated with brands such as Suntory, TOYOTA, and RIZAP, he also became the first person to win the highest design award at the International SC Association World Congress. He also serves as the domestic and global strategy director of IPPUDO and has won numerous overseas advertising awards including CLIO and ONE SHOW.

What is "White Triangle Notes"?

The general idea is this: prepare a blank sheet of paper, set the creative theme and direction you want, and then take three steps.

1. On the left side of the white paper write down everything related to the topic, the more detailed and complete the better. For example, if it is a product, you can list all the key features, functions, appeal points, usage scenarios, etc. related to the product.
2. Forget what you wrote on the left and your product, and just write on the right what your target audience may like, be interested in, and be familiar with, without considering relevance.
3. Finally, combine ① and ② together and play around with the rearrangements to create interesting possibilities.

For these three steps, you don’t need to worry about whether you can achieve them, and you don’t need to set limits for yourself. Just let your imagination run wild and think boldly. What we want are possible ideas, and screening and evaluation are what should be done later. This way, you will get more good ideas.

In "Amazing Future Note-taking", Konishi Toshiyuki also shared an example of using "white triangle notes" to come up with ideas. The theme he set was "Ideas to attract young women to bathe in the bathhouse."

First, he wrote down various information related to the topic in the triangle on the left:

Then, in the right triangle, he wrote down what his target audience (young women) might like:

Finally, just feel free to remix and come up with interesting ideas, such as:

1. Muffins in a plastic scooping basin 2. Cat faucet 3. Handsome guy locker 4. Wall dong on the wall of Mount Fuji 5. Coffee and milk whitening 6. Handsome guy chimney 7. Lion's mouth fortune telling 8. Beauty essence faucet 9. Chatting massage chair 10. Massage by grandma at the counter Of course, Xiao Xilixing likes to use triangles, and I personally like to write on both sides of white paper. This is not the point, it all depends on personal preference.

The key points are the exhaustiveness of topic-related information on the left, the understanding of the target population on the right, and finally the bold combination of the two.

For example, if you want to come up with a good idea for a mobile phone that will attract the target audience:

First of all, what are the features and functions of this phone?

Dual-view recording, AI intelligent recognition, night shooting sensitivity, ultra-wide-angle lens, telephoto lens, full screen, 3650mAh battery, 32-megapixel front camera, 40-megapixel rear camera, etc.

Then, the target young people may like, be interested in, and be familiar with the following things: shooting short videos, fitness and weight loss, food, health care, beauty, handsome men and beautiful women, celebrities, playing games, fashion and good looks, pets, reading, technology, travel, movies and variety shows, animation, etc.

Finally, we can have fun recombining them to come up with interesting ideas. One of the ideas is that you can use your phone to identify food calories.

Think about it, for today's young people who love beauty, fitness and fashion, they no longer have to worry about excessive calorie intake. With just a scan, you can instantly know the calorie count and avoid high-calorie junk food.

This function, Huawei Mate 20 AI calorie recognition function, has been advertised before.

Another example is the creative advertisement of Sony headphones, which combines headphones with people. Putting on the headphones is like a real person talking next to you: the sound is real and there is no noise.

A creative coffee advertisement that combines the refreshing effect of coffee with Mona Lisa: Sleeping does not exist.

The creative advertisement of Band-Aid combines the wound healing function of Band-Aid with the Hulk: Even the Hulk’s wounds can be bandaged, what about your wounds? It’s no big deal!

The creative advertisement of Orbit toothpaste combines the function of toothpaste to whiten teeth with dazzling diamonds: the diamonds can blind people's eyes when walking outside.

Berlitz Business Communication Training’s creative advertisement combines people with motionless props: integrate them into the conversation instead of being a background!

The creative advertisement of skin care brand Vaseline combines the moisturizing function of the product with cracked antiques: it shows its powerful moisturizing effect.

Sony's creative headphone advertisement combines the headphones with Van Gogh's severed ear, which is well known to everyone. Even Van Gogh regretted it and wanted to glue his ear back. How good must these headphones be: A sound experience you wouldn't miss.

The creative advertisement of NATUZZI sofa combines the material of the sofa with real skin: even mosquitoes are fooled!

The creative advertisement of Sophie sanitary napkins combines the absorption capacity of sanitary napkins with raisins: even the grapes are sucked into raisins, the absorption capacity is so strong!

The creative advertisement of XPEC3 razor combines a man's beard with a thorny cactus: it's so shocking, shave it quickly!

A creative advertisement for a nose hair trimmer combines nose hair with electrical wires on the street: Why don’t you trim it quickly?

Clinica Mosquera's creative advertisement for hemorrhoid medicine combines the poop caused by hemorrhoids with cactus and chili peppers: It was so sour and refreshing that it scared me so much that I subconsciously touched my butt.

The creative advertisement of Faber-Castell pencil combines such a pencil with an inspiring scene, as if the tip of the pencil has become a gathering place for inspiration, bringing magical effects to the user.

This creative advertisement from Sony combines the storage function of a USB flash drive with the storage function of CDs in the past: a small USB flash drive is equivalent to a pile of CDs. A new era has arrived.

All in all, creativity can be said to be a new combination of old elements.

As for the combination, on the one hand it comes from insight, life, experience, travel, knowledge, movies, books and so on.

On the other hand, you can use methods like this "white triangle note-taking" to quickly produce a lot of ideas in a short period of time. Then discuss, evaluate, combine with the overall strategy, and select ideas that can be tried.

If you start thinking in circles, you can only think hard and apply old ideas mechanically.

Dream first, then chase your dream!

Dreams of youth should be fulfilled when you are young, even when you are awake.

Author: Mumu Old Thief

Source: Mumu Laozei (ID: mumuseo)