Name: A Technique for Producing Ideas
ISBN: 9780071410946

James Young

A McGraw-Hill Advertising Classic A Technique for Producing Ideas reveals a simple, sensible idea-generation methodology that has stood the test of time. First presented to students in 1939, published in 1965, and now reissued for a new generation of advertising professionals and others looking to jump-start their creative juices, this powerful guide details a five-step process for gathering information, stimulating imagination, and recombining old elements into dramatic new ideas.

A Technique for Producing Ideas

James Webb Young

This short but powerful book has helped thousands of writers, artists, scientists, and engineers to solve problems and generate ideas. Now let James Webb Young's unique insights help you be more creative in every area of life. Advertising mogul William Bernbach wrote, "James Webb Young is in the tradition of some of our greatest thinkers when he describes the workings of the creative process. The results of many years in advertising have proved to him that the key element in communications success is the production of relevant and dramatic ideas." This is THE classic on creative thinking, written with the clarity, knowledge, and experience of a skilled advertising man. A Technique For Producing Ideas is a step-by-step technique for sparking creativity in advertising and marketing or ANY other field...

Magdalene Lim

Good to have/read.

My favourite part of the book or booklet (because it's so short) is the suggestion to get "those little 3 x 5 ruled white cards and use them to write down the items of specific information as you gather them. If you do this, one item to a card, after a while you can begin to classify them by sections of your subject."

I also liked his likening of ideas to atolls (works for icebergs too but atolls sound cuter), where you only see only the brilliant idea at the top but not the strategy, planning and other idea-building processes beneath it.

That's it.

Edit: Reading this article on Brainpickings about Young's book should suffice. It's (almost) as good as reading the book itself.
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.ph...

Francesco d'Angela

Prakash Rajendran

Harsh Patel

Brandon Walowitz

Maxwel Quintão

John Ford

Josh Clement

Benjamin

Mircea Tara

Alberto Cabas Vidani

Christian Rotzoll

James Wood Young

THIS BOOK has become essential reading for anyone-whether in marketing, advertising, sales, finance, or the pure artist-who is seriously interested in the creative business of generating good ideas. It is a concise, clear, but above all practical book, and all those willing to put forth the mental energy to read, understand, and-most importantly-implement its instructions will be richly rewarded. I hope you'll find this to be an amazing gem and another appropriate inclusion in the thINKing cata-logue. I've read its words and absorbed its teachings many times and finally had the wisdom to implement its lessons.