Brainstorming... In your office, your school or your group, it may have already become a bad word. You're charged with generating a great ideaà the next big thing... the perfect concept. But you only have a limited amount of time, and you have to do it with your whole team. There's great pressure to come up with something outstanding. Working with a team can be difficult, and generating viable ideas with a team can be even harder. But a solution is at hand! Caffeine for the Creative Team is the only tool you need to encourage successful brainstorming. This collection of short, focused creative exercises is just the boost you need to get your team's collective brain working. Inside, you'll find: All new exercises. As a companion to Caffeine for the Creative Mind, this book's exercises are targeted to teams. Each is labeled for the appropriate sized group: two people, three people or four or more. Powerful tools. The exercises will call on everyone in the group to think differently, leading to fresh insights. This collection is sure to get your team thinking in new ways. Interviews with real designers. There are also interviews with some of the brightest creative leaders in the industry who have first-hand experience with brainstorming in teams. Each one shares valuable insights and team brainstorming techniques. Caffeine for the Creative Team offers a solution to those dry, boring, unproductive brainstorm sessions you might be used to. Crack it open and start innovating today.

What do you do if you are lagging in the morning? You probably grab a cup of coffee for that extra boost of energy. Throughout the day, you are asked to be creative, to come up with new and better ideas. So what do you do when you need a creative jolt for your brain? Now you can turn to Caffeine for the Creative Mind. This collection of short, focused creative exercises is just the boost you need get your brain working. Inside, you'll find: Over 250 brain-stretching exercises. The exercises are brief, fun and are meant to evoke creative, thought-provoking responses. Get your brain moving by engaging in an exercise at the start of your day or stop and do one whenever you need a creative jolt. "I Tried It" testimonials. From illustrators to photographers to professors, real people give feedback on specific exercises they've tried. They also offer more suggestions for how the exercises can be used, changed or reworked to become even more useful. Interviews with prominent creative people. See how the people who are in charge of building and maintaining creative environments—studio heads, designers, shop owners, illustrators and animators—view the importance of creativity in their everyday lives. The only thing keeping you from reaching a new level of creative thought is inaction. With this stimulating book, you'll learn how to focus your creative attention in short, definable ways. Caffeine for the Creative Mind is your springboard for coming up with solutions that challenge you to alter your perspective—and begin generating ideas at the highest possible level!

Creative Boot Camp is a 30-day creative training program that will increase the quantity and quality of your ideas. The book begins by exploring what creativity is and isn't, how we can train ourselves to improve our own ideation, and what steps we need to take to generate more ideas and better ideas for our creative selves, our creative projects, our creative businesses, and our creative lives. Like any muscle, creativity requires repetitive and challenging exercise to grow. The 30-day program provides an escalation of creative exercises that test our problem-solving prowess and train us to overcome the obstacles that inhibit ideation. The program tests regularly, both in idea quantity and quality, to ensure we are on track with our boot camp goals. But unlike the gym, these exercises aren't to be dreaded. They are light, fun, and take 10-15 minutes max. By the end of the 30-day boot camp, readers will see noticeable improvement in the quantity and quality of their ideas.

Building 21st Century communication skills Students are expected to be innovators, creative thinkers, and problem solvers. But what if they can't communicate their ideas persuasively? Knowing how to share ideas is as crucial as the ideas themselves. Unfortunately, many students don’t get explicit opportunities to hone this skill. Cultivating Communication in the Classroom will help educators design authentic learning experiences that allow students to practice their skills. Readers will find: Real world insights into how students will be expected to communicate in their future careers and education Strategies for teaching communication skills throughout the curriculum Communication Catchers for igniting ideas

Don't let your creative ideas get picked apart and put down! If you're like most creative people, chances are high that you've had your share of ideas rejected by clients or decision makers. While we sometimes make the mistake of believing ideas should sell themselves, the fact is that the better and bolder the idea, the more it needs selling. This book contains powerful techniques to help you sell your ideas to those with approval power. You'll find tips from designers, writers, marketers and other creative professionals, along with meaty advice from selling and branding gurus. In no time, you'll be able to convince those who hold the purse strings that your ideas are worth pursuing and investing in. "Designers have a little known secret: Designing something is the easy part, getting others, specifically clients, to embrace that design is the real hard part. Harrison has put together dozens of tips that, if applied correctly, independently or in unison, will help you get those great design ideas approved." —Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez-Palacio, authors of Graphic Design, Referenced

A clash between the ideology of growth and the growth of ideas, between control and creativity, between measurement and the immeasurable, between predictability and the fickle muses of inspiration in engulfing our boardrooms. In this scathing swipe at the institutionalised idiocy that is stifling creativity just at the time the world needs it most Gordon Torr draws from the leading lights of creativity research to demolish the myths that surround the generation of ideas in the modern organisation. The curse of the brainstorm, the commoditisation of creative talent, the deskilling of the imagination, the startling inadequacies of management theory – these and the many other horrors of idea-assassination that run rampant in creative sector companies are dissected and disembowelled in this hilarious expose of the drama that unfolds every time a new idea slides across the boardroom table. This book sets out to address the black hole that surrounds the management of creative people, debunking many myths of creativity, and outlining a revolutionary approach to the pressing issue of creative productivity in the contemporary creative sector company. A handbook of tools, techniques, methods and practical ideas whose USP is a framework for thinking about efficient creative management – how to extract value from creative time. Gordon Torr presents a logical argument that puts in place the building blocks of the author’s knowledge and experience towards the final architecture. “We need them as never before. And we know that they’re somehow different. Yet the productive management of creative people is an almost totally neglected science. I doubt if there’s a single industry that wouldn’t gain immediate advantage from Gordon Torr’s scrupulous and enlightening detective work.” - Jeremy Bullmore

The latest from the author of the bestselling Caffeine for the Creative Mind How do you develop solutions that rock? Ones that surpass their initial purpose and grab an industry by its throat, turn interested parties into concept evangelists, and influence behaviors and alter perceptions? Read Chasing the Idea Monster and find out. This fun and insightful book sorts out the hallmarks of a monstrous idea by providing the author's "idea measurement" tools in the form of seven primary questions to gauge the potential of any idea. These seven questions are supported by real-world examples of ideas that succeeded in winning over their audience, as well as those that ignored the measurement and failed miserably. Features warnings and anecdotes from some of the world's most prominent creatives, marketing teams, and business professionals A proven method for determining if an idea will be a "big idea," or else will die a painful death Author is a respected industry expert whose Caffeine for the Creative Mind successfully reached an audience both in the creative community and beyond Want to get a better sense of what makes a successful idea, and how yours measures up? Start Chasing the Idea Monster and scoring big creative wins today!