My creative lockdown library.

#1 A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young

I was always an avid reader. Now I'm a Covid reader.

Since the start of the lockdown I’ve been giving free Skype advice to any creative or business people that need it.

As well as helping them solve some of their problems, I’ve found myself recommending advertising books to them.  

Books that made me a better writer, helped me have better creative ideas and taught me how to win new business.

Whether you’re struggling with furlough or group Zoom calls, I think reading the right books can rewire your brain and kickstart your creative engine.

A while back I had a digital scuffle on the cobbles with a freelancer who told me “reading books on how to do better ads will never help anyone become a better creative”.

I told him my own creative career would never have got off the ground if I hadn’t spent a week in my twenties devouring three decades’ worth of D&AD annuals in the National Library of Scotland where grumpy janitors in brown coats took my breakfast order and hoisted the dusty volumes up to the reading room by dumb waiter.

I’ve been addicted to advertising books ever since. So, now we all have more time to read, I thought I’d share my favourites, one a day, for the next three weeks and tell you why I love them.

*D&AD is the aspiring creative’s Holy Bible. First published in 1962, it archives and celebrates the best creative work in the world every year. Here’s a flavour: https://www.dandad.org/en/d-ad-inspired-by-award-winning-creative-ideas/

Not the snappiest of titles but this skinny little book is a gem. A creative ‘how-to’ manual you can read in an hour.

It opens with the author getting a call from an American magazine’s Sales Director (I’m paraphrasing here):

“We’ve been analysing the selling methods of other magazines and we’re particularly impressed by Mr Kobler of American Weekly. He doesn’t sell space, he sells Ideas”

“Okay, er…”

“So, we’ve decided that from here on, we’re not going to sell space at all. We’re going to sell Ideas!”

“So why are you calling me?”

“Well, we could see that what we ought to do is sell ideas. But after that we sort of got stuck. What we’re not clear about is just how to get ideas. You’ve produced a lot of advertising ideas. Just how do you get them? The boys are waiting for me to come back and tell them.”

The writer is flattered but amused. He writes “I thought I’d never heard a funnier or more na?ve question. And I was completely unable to give any answer to it. But it struck me that maybe the question “How do you get ideas?” wasn’t as silly as it sounded.”

He goes on to tell us exactly how to answer it.

I bought copies for all my Leith Agency creatives. One young team turned up their noses and said “This was written in 1940.” “Yeah” I said “and it hasn’t been out of print since. Maybe there’s a reason.”

I’ve yet to meet a serious copywriter, art director or designer who doesn’t rate this book. Some describe it as their secret weapon.

There’s just one snag.

The writer explains it better than I could:

“If you ask me why I am willing to give away the formula of this discovery I will confide to you that experience has taught me two things about it:

First, the formula is so simple to state that few who hear it believe in it.

Second, while simple to state, it actually requires the hardest kind of intellectual work to follow, so that not all who accept it use it.

Thus I broadcast this formula with no real fear of glutting the market in which I make my living.”

And so do I.

You can buy a Kindle version of ‘A Technique for Producing Ideas’ for ￡2.39. If you’d like to apply the thinking in it to a real problem of your own, I’ve developed my own gameified, Webb Young-inspired technique called ‘Thinking Inside the Box’. Message me and I’ll happily share it with you in person, one-to-one, for free.