Capturing Your Ideas

Ten years ago I sat across from Larry, a graphic designer. Larry sketched a pair of salt and pepper shakers in his sketchbook as we talked. He told me he used the book write down cool ideas, draw sketches, and glue in samples of some of his work. And it got me going.

I hate to lose ideas. Carrying a book to capture ideas on a regular basis has helped me capture ideas and continue mulling over them.

Although I was a writer at the time I had a strong leaning toward the visual. Soon after that I got my own sketchbook and starting capturing ideas, designs and things I thought were cool. I'd glue things into the book. I'd draw what I saw. And I wrote down ideas that I'd like to do some day.

That was the beginning of ten years of capturing ideas. Sometimes it meant writing things on scraps of paper and transferring them to my creativity book later. Or it meant cutting pictures out of magazines. In my creativity books I'm planting seeds that will some day come to fruition. It helped me go over ideas again and again. I call it my creativity book.

I use an empty journal (without lines) or a sketchbook that looks like a regular book, and I carry it with me whenever I can. I normally don't write things in it that are too personal in case it ends up in the hands of someone else, like my friend, Judy.

Judy was always fascinated with my creativity book. Sometimes she would come into my office and start looking through it (most of the time with my permission). She once gave a talk on creativity and asked if she could bring my books in as an example. I didn't find any harm in this until she started passing them around. I had to take a mental inventory to see if there was anything overly personal in the books. I didn't think so.

Here are some of the things I include in my creativity books:

Drawings

There was a church across the alley from me when I was growing up in Wilmette, Illinois. My brother and I would go over to visit the secretary. She would take out a bunch of paper, colored pencils, pens, rulers and protractors. I would spend hours drawing pictures, mostly cool cars or plain doodles.

My doodles these days aren't that much more sophisticated than back then. I start drawing shapes, color them in, and make shadows.

A while back my daughter and I were drawing on the driveway with chalk. We made a big design of nothing in particular. She would fill in the shapes as I made the thing bigger and bigger. It didn't look like much of anything. When I went out in the morning I was shocked that it actually looked like something. Depending on what angle you looked, it appeared to be the Pink Panther. It had two eyes, ears and a snout, just like the Pink Panther.

This is a time for randomness and childlikeness. There is nothing I try to accomplish when I doodle. It's a time to explore shapes and shades and colors. Take some time now to doodle in your creativity book.

Quotes

These are inspirational and/or thought provoking. You could even use bumperstickers or quotes from TV shows. One of my favorites is a sign by the front door of the nursing home of Homer's father on "The Simpsons." It says, "Thank you for not discussing the outside world."

Cartoons

For a couple years I was pasting in my favorite cartoons from my daily Far Side cartoon and Jack Handey's "Deep Thoughts". I kept the funniest ones to inspire and amuse myself.

I also draw my own cartoons. Each year the local paper has an editorial cartoon contest. For the last several years I usually submitted three cartoons and have had a cartoon printed five out of the last six years.

Running list

This is one I keep going back to. It's on the front page of one of my old creativity books. I go back to it after visiting a new college campus, as I did recently to Auburn. I also keep a running list of favorite movies and movies I want to watch.

Topics for writing

Because I was a writer by trade for a decade I was always thinking of topics for freelance jobs or ones that I thought would be relevant to my work, either for publications or the Web.

I try to be topical about the essays or put together several themes that have been running through my mind at the time. I write out as much as I can so when I do take the time to write the essay I'll have something to work from.

I like to write out ideas, examples, anecdotes, quotes, statistics and the general outline of an article or story.

Thumbnails of designs.

When I get on a computer to do design stuff, I make smaller sketches of what could be designed. I've done this especially with design of cards or announcements. I'm able to put down on paper, on a smaller scale, the basic design of the piece without having to waste a lot of time designing and redesigning something. I usually have the text written down on the computer.

The creativity book is a perfect place to do this. It allows me to revisit the designs I didn't use and to think about why I didn't use them.

Business cards

I use this to remember people and events. One business card I have glued into my creativity books is a guy from Hong Kong I met on an airplane. He and his buddy were having a disagreement and they asked me to be the arbitrator. The big question whether or not the American phrase, "You can say again," was a curse.

Dreams

This is a list of ideas of what I want to do during my life and with my life. I've done this in a list or I've just wrote down things like, "I'd like to go on a cruise of the Greek islands someday."

Brainstorm

I like to brainstorm. One of the main ways I do this is by writing the main topic in the middle of the page and then write out topics and items related to it, attaching them to the central idea by lines so it looks like a web.

Suggestions from others

This would be different books, movies and TV shows suggested by people I respect. They could be something I read about in an article. This goes for web sites I'd like to look at later.

Diagrams of things I want to build

I took a woodworking class recently and came up with several designs of things I'd like to build. Whether they were tables, chairs, desks or fun little boxes, I started to put things down on paper that I'd like to create some day.

I dream about things I'd like to have around me that have my fingerprint on them. Sometimes, they are just mundane things with a twist. I put an article on funny furniture in my inspirational file. This guy built high quality pieces of furniture, but with an added twist. An example is an antique-looking desk with a bar code carved into it or a table where one leg is propped up by a wooden book with the title, "How to Build Furniture."

Lists of people

I like to keep lists of people who can help me on certain projects or whom I can get information from. If I'm working on a project, for example, I sometimes come up with a list of people who have experience in this area or who can point me to people with answers.

Notes from conversations

I don't remember conversations very well, so if the phone call is important or has to do with major events in a friend's life; I like to put the info down on paper.

Places I've visited

This is where I journal. I put in sketches and the things I did and with whom I did them. This helps me relive the memories-both good and bad. It is fodder for future stories or a gauge of where I've been and done. I think, Oh yeah, I remember doing that. My first experience with a creativity book was at the J. Paul Getty art museum in Malibu, Calif. I have drawings of the different pieces and interesting aspects of the building.

I put a variety of other things in my creativity books besides what you just read. My creativity book to me is a place where I can capture ideas to use later. I encourage you to get something, whether it is a sketchbook or spiral-bound notebook with lines, to put your ideas down on paper. You could also use your computer or Palm Pilot, anything to capture your ideas. Then put them into action.

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Dave Carlson is the owner of Green Chair Marketing Group, a boutique marketing firm specializing in developing comprehensive marketing plans focusing on Internet strategies to help businesses succeed. He can be reached at 720-922-3124. See his Web site at www.GreenChair.net.

5808 S. Rapp St., Suite 235 Littleton, CO 80120 - in the Denver Metro area - 720-922-3124