Jason Theodor's Creative Method and Systems Channel

The best ideas come out of the corner of our eye, the edge of our consciousness, in a flash. They are the result of misdirection and random collisions, not a grinding corporate onslaught. And yet we waste billions of dollars in time looking for them where they're not.

In the ad agency world we often pretend that we have tamed and trained Creativity. We have efficiently commoditized the magic of imagination. We have It all tied down and caged in timelines and budgets. We trot It out in meetings and force It to jump through burning hoops to great claps (or gasps). Everyone is amazed (or terrified) by It's beauty and relevance.

But where do we catch this mythical beast? Where does Creativity come from? It comes from a serendipitous collection of connections, a combination of fate and physics that touch our consciousness (or unconsciousness). It comes from looking and doing and discovering seemingly random elements. It comes from filtering the projected 'media' of the Universe through our own unique perspectives and experience. It is a distillation of our most interesting selves. It is practiced magic.

No matter how much we try to capture Creativity in our work, It originates in play. And play, by it's very nature, is undefined. Creating timelines and budgets around play is like asking how much your ideas weigh. So how do agencies do it?

Ad agencies charge admission to an improvised Circus of the Imagination: sometimes Creativity is a reduced to a tent full of opportunistic freaks, and other times it is a once-in-a-lifetime three ring circus of awe and wonder. Presentations of Creativity are always filled with suspense. You never know if someone is going to get mauled or a miracle is going to occur. Either way, it is wild and unpredictable— which is precisely why it stays interesting.