Making & learning · Collection guide · 5 stops
Find original ideas
Use this route when a project feels blank, stale or too predictable. It moves from generating alternatives to studying influences, close observation and changes in process. Finish with the messier environment around a real creative production. Bring a draft or brief so that each source leads to an experiment.
Browse this collection in reading order →Suggested routes through material saved to explore. I haven’t read or watched everything here yet. The order and prompts are editorial suggestions based on available source text, excerpts, descriptions and synopses; they are not personal ratings or claims of completed viewing.
Change the constraints
Articles · Est. 10 min
Extreme brainstorming questions to trigger new, better ideas →
Collected by The Unintuitive ↗
Cohen’s extreme brainstorming prompts disrupt the assumptions inside a familiar problem. Begin by widening the options before trying to polish the first plausible idea.
Pause & try
Apply two extreme constraints to your brief: dramatically less time, a different audience or removal of the main feature. Generate several responses without selecting a winner.
Examine what the ideas are made from
Everything Is a Remix shifts the question from pure originality to transformation of existing material. Follow the brainstorming with an honest look at the influences and combinations inside your options.
Pause & try
Name three influences on one idea. Describe what you are borrowing and what you would change, combine or challenge rather than reproduce.
Feed imagination with observation
Phan’s account of Miyazaki’s creative process adds attention to the world outside the reference pile. It is a useful turn from recombining familiar examples toward noticing something directly.
Pause & try
Observe a place, interaction or movement relevant to the project. Record five specific details before interpreting them.
Alter the way you work
Interviews · Est. 24 min
What makes a great music producer tick? Brian Eno Interviewed →
Collected by The Unintuitive ↗
Eno’s discussion of production and Oblique Strategies offers another route out of habit: change the process rather than demand a better idea from the same routine.
Pause & try
Make a second version under one unfamiliar rule. Change the order, tool, collaborator or starting point, and keep both versions for comparison.
See the production around the idea
The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness brings you into the working world of Studio Ghibli. Use it to consider how an imaginative idea meets time, collaboration and the ordinary demands of making a film.
Pause & try
Which uncertainty in your project can only be resolved by making something? Build a rough test that answers that question alone.
After the five stops
Take it into your own life.
Place three directions side by side. Choose the one with the most interesting unresolved question and make a small finished version. Keep a note of the observation or process change that produced it so you can use that method again without repeating the same idea.
Continue exploring
Items 1–5 are the guided route above. The remaining items are listed alphabetically below; choose what interests you next. These numbers match the collection shelf.
- “In Search of Excellence” at Apple Computer in 1984 → Find on the shelf: “In Search of Excellence” at Apple Computer in 1984 →
- 100 greatest artists - Rolling Stone → Find on the shelf: 100 greatest artists - Rolling Stone →
- A Project of One Own → Find on the shelf: A Project of One Own →
- Crumb → Find on the shelf: Crumb →
- Daft Punk: An In-Depth History → Find on the shelf: Daft Punk: An In-Depth History →
- David Bowie - On Why You Should Never Play To The Gallery → Find on the shelf: David Bowie - On Why You Should Never Play To The Gallery →
- David Lynch - Meditation, Creativity, Peace; Documentary of a 16 Country Tour → Find on the shelf: David Lynch - Meditation, Creativity, Peace; Documentary of a 16 Country Tour →
- David Lynch: The Art Life → Find on the shelf: David Lynch: The Art Life →
- Dogtown And Z-Boys → Find on the shelf: Dogtown And Z-Boys →
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas -A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream → Find on the shelf: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas -A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream →
- Hans Zimmer talks → Find on the shelf: Hans Zimmer talks →
- How Pixar Foster Collective Creativity - Ed Catmull → Find on the shelf: How Pixar Foster Collective Creativity - Ed Catmull →
- Interview with Luigi Colani → Find on the shelf: Interview with Luigi Colani →
- Jay Z at studio making The Black Album → Find on the shelf: Jay Z at studio making The Black Album →
- Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy → Find on the shelf: Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy →
- Make Something Wonderful - Leslie Berlin → Find on the shelf: Make Something Wonderful - Leslie Berlin →
- Nick Cave 20000 Days on Earth → Find on the shelf: Nick Cave 20000 Days on Earth →
- Principles - Nabeel S. Qureshi → Find on the shelf: Principles - Nabeel S. Qureshi →
- Prompt Library → Find on the shelf: Prompt Library →
- Richard Feynman and The Connection Machine → Find on the shelf: Richard Feynman and The Connection Machine →
- Sound City → Find on the shelf: Sound City →
- State Of Mind - Artbook → Find on the shelf: State Of Mind - Artbook →
- Stop Making Sense → Find on the shelf: Stop Making Sense →
- Summer of Soul (...or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) → Find on the shelf: Summer of Soul (...or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) →
- The Final Hours Of Half-Life → Find on the shelf: The Final Hours Of Half-Life →
- The Pixar Story → Find on the shelf: The Pixar Story →
- The Ultimate Guide for Becoming an Idea Machine → Find on the shelf: The Ultimate Guide for Becoming an Idea Machine →
- Tom Ford Documentary → Find on the shelf: Tom Ford Documentary →