Ideation Guide
Following are links to some resources online which I’ve found useful for priming the pump, er, getting the juices flowing, umm, kick starting….Ugh! I’d better page down and find something to spur an actual thought, as opposed to some over-used dead metaphor posing as a thought.
General Insights
Explore the intersection between art and animations at this non-profit’s site.Big Think:
Video site featuring big thinkers from the worlds of politics, academia, science, and business.
Online resource for brainstorming; registration required but first brainstorming session is free.
PDF of famous Stanford Research Institute (1975) report that explores the reasons why changes may have to take place in the fundamental conceptual premises, laws, attitudes and ethics once suitable for guiding the development of the United States and other highly industrialized nations if a humane (and “workable”) future is to be achievable.
CIO Magazine
Article entitled Six Techniques to Get More from the Web Than Google Will Tell You.
PDF document of “Fundamental Documents, Symbols, and Anthems of the United States.”
The art of commencement speeches (archive) can be found at Humanity.org
List of common misconceptions at Wiki.
Site contains everything from general resources to fallacies to logic to miscellaneous and fun.DigitalResearchTools
A Wiki of research tools online.
The best, most thought-provoking audio available on the internet.
Esquire
100 people, places, things that will impact us all.
Collector of stimulating video online.
Course offered at University of Sussex has a informatics lecture series that discusses graphics, music, jokes and riddles.
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
All articles are written by experts and editors are all academics; sample Buddhist Thought, logical paradoxes or difficult concepts like personal identity.
Distributed intelligence…impressively broad collection of talks, most of which are intended for a public audience.
Train your brain with Ramon Llull.
An anthology of many paradoxes.
Podcast talks along the lines of TEDTalks.
Steven Pinker talks about profanity
Their documentaries section contains a couple thousand documentaries that just might inspire…
Site collects rules of thumb for most any occasion (user submitted), such as playing blackjack or choosing a bicycle frame.
Google Tech Talks introduces lots of people and lots of idea.
Insights into consumer trends from around the globe (registration is required, but free). Here’s their 5 tips on trend watching.
Source rich with insights. Following are but three examples:
TedTalks: “What we can learn from spaghetti sauce.” How we measure (think about) things can define what one finds. “To a worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish.” Traditionally, the food industry used a hierarchical approach (what’s better?); instead, it has come to understand horizontal segmentation: diversity fuels happiness (chunky, zesty, etc).
“Motivational” guru Tony Robbins reveals his true self - helping others uncover the inner blocks that prevent them from finding fulfillment.
“The rise of the amateur professional” explores how creativity is increasingly coming about. Not as special people in special places thinking up special products; rather, the incentive to innovate comes from “Pro-Ams” and their ideas flow up through the pipeline, and are ahead of producers.
Thought Starters
50 Things You’re Not Supposed To Know
What are the real Ten Commandments? Why have activists been arrested for telling jurors their full powers? What happened on January 25, 1995 to almost start World War III?
What are you made of, anyway? Nothing much, as it turns out, in this short video…
By and for creatives, this site is all about creative portfolios, projects and collaborations.
Blog showcasing documentaries from BBC and PBS.
Some of the best that’s on the web, this site is just in beta but already has a long list of believers and awards.
“The best in video” lets you browse what’s the latest top 100.
Wiki “help desk” assists in generating a list of keywords to search, based on your initial search querry.
Compendium of Monty Python Sketches
Sometimes the hardest part of starting something is the act of starting something. Here’s some of Monty Python’s finest, Confuse-a-Cat, Ltd., the Ministry of Silly Walks, the Dead Parrot, Upperclass Twit of the Year…
Interesting way to present and lead one to what new news is now.
4-part series walks you through how inspiration and constraints work together.
Creative Sparks
Some web resources that might just spark a thought: Delicious/Popular/Creative, Delicious/Popular/Inspiration, Delicious/Popular/Interesting, FFFFound Image Bookmarking, PostSecret, Flickr Interesting.
Aggregates video clips from major video services such as YouTube, blip.tv, and Revver, along with smaller sites and video podcasters. The site lets you search all the video services at once and organize your favorite clips from them into custom playlists that you can share with the Dabble community.
Dictionary of the History of Ideas
A place to explore myths.
“Where results make sense”; a useful filter on search results that may help you find in-depth answers quickly, where the search results page itself includes key sentences from each of the sources retrieved.
285 rules including: 1)”Once you have their money, you never give it back,” and 43)Caressing an ear is often more forceful than pointing a gun.”
Freethought Multimedia is a source of freethinking interviews, conversations and lectures by such notables as Richard Dawkins, James Randi, Steven Pinker, Massimo Pigliucci…
A quick look at 25 human gestures and what they mean.
While much here seems focused on project management, there is a huge collection of models for thinking about and methods for generating fresh ideas.
Article entitled “8 Steps To Dealing With Information Overload.”
Ancient history fans need to meet Tim Spaulding, creator of this and 48 other sites. In tandem, try Metrum or Elbruz. Start with the library page, then go wherever; Largest island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island, Archaic Didymaion (the key to ancient architecture) and The Deluge as Metaphor.
List Universe has an amazing (large) depository of “Top 10″ lists that are sure to start your imagination (”Whoever thought that…)
Survey of introductory Logic topics (philosophy).
Overflowing with fascinating trivia; their exclusive lists are eye candy for curiosity buffs that might just get you to thinking.
Purves Labs has a large database of optical illusions.
Blog podcasts with top philosophers interviewed on bite-sized topics. Here’s one with Brad Hooker On Consequentialism: What makes an action a good one? According to consequentialists this question is decided by the action’s actual or likely consequences. In this episode of Philosophy Bites the moral philosopher Brad Hooker explains what consequentialism is and defends it against possible criticism.
Video of Lawrence Krauss & Natalie Jeremijenko discussing the politics of knowledge production, participation and seduction with the artist/engineer.
The Prefuse Visualization Toolkit is the beta-version of a Java-based toolkit for programming of applications with integrated data visualization methods.
A resource of over 17000 quotations containing mankind’s collective intelligence delivered smartly.
Turn numbers into something that makes sense (e.g. 123 miles is 22 Mount Everests).Sound of Young America
PBS podcasts of too numerous-to-mention interviews (…like Ira Glass, Elmore Leonard, Terry Jones on Joke Warfare…)
Collection of interesting articles on literally hundreds of subjects.
Meriam-Webster visual dictionary is somewhat hard to navigate, but you may just find it well worth the effort.
The original 30 minute Rube Goldberg type machine. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. More Rube Goldberg fun in this British Advert: Chaos In The Printshop. (Behind The Scenes) Here’s one made out of Honda parts. (Ad Took 606 Takes, 3 Months and $6 Million)
Look them up, then enter them here. Now, let’s get ourselves a map. Let’s get the skinny on the demo’s. Or try here for a bit nicer presentation. Of course, it’d be interesting to learn how to market to them based on lifestyles as well.
Mind Mapping
Video on mind mapping with Tony Buzon.
An open online forum for continued support.
Resembling a mind map, Wiki entry on concept map distinguishes the two.
The premier java-based mind mapping software known for its quick, one-click “fold/unfold” and “follow link” operations.
Article in Squidoo about the 10 best mind mapping tips for small businesses.
Google PDF book about about the long dormant view of the nature of human thought.
An online mapping application offering both free and paid premium accounts.
Turn data into knowledge, and get more done with less time invested.
Resource of tools and articles to help improve mind mapping skills
Over 65 features in a dynamic visual interface and information organizer; free, core and pro versions.
Data Visualization
Aaron Koblin designed this visualization of US flights in a single day for the FAA - and now you can see where all the flight delays originate from.
“An unread email is hairy and swims fast; a read email has less hair and does not swim so fast anymore; a responded email is hairless and barely moves.”
Eric Blue’s blog about unusual data esthetics.
Smashing magazine’s list of tools and techniques for diagraming.
IBM’s Alphaworks site for creating and sharing data visualizations.
His blog is all about visualization with some music thrown in - musical (solar, weird fishes) and non-musical (earthquake, flock of birds).
A tool that allows the quick creation of dynamic tree structures, which resemble natural rhizomes.
Large database of time visualizations.
Online magazine where “form follows data - data visualization and visual communication.”
YT video of mathematical pattern as encompassing the theory of everything.
Data visualization software that helps organize information into “nuggets”; Family Tree of the Greeks currently in beta, or try out Daylight Saving Time.
Want the map of Oz, George Orwell’s 1984, “the 10 regions of American politics” or the island of California, this site is a must.
Data and graph fanatics now have a home of their own for creating pie charts, diagrams and histograms.
Timelines
Xtimeline and Circavie are online tools for creating timelines.
Compilation of over 300 different information mapping projects.
A visual categorization (periodic table) of techniques for visualizing data, concepts, strategies and metaphors.
Visualizing science and tech activity - a beautiful www.
Music Visualization
Associative Musical Visual Intelligence (or “amvi” for short) is a type of intelligence that’s difficult enough to define, let alone test. Many creative people can associate across sensory domains: they “hear” hints of shapes and can “taste” the essense of colors.
Comedian comes across an invisible drum set while sweeping.
Princeton University composer Dmitri Tymoczko’s site has movies of Chopin and Deep Purple to illustrate his point.
Interactive harmony model geometrically describes relationships in harmony.
Music animation machine. Here: Chopin - Nocturne/Opus 27#2
A great place for music lovers to visualize music.
Convert pixels to music at the RGB Music Lab.
What is the shape of sound?
Listen while you work…station browser and “heart,” skip, and ban options make creating a custom station or tweaking one of its existing ones so effortless even a slacker can muster the energy to do it.
Yamaha’s Tenori-On is a visual music interface.
Ted Talks video with this 14 year old improvising on the piano; ends with a discussion (13 minutes in) of her thoughts on creativity and flow — discussing how she tries to beat distraction and gain focus in both drawing and composition.
Oscilloscope (or lissajous scope?) YouTube; 3rd place winner in Short Films at Assembly 2007.
Blogs
Inspire your creativity at this blog; gizmos include Cut Up Machine, Slice-n-Dice, creative writing prompts, and many, many more, as well as lots of articles on a whole host of writing subjects.
John Maeda’s further exploration of his book’s 10 Laws of Simplicity.
A lot of self help, but also some of things interesting, such as eight irresistible principles of fun. And per mind mapping, here’s one on note taking. Here’s the site to find the Cornell System of note taking template.
An always thoughtful analysis of thoughts.
This firm’s take on what’s interesting both online and off.
Games
The Ad Generator is generative artwork that shows how advertising uses and manipulates language. Very creative.
Select crossword puzzles from multiple sources.
Then when you’re stumped, use this free online service to solve that dang word.
You’ll see a pattern of popping triangles. Memorize the pattern, then click on them in order and you’ll see a distorted video message, then you’ll end up seeing some sort of cryptic combination lock that you have to crack. Warning: this is one difficult puzzle machine.
The toughest word game on the web. What’s your score - 10 out of 10?
The brain is a use-it-or-lose- it proposition - which is all the excuse you need to spend some time here playing memory, logic, and strategy games like Reversi, Crime Scene, Sudoku, What Was There, etc.
A game that’s an experiment that’s eventually going to be a large database of words and phrases that people associate with words and phrases.
Just push the button and watch it combine to generate a thought.
A page (at Creativity Portal) that gives you random suggestions, or prompts, for topics about which you can write whatever you like. A few examples:
- Describe five things that you can see right now.
- 10 things I’m pessimistic about
- My three closest friends…
Brain games and memory, ahh, memory something. Sign up for a free trial and play games that have been lab-tested and shown to improve memory, attention, processing speed, and cognitive control. The games, such as Bird Watching and Monster Garden are fun, and you can track your progress.
Thinks
Lots of mind games, including Sudoku, crosswords, trivia, code breakers, word search puzzles and much more.
Whose Fish?
Update: We’ve put this puzzle in a handy portable/printable PDF version here so you can find out how smart you family really is. Cheers.
Spoken Word
Great place to explore what it takes to make a great speech.
Online chart making and diagraming site.
If you are looking for new ways to use media to relate better with people, Cliff Atkinson’s blog is a good place to begin. While here, make yourself fill out Cliff’s word template for telling a story.
Countries, Cultures and Gestures
How to go about greeting someone is just the beginning of this around the world recap.
Kevin Eikenberry outlines tips for creating powerful stories
Joe Lambert of the UC Berkley Center for Digital Storytelliing talks.
Demitri Martin utilizes a big presentation pad with humor.
The big fish in the photo sharing space. Redefining much. Here’s their blog. And here’s how to explore the best of the last 7 days.
English pronouncing dictionary, which instantly converts typed words querries into voice.
Ira Glass
“This American Life”; the building blocks of a great story. Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4.
Great resource for finding photos to use in your speeches.
Photoset on Flickr of various “cool quotes, the odd stat,” as slides to talk around when describing how things are changing online and in media & communications generally.
Merlin Mann
43 Folders is his group site, about productivity and making life a little bit better. He’s got some things to say about presentations as well.
Showcases artistic creations made with the Office suite of programs…upload your own to participate.
Worlds’s Best Presentation Winners, a al Guy, have some great use of powerpoint.
Pecha-Kucha ‘emotionally intelligent signage’ presentation by Daniel Pink, found in Wired’s “Pecha Kucha: Get to the PowerPoint in 20 slides then sit the hell down.“
Powerpoint
Did you know the term bullet point comes from people shooting bullets at bad PowerPoint presenters? Bad color schemes can lead to distraction, confusion, headaches, nausea, vomiting and loss of bladder control? The more data a presentation has, the less one actually learns? And other Don McMillan wisdom in Life After Death By PowerPoint.
Garr Reynold’s blog on professional presentation design is worthwhile. Here he features The Kawasaki Method. Guy Kawasaki’s 10-20-30 Rule. Here, liberate yourself with the power of The Takahashi Method. Or, simply take a lesson by one of the best - Steve Jobs.
User submitted slide show site; has many different kinds to choose from. The Brand Gap uses interesting techniques, I think.
Source of many great speeches, including Rives on “Is 4a.m. the new midnight?” and “If I were in charge of the internet…you could Mapquest your lover’s mood swings / Hang left at cranky / Right at preoccupied / U-turn at silent treatment …” As regards digital storytelling (above), try out photographer Phil Borges stories and portraits of the world’s disappearing cultures.
Daniel Eatock’s 100 seconds of Powerpoint transitions is hypnotizing.
Viral Marketing
Interactive marketing blog with an archive rich in viral.
Language Log
Uber language blog had this recent article on “Viral marketing is a language from inner space.” Then, in a follow up on early mentions of infectious spreading of ideas, here’s Cosma Shalizi’s reply, starting with a translation of 2nd Century Roman Pliny on Christianity. In this post, Cosma Shalizi posts an excerpt from André Siegfried’s Germs and Ideas: We have made use of the same vocabulary to speak of the spread of diseases and of ideas and propaganda: virus, germ, source; carrier, soil, surroundings; contact, contagion, infection, contamination, endemic, epidemic, pandemic; prevention, inoculation, sterilization, immunization, vaccination, quarantine. Surely we have more than a superficial coincidence here: both in the domain of biology and in the world of ideas, certain reactions are shown which are common to all living beings.
Fastcompany has the most illuminating article I’ve yet read on the subject, written by Seth Godin. Here’s his article entitled “What makes and idea viral.” And here’s Seth’s at TedTalks on Sliced Bread And Other Marketing Delights.
MarketingSherp’s top 12 campaigns for 2006.
Online resource documents emerging strategies in response to the “perfect storm” of media convergence primarily from within commercial and amateur cultural production.
Viral Web
Following are a few examples of “viral” I’ve recently come across:
Carlsberg campaign Inside jokes (Mentos/Pepsi) for those in the know. (viral advertising)
Conan: Wine Expert Gary Vaynerchuck’s appearance on Conan (viral marketing)
www.Stride Gum Once you’ve figured out the navigation, visit Matt’s Place (viral website)
(And here are some outtakes that didn’t make the first cut.)
What’s for dinner? 15 million views; lions, crocs and water buffalo fighting it out (viral reality)
Ghost Cam A la SciFi’s Ghost Hunter and Ghost Car Video (viral unreality)
Written Word
A Whatchmacallit of Wordsmithing Webgets
More than 100 tools for writers (note: found on this site).
Dumb Little Man gives us the 50 tools that can help improve your writing skills.
How not to text message would be my title for this video; rated LOL (laugh out loud).
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
David Gessner’s article in the 2006 Orion Magazine (on what pelicans have to teach him about something new), won the 2006 John Burroughs Essay Award.
Writers On Writing is a compilation of writers and the subjects they covered.
Obituaries
Learning to write obituaries is a great way to learn how to write most anything. First, in “Remembering Pop,” Anthony Doerr shows aspiring journalists how to write an obituary that left me wishing I had known his wife’s dad, Stephen Edward Eastman W.O.M. (Weird Old Man). Then, this article in The Economist entitled Death and the afterlife: The Glad Reaper (diary by a obituaries editor) is beautifully written. Her first few entries about her father’s garden are, simply, wonderful. Her thoughts on writing obits are quite revealing, and thus pertinent here.
Interactive fiction: one author writes a short story, then others create collaborative interactive branches.
King speaks about the truth in the lie, and is an insight writers should find worth knowing.
Top 10 Blogs
CatalystBlogger; CopyBlogger; Copywriter Underground; copywritingmaven; FreelanceParent; Freelance Writing Jobs; Get Paid To Write Online; TheGoldenPencil; Heather Strang, Writer; Ink In My Coffee; TheRenegadeWriter; TheUrbanMuse; Web Content Writers Tips; WebWritingInfo; WriteFromHome; WriterMama; WritersResourceCenter; Writing For Writers; Writing The Cyber Highway.
Creative word challenge site; such as sloliloquist (slow talker).
Online graphical dictionary visually shows word meanings and associations with other words.
A Neord A Day: n. Meaning: A new word Pronounciation: Ne·ord (n?-ûrd)
Podcasts from the 300 daily seconds are now available as well.
Color Inspiration
Helps designers make selections from color palettes, submit and read comments, news and articles. Here’s their take from the Masters, the eleven great color legends, and forbidden color combinations.
Adobe’s online color community helps designers, or anyone, pick color schemes.
Give the wheel a turn and discover the name for that perfect color.
Site analyzes all separate and distinct colors from any image and gives you the lowdown on each.
What do your favorite colors reveal about your personality?
Architecture
Showcase of fantastic architecture from around the world; their mission is to make architecture more connected and design minded.
International Architecture Awards
Design Inspiration (Awards)
Showcasing ADC, Adfest, Andy, Cannes, Clio, CA, C&AD, Eurobest, FWA, Flashforward, London International, New York, One Show, Tokyo International and Webby Awards.
Cooper Hewitt
National Design Awards: architecture, interior, landscape, product, communication, fashion.
European Design Awards
Best of the Best logo, trademark and corporate identity.
One Show
Awards advertising’s best print, radio, TV, design and interactive work.
Winning sites selected for design.
International Competition of Cyberarts winners.
Award winning web 2.0 sites (blogs) selected for each of 48 categories.
Award winning websites.
Graphic Design
Icon’s manifestos from 50 acclaimed designers.
Design opinions expressed in 200 words or less.
Makes design fun (and they offer some free downloads).
Latest in visuals and trends for publications.
Print magazine that’s also available online (subscription required) is the bible for graphic designers in the U.S.
Writings on design and culture.
International review of graphic design (quarterly) is essential reading for graphic designers (subscription required).
Food for Design: Molecular Gastronomy.
HOWdesign’s online archives of past design winners is sure to inspire.
Kaliber10000 is a designers playground updated weekly by a designer or design group.
The world’s leading publisher of books on the visual arts.
Digest of the creative, strange and interesting found on the net.
The showroom is the original online glossy for creative professionals.
Typography
A blog by someone who is following her passions.
Veteran graphic design/typography and letterpress teacher from the London College of Printing, David Dabner, speaks up… giving an insight into the principles of design. To sum it up: “In thinking, you can delete the non-essential.”
A daily dose of type goodness
The online companion to the venerable book; a resource of helpful hints and lessons for everyone from designers to writers and publishers.
Conglomeration of articles about “Typography: Tools and Techniques of the Trade.”
Typographica’s favorite fonts of 2006, complete with editorial.
Typographics In Motion: The Child (cult video for font lovers); Cuarteto de Nos (music video from Uruguayan band); Pulp Fiction (What does Marsellus Wallace look like?); Typography (Canadian film short); Are You Gonna Be My Girl; Duck And Cover (50’s Civil Defense audio with type treatment).
Typographic Posteres: HeyHo (France); La Vie (Vincent Bousserez); All The Best (Alejandro Paul); Ideas (Shaun Morrison); 25 ah (Stockholm); Puerto Baires (Buenos Aires); Helvetica (Todd Roeth); Chess01 (Noel Tanner); Incomplete Manifesto (Kate Andrews);Experimental Jetset (Amsterdam); Is This Type (Lennart Wolfert); Bunch (USA); ZAK Group.
Product Design
Raw Sweden’s free online material database informs about new and traditional materials and their manufacture.
More than a thousand new products and product designs are hosted here.
Nussbaum on Design:
CEOs must be designers, not just hire them. If you think this is nuts, consider Steve Jobs and iPhone.
Web Design
Ever wonder what a web site looks like to a person with color blindness? Well, I suppose that depends on which kind of color blindness. Here’s a site that tests colorblindness.
User submitted digital art, illustrations, writing….
Well thought out, well executed blog showcasing websites.
Don’t let the simple, clean design fool you; you’re sure to pay attention to the design work on display.
Maps
Map guide of New York City is a growing compendium of stories about the wonderful streets of that city; Brooklyn Elite Checkers Club or Under the Roller Coaster as examples.
Maps of the imaginary.
Map History/History of Cartography
Spread out over 100 pages, Map History delves into the history of cartography and contains over 1500 links (University of London).
Gracenote has an interactive map where you can discover who is listening to what.
University of Oregon interactive Nolli Map: The 1748 Map of Rome, by Giambattista Nolli is widely regarded by scholars as one of the most important historical documents of the city ever created. This project is a collaborative exploration of the exquisite Nolli engraving, through its historic significance and contemporary application.
21 interactive periodical maps of Europe, from the first century to 2000.
Some wonderful maps and visualizations (but long loading times).
Map of science
Collection of strange maps found online, such as this one depicting US states renamed for countries with similar GDP.
Satellite view of where sunlight is currently on view.
Interactive maps of North American cities as they developed (real estate purchases).
Old, antique and vintage maps, such as this one of the names of the Mediterranian winds in 5 languages.