Where do ideas come from? 

Illustration by Bob Hansman. Learn more about our illustrators.

Sometimes creativity sparks an image of wild, out of the box ideas that are totally novel and different from anything ever done before. Those can certainly be good ideas, but we’re big fans of creativity that acknowledges and recognizes that there’s rarely something new under the sun. 

Often, when we’re working with partners, some of the most innovative and impactful ideas are those that are not new, but revisited from a new perspective or direction. So if ideas aren’t new, purely from our imaginations, where else do they come from? Let’s explore each of these six origin stories a little more, and share why we think it’s important to draw from all of them when we’re tackling challenges or opportunities. 

Past: We have done this before…sometime. 
Everyone has a trail of things they’ve tried in the past and left behind. But, just because you don’t do it anymore doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good idea! Much like some of Annemarie’s past boyfriends, it just may not have been the right time. The resources may have shifted. There may have been a change in context that required a re-thinking no one had time to do. Whatever the cause, often things that have happened in the past offer lots of opportunities to learn from failure and to build on past ideas. 

Present: We currently do this. 
Something that’s already happening, even at a very small scale, can be a great opportunity to scale up, increase impact, or apply something to a new context. Liz already organizes her socks by how warm they are…and that might be a good way to organize winter scarves and hats too, and there’s probably something she can learn from what she’s already doing. Often, ideas that are already happening in some way have opportunities for refinement or involving more people in the process — and they can be great opportunities to celebrate successes! 

Peers: We’ve heard of someone doing something like this. 
If your neighbor is doing something and it’s working for them,  it might be a great thing to try out. In many contexts that we work in, there are a lot of great proving and promising practices to learn from — whether you’re talking about interventions for literacy in schools or programs that support building wealth. Yet, deciding to implement ideas that have worked elsewhere still requires careful attention to adjusting for context and a thoughtful approach to designing the experience — but they’re great to bring into the conversation. 

Parallels: Someone in a different context does this. 
Often, a parallel idea may be finding something that works well in another pretty different context, and applying it to what you’re doing. The “Chipotle of native gardening” might involve a shop where you can pick bulk seeds, or the “Etsy of health communication tools” might be a marketplace where community organizations can find and use templates that have been used in other places to communicate critical health outcomes, while still supporting artists. These ideas require some creativity to make them directly relevant to your context, but with some thought can help spark new interesting directions.  

Potpourris: Combining two or more ideas in a new way. 
Sometimes, pulling inspiration from multiple different places or ideas can help inspire a new idea. As Steve Jobs said, “Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something.” You could bring together good ideas that others are doing, things you’ve done in the past, or more from other origins, and mix it all up into a new idea. 

Wild Cards: This is unlike anything we’ve ever heard of before. 
Finally, wild cards are the ideas that really push the envelope, and often spring fully from our imaginations. Sometimes, they might require a patent, a trademark, or some careful copyrighting, but other times they’re just a totally different way of looking at an opportunity. Liz always loves to throw in “solve this problem on a slide” or “solve this problem with a party” which tend to lead to some pretty novel ideas. 

When you fully activate your creativity, you’ll probably be drawing from all six of these sources — and that will give you even more to work with to make the change you want to see happen. 

What’s your favorite source for ideas? How do you get inspired? Leave a comment, or send us an email at hello@publicdesignbureau.com.