Most of us have a favourite idea generation technique or two.

It’s part of the trade, after all.

We develop them over time and go back to them repeatedly. However, it’s pretty handy to stash other techniques away, just in case.

Please consider this your stash.

1. Deck of Brilliance

Let’s start with my fave tool for random idea generation — Deck of Brilliance. The deck contains 52 different framing devices for your ideas, each with a thorough breakdown and real-world examples.

It’s pure genius and gives you tried-and-tested approaches to dabble with. Every creative needs this tool bookmarked, and you can quote me on that. 🔥

2. Word vomit

The idea here is to pop your main subject in the centre of your page and then jot down literally everything that comes to mind when you think of it. This is also known as ‘freewriting.’

Words, feelings, colours, smells…anything.

Set yourself a timer for fifteen minutes and see how much shit you can come up with.

You can do it in one of two ways: either get out your notebook and write a stream of consciousness and ideas in longhand or do a colour-coded mind map.

Tony Buzan, the inventor of the mind map, has a few techniques to level up your mapping skills:

1) Organise the branches of your map into different colours for easy theme identification

2) Use an image in the centre where you can (it’s good for the right side of your brain)

When you’re done, rifle through your word vomit, pick a few areas of interest and do the exercise again, narrowing the ideas down even further.

Who knows what you’ll come up with when you give yourself free rein.

3. Swipe file

A ‘swipe file’ is a bank of real-world ideas that you collect while out and about in your everyday life. I personally keep my examples in a folder on my desktop so I can dip into it whenever I need inspiration.

You can get more info on curating a bangin’ swipe file here. I also recommend following Andrew Boulton on LinkedIn because he’s a walking human swipe file, and everything he posts is gold.

4. Write the shittest idea you can imagine

They say you need to plough through the shit to get to the good stuff. So I guess that’s what we’ll do!

Write a list of the absolute worst ideas you can imagine. Real garbage.

You never know what might turn up, and, worst-case scenario, at least you’re kicking your creative brain into action!

The reason this is so effective is because it relies on the principles of reverse engineering the problem — a technique which was successfully used to break down the human genome.

Can’t argue with that.

5. Allow your dormant brain to do the legwork for you

After my initial research and idea generation session with the brief, I try to get out and do something that allows me to think passively.

This is because the brain’s ‘executive network’ comes to life when we daydream. This part of our brain deals with complex problem-solving.

Better yet, your default network (the part of your brain tasked with easy mental activity) is firing at the same time.

So you’ve got both networks on the go when you daydream!

I usually do a bit of cooking, go for a walk, or sew. Anything that’ll let my mind wander.

I can’t tell you how many good ideas I’ve had in the shower.

6. Thesaurus

I’ll never stop using the online thesaurus. Never.

When thinking of ideas around a theme, I’ll sling the word into the thesaurus and see what associated terms I get back.

With any luck, one of them will trigger something in my brain.

You can also try bouncing ideas off your favourite AI (I like Claude) — just ask for a list of phrases, idioms, words, and media references related to a theme or word and see what it comes up with. It’ll give you fodder for a new prompt or trigger an idea you can build on.