Every really good creative person in advertising has always had two noticeable characteristics. First, there was no subject he could not easily get interested in...Second, he was an extensive browser in all sorts of fields of information. For it is with the advertising man as with the cow: no browsing, no milk.
Interpretation
Creative individuals in advertising are curious and diversified in their knowledge, analogous to cows needing to graze to produce milk.
James Webb Young emphasizes the importance of curiosity and breadth of knowledge for creative professionals in advertising. He draws a parallel between the need for an advertising person to explore various subjects and a cow needing to browse for grass to produce milk, highlighting that a lack of curiosity and information limits creativity and output.
In practice
During a workshop on advertising strategies, this quote could be used to inspire participants to explore diverse fields.
While there is no quick fix for instant, pain-free creativity, creative recovery (or discovery) is a teachable, trackable spiritual process. Each of us is complex and highly individual, yet there are common recognizable denominators to the creative recovery process.
Creativity needs a bit of untidiness. Make everything too neat and there is no room for experiment.
To be creative, a person has to internalize the entire system that makes creativity possible. Creative individuals are remarkable for their ability to adapt to almost any situation and to make do with whatever is at hand to reach their goals.
Creativity is the ability to identify self-imposed constraints, remove them, and explore the consequences of their removal.
Usually when I start a new project there's a fear of the unknown; maybe it's a band I've never been in the studio with before. People are so different. It's almost like you need to go through the process, discover and unlock what it is that makes that band that band. And a lot of times they don't know it.
All the creativity books in the world aren’t going to help you if you’re unwilling to have lousy, lame, and even dangerously bad ideas.
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