Don't get us wrong. We like to keep as clean as the next person. It's just that there's more to what we do than lying in the tub and waiting for inspiration.
Various psychologists and thinkers down the years have produced models of creative thinking. Our own methodology relies on a new synthesis, giving a four-stage process of idea creation.
We call it:
We start by gathering information and intelligence. We investigate our client's business and objectives. We consult with their key executives, and with our own network of experts. We identify where we want to go and start heading there.
Next, we digest the information gathered ? let it incubate and ferment. We harness techniques of 'industrial day-dreaming' to draw on our conscious and sub-conscious minds. We free associate. We brainstorm. We work alone and together. We consider everything.
This is the stage when an idea is born. This might involve a flash of inspiration or else a more considered process of sifting and shaping the best of the many, half-formed ideas hatched at the previous stage, in order to create the breakthrough idea.
Finally, we apply our ideas to the real world. We give them form and test them against our brief. We answer the question of the unknown thinker who asked: 'How do I know what I think until I see what I say?' We do this by giving expression to the big idea before presenting the fruit of our thinking to our client.
