A few of us from the design team at eROI just got back from the latest PAF event “The Creative Process – Illustrated” where Deborah Morrison (Chambers Distinguished Professor of Advertising at the University of Oregon) presented the new book that she co-authored with Glenn Griffin. She dove into the really interesting history of all the research that went into it, and shared a lot of beautiful illustrations.

The book is called “The Creative Process Illustrated (How Advertising’s Big Ideas Are Born)” and consists of these amazing visual representations of the creative process made by some of the brightest minds in the industry like David Kennedy, Simon Mainwaring, and Kevin Roddy. Morrison was able to give us a peek at some unpublished material from Alex Bogusky as well (not in the book, sorry!). There is a great interview on the How site that gives more insights from Morrison and Griffon about their idea and how it came to be.

She also presented one of the videos that were created for a project on YouTube called “Show and Tell” (a partnership with the Art Directors Club, who named Deborah Morrison Grandmaster in 2009.)

There are a ton more “How-to” videos there as well which look worth watching for sure.

The whole project is really amazing, and it was an inspiring presentation. There were so many moments that we were identifying with, like how the element of despair and whining was often included as necessary in the illustrations (So true!). I encourage you to check out the book to see more for yourself.