A blog by Justin Robert Butler.
I write about
advertising,
creativity,
coolness
and culture. I'm an ad 'creative' and general writer of things.
Haikus on Twitter Interesting things on Tumblr Coaster collection on The Tegestologist
7 Ways to Boost Your Creativity
Often, articles on ‘creative thinking’ come up with wishy-washy or obscure ways to think creatively. 99u recently posted an excellent article on different ways to think creatively. They are concrete, scientifically-backed and applicable to a number of creative tasks. I don’t want to steal 99u’s thunder, so here’s a basic outline: Restrict yourself Re-conceptualise the ...
Not-Sunday Share #9
Welcome to the Not-Sunday Share. I originally tried to share the weeks coolest, but possibly unseen stuff, every Sunday. Unfortunately, that never really worked out. Instead, I’ll share what I can, when I can. (Except for on Sundays) Read Advertisers should act more like newsrooms - Harvard Business Review What techniques are most helpful for thinking ...
Illustrating Creativity
The other day I found an incredibly simple expression of creativity. It was a drawing on the front page of Reddit (I can’t find the particular post sorry). A number of people, myself included, believe that creativity is the connection or combination of two (or more) disparate elements. In fact, Kirby Ferguson presents a solid ...
The Oldest Brand
A contentious statement if there ever was one. But as far as officially recognised brands go, the Bass Brewery logo is the first. It was registered on 1 January 1876 by a Bass Breweries employee who queued overnight on new years eve of 1875 (According to wikipedia at least. It’s probably not true, but it makes ...
A Few Ad Books
Like I’ve mentioned previously, I’ve been doing a lot of reading for uni (and a bit for AWARD school). I’ve gone through a bunch of advertising related books, some academic, some mainstream and some creative, and figured I would just briefly catalogue them here. If you’re interested check them out in Amazon, I haven’t used affiliate links, ...
AWARD School – Halftime Report
I’m now halfway through AWARD school, six briefs deep and fighting for air. I thought I’d share some of what I’ve learnt and my expectations compared to reality. Note/Edit: I noticed after some responses on twitter that it might seem like AWARD school is bad or demeaning… This isn’t the case at all. It’s awesome! Almost ...