Real-life stories about where creativity comes from

By Dave Trott

Ideas don’t just happen, they don’t spring from nowhere.

Ideas come to life from everything that’s already inside our brains.

Because new ideas are actually a new reaction between existing ideas.

This means creativity is about finding ways to put unrelated, disconnected things together.

When two unrelated things come together, something new springs into existence, they form a third thing, and that becomes a new idea.

That’s Crossover Creativity.

The more you read, watch, observe and consume, the more fuel for ideas you have in your brain, the more crossover creativity will happen for you.

In this latest collection of stories about creativity in real-life situations, Dave Trott presents examples of crossover creativity in action – as a guide for those who have to generate ideas in advertising, business, sport, or anywhere in the wider world.

Dave Trott is a creative director, copywriter, and author. Trott studied at the Pratt Institute in New York City, majoring in advertising before going on to found the advertising agencies Gold Greenlees Trott, Bainsfair Sharkey Trott and Walsh Trott Chick Smith. In 2004 he was given the D&AD President's Award for lifetime achievement in advertising.